Example API Using GraphQL, Express, and Okta

This is an example API, showing how to create a GraphQL endpoint in Node. The mutations are protected behind authentication provided by Okta. To follow along step-by-step, check out the blog post.

Prerequisites: Node.js.

Getting Started

To install this example application, run the following commands:

git clone git@github.com:oktadeveloper/okta-express-graphql-example.git
cd okta-express-graphql-example
npm install

This will install a local copy of the project. You will need to set up some environment variables before the app will run properly.

To integrate Okta's Identity Platform for user authentication, you'll first need to:

• Sign up for a free Okta Developer account
• You will get a URL similar to https://dev-123456.oktapreview.com.
  • Save this URL for later
  • You will also use this URL to login to your Okta account

You will need to create an application in Okta:

• Log in to your Okta account, then navigate to Applications and click the Add Application button
• Select Web and click Next
• Give your application a name (e.g. "GraphQL Express")
• Change the Base URI to http://localhost:4000/ and the Login redirect URI to http://localhost:4000/implicit/callback, then click Done
• Save your Client ID and Client Secret for later

Your Okta application should have settings similar to the following:

You will also need to create an API token in Okta:

• Log in to your Okta account, then navigate to API > Tokens and click the Create Token button
• Enter a name that will help you remember what this is used for (e.g. "GraphQL Express")
• Save the provided token value for later
  • This will only be displayed once. If you lose it, you will need to create another API token

Now create a file called .env in the project root and add the following variables, replacing the values with your own from the previous steps.

.env

HOST_URL=http://localhost:4000
OKTA_ORG_URL=https://{yourOktaOrgUrl}
OKTA_CLIENT_ID={yourClientId}
OKTA_CLIENT_SECRET={yourClientSecret}
OKTA_TOKEN={yourOktaToken}

You also need an app secret. One way to get a random APP_SECRET is to use the following commands, which will generate a random value and add it to your .env file.

npm install -g uuid-cli
echo "APP_SECRET=`uuid`" >> .env

Now you can run the GraphQL server with the following command:

npm start

Usage

Once you're up and running, you can get a nice user interface with built-in documentation by going to the GraphQL Playground and entering in http://localhost:4000/graphql. Queries shouldn't require authentication, but if you want to run a mutation you'll need to authenticate first.

Authenticating

Go to http://localhost:4000/access-token. This should prompt you to log in to your Okta developer account if you haven't already. Once you're authenticated, the page should give you an access token that will look something like eyJraW...j5gsJQ, only much longer.

In the GraphQL Playground, click on HTTP HEADERS, then modify it to include an authorization header with your token. It should look like this:

{
  "authorization": "Bearer eyJraW...j5gsJQ"
}

Note: Again, the real token will be much longer. Just copy and paste it from the previous page.

Example Queries

Here are some examples to get you started. Feel free to play around with them and get creative.

Get all posts and their authors

query {
  posts {
    id
    author {
      id
      firstName
      lastName
    }
    body
  }
}

Get a single post, its author, and all that author's posts

query {
  post(id: 2) {
    id
    author {
      firstName
      posts {
        id
        body
      }
    }
    body
  }
}

Create a new post, returning info about it and yourself

mutation {
  submitPost(input: {
    body: "Hello, world!"
  }) {
    id
    body
    author {
      id
      firstName
      lastName
      posts {
        id
        body
      }
    }
  }
}

Links

This example uses the Okta Node SDK, the Okta JWT Verifier, and the Okta OIDC Middleware.

Help

Please raise an issue if you find a problem with the example application, or visit our Okta Developer Forums. You can also email developers@okta.com if would like to create a support ticket.

License

Apache 2.0, see LICENSE.