In my previous article, I gave you a brief introduction to Okta workflows, in order to arouse your curiosity as to the potential of this tool. On the face of it, if you’re here, that’s the case (if you’ve seen the light and gone in, that’s good too!).
Today, I’m going to take the presentation of workflows a step further, and tell you about the many features I haven’t mentioned before. The subject will be function cards, and the possibilities they offer in addition to application cards.
Say again, what are cards in Okta workflows ?
The cards in the applications section enable you to chain actions involving either an Okta tenant or a third-party application, by means of a connection (existing or custom connector), if you remember. Here are a few examples: adding an Okta user to a group, assigning an application to him/her, sending an e-mail via Gmail, creating a query in Jira, etc.
Still with me ? Ok, now, let’s talk about functions cards !
Functions cards
Function cards offer a wide range of operations, divided into four sections: logic, manipulation, elements and advanced.
Logic functions
They can be used for branching, error handling and to influence the execution of a flow. A simple branching example is that you can use conditions to determine the sequence of actions to be executed: if the defined value can be found in such and such data, then the workflow will continue with a sequence of actions, leaving aside the other branches. Or decide that the workflow will only continue to act if a condition is met.
Unsurprisingly, the error functions relate to error management, so I won’t go into detail here. The flow control functions, on the other hand, are designed to manage workflow execution, allowing you to pause it, call another workflow to retrieve data (synchronously or asynchronously), or terminate the flow and return data.
Do you have different use cases depending on certain user attributes or permissions? That’s where branching and conditions come in. All in all, there are a large number of comparison functions, similar to those used in conventional development..
Manipulation functions
These are all the functions that enable you to process data in an initial state, to transform it, reduce it, extend it, change its format… I could spend a day describing all the possibilities, so numerous are they. There’s Boolean, datetime, number, text, object, list (array) and even file manipulation.
Let’s take a concrete example. Following an API call, you retrieve an array of users who belong to a group. You need to retrieve all the user Id’s, and then put them in an array on which you’ll run another workflow that will modify an attribute of the user’s profile.
The solution is provided by a function card, with the “Pluck” function, which creates a new array from the result, but using only a specific value. Here, we’ll choose the Users array, for which we’ll request the key ID, and that’s it.
But how is the second workflow launched? Well, it’s a “helper flow”: it’s called by the first workflow, and when it’s called, we pass it the data it needs in the execution context.
Second concrete example, less long (I promise!): you want to make an API call to Google, but you need to pass a JSON object in the request body that depends on the composition of a received Id Token. You retrieve the token, decode it since it’s a JWT with the “Decode” card, and then you can build a JSON object body from the values you want, which you’ll then send in an API call.
Element functions
They can be used to export flows and workflow folders as JSON files, or to create and manipulate csv tables. I don’t think it’s necessary to illustrate these functions with an example; they speak for themselves.
Advanced functions
They mainly concern format management: URL, JSON, JWT, XML, encryption. You’ll also find here cards for making API calls that don’t require an existing third-party connector. Note that the “Raw Request” card gives you total freedom of control over an API call: you define the headers, method, content, destination url, and a query if required.
Workflows readibility
You can visualize the overall flow by clicking on “flow chart”, which shows you a diagram of the execution.
In terms of the big picture, the existing flows overview also shows you the types of card used.
More recently, Okta has added new features to facilitate workflow management.
But, wait ! There’s more to it !
Okta Workflows also provides you with templates! Because certain use cases are clearly common to many customers, they’ve provided you with examples of workflows.
You want more info, watch a demo ?
Here it is !
Conclusion
Workflows, as you’ll have gathered, have incredible potential in that they provide you with a range of actions and functions that enable you to automate, maintain and modify a sequence of actions at will, through a low-code interface.
While managing API calling cards requires some knowledge and skills on the subject, it’s logic that you’ll need to implement your workflows.
As a reminder, if you take out an Okta Workforce Identity Cloud offer, you’ll always have five workflows at your disposal, free of charge.
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