💡 ℹ️ Update on the Python SDK Refresh ℹ️ 💡

[bretterer]

💡 ℹ️ Update on the Python SDK Refresh ℹ️ 💡

[gabrielsroka]

@bretterer , thanks for the post and the update. it was brought to my attention by an Okta customer.

i've been working with the Python SDK since v1 came out (posting examples on the readme #123, writing scripts, etc) and even the beta version.

i've written a lot of code using it and also requests, aiohttp, and even urllib.request and shared it with customers via GH https://github.com/gabrielsroka/okta_api, Slack, etc.

the challenge i see is most customers that i work with are admins, not professional developers. they write 50-line scripts, not production quality large programs. and asking them to learn async is a lot (it took me a long time to get it). so, most of them use requests, and most of them reinvent the wheel -- over and over again, eg on pagination, on (not) using Session() (which, in fairness, the 1.0 SDK also didn't use until i suggested it #267). letting them know there's an SDK they can use and be productive right away might propel Python to be a "more widely-used library" -- ie, maybe it's a chicken and egg situation.

is the sdk for admins, too? or only professional developers?

You wrote that you've:

concentrated on our most widely-used libraries such as .NET, Java, and Golang

i think Python is in a different league than those languages. i (personally) would never script in any of those 3, but Python (or maybe JavaScript or PowerShell https://github.com/gabrielsroka/OktaAPI.psm1), sure.

when SDK v1 came out, @joelfranusic-okta (aka @jpf) and I wrote a doc (on Okta's internal wiki called "Review of the Okta Python SDK") with some thoughts (eg, on how to make it more Pythonic, comparing it to other vendors' SDKs, sync vs async, returning tuples, using exceptions, etc). i hope those will be revisited now.

i'm sure i'll have more thoughts/notes in the coming days on this.

EDIT: i should add, i'd be happy to help test/document/collaborate on the new version.

see also #328 and #353 (comment)

[crosso-au]

Thanks @bretterer !