Step-by-Step Guide on Fetching All Users from Okta Database using Cursor-Based Pagination with Node.js and Okta API

To fetch all users from your Okta database using pagination (cursor-based), you can utilize the Okta API and Node.js. The Okta API supports cursor-based pagination to efficiently retrieve large sets of data.

First, ensure you have the Okta API token and the Okta tenant URL.

Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Install the required packages:

   • axios for making HTTP requests.
   • dotenv for loading environment variables from a .env file.

   You can install these packages using npm:

   npm install axios dotenv
   

2. Setup your project:

   • Create a .env file to store your Okta API token and domain securely.

     OKTA_API_TOKEN=your_okta_api_token
     OKTA_DOMAIN=your_okta_domain
     

   • Create a fetchUsers.js file where you will write your Node.js code.

3. Write the Node.js code:

   const axios = require('axios');
   require('dotenv').config();
   
   const OKTA_API_TOKEN = process.env.OKTA_API_TOKEN;
   const OKTA_DOMAIN = process.env.OKTA_DOMAIN;
   const OKTA_API_URL = `https://${OKTA_DOMAIN}/api/v1/users`;
   
   const fetchUsers = async () => {
     try {
       let url = OKTA_API_URL;
       let users = [];
       let hasNextPage = true;
   
       while (hasNextPage) {
         const response = await axios.get(url, {
           headers: {
             Authorization: `SSWS ${OKTA_API_TOKEN}`,
             Accept: 'application/json',
           },
         });
   
         // Append the retrieved users to the users array
         users = users.concat(response.data);
   
         // Check if there's a next page
         const linkHeader = response.headers['link'];
         if (linkHeader) {
           const links = linkHeader.split(',').map((link) => link.split(';'));
           const nextLink = links.find((link) => link[1].includes('rel="next"'));
   
           if (nextLink) {
             const nextUrl = nextLink[0].trim().replace(/<|>/g, '');
             url = nextUrl;
           } else {
             hasNextPage = false;
           }
         } else {
           hasNextPage = false;
         }
       }
   
       return users;
     } catch (error) {
       console.error('Error fetching users:', error);
       throw error;
     }
   };
   
   fetchUsers()
     .then((users) => {
       console.log(`Fetched ${users.length} users`);
       // Handle the retrieved users as needed
       // Example: console.log(users);
     })
     .catch((error) => {
       console.error('Failed to fetch users:', error);
     });
   

Explanation:

• axios is used for making the API requests.
• The fetchUsers function performs the following:
  • It initializes the URL and an empty users array.
  • Uses a while loop to fetch pages of users until there are no more pages (hasNextPage is false).
  • Parses and follows the Link header to retrieve the URL for the next page, if it exists.
  • Collects all the users and returns them.

4. Run the script:
   • Ensure your .env file is correctly set up.
   • Execute the script using node fetchUsers.js.

This setup will fetch all users from Okta, handling pagination automatically. Adjust the retrieved data processing as needed based on your requirements.