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avatar-karl-hughes.jpg Karl Hughes

All Posts by Karl Hughes

A Quick Guide to Regular Expressions in Java

Whether you’re coding, using a search engine, searching and replacing text in a text editor, or using the command-line utilities grep, sed, and awk in Linux, you’re using regular expressions (also known as “regex” or “regexp”). Yes, they’re everywhere. A regular expression is a sequence of characters used to describe a text pattern. Working with regular expressions is rarely described as fun, but they are useful for various problems while coding a feature, such as...

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The Ultimate Guide to Password Hashing in Okta

As more of our critical work and personal functions go online, the risk of data and security breaches continues to increase. In 2019, there were over 1400 data breaches reported that exposed nearly 165 million records, many of which included passwords and personal information. While security specialists bear much of the responsibility in ensuring their organizations are handling sensitive data properly, web developers at all levels must take part as well. By understanding fundamental concepts...

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Build and Secure an API in Python with FastAPI

Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. As Python grows in popularity, the variety of high-quality frameworks available to developers has blossomed. In addition to steadfast options like Django and Flask,...

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Comparing Authentication in Laravel Versions 6, 7, and 8

Laravel is one of the most popular PHP frameworks in use today. Version 8 was released in September 2020, and while the bulk of the framework hasn’t changed, each of the three most recent versions have included updates to the authentication pattern. While Laravel 7 and 8 will both stop receiving updates in 2021, Laravel 6 is a long-term support version and will include security fixes until September 2022. So, if you’re upgrading or starting...

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Protecting a Laravel API with JWT

Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. With the increasing popularity of single-page apps and the growing API economy, JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) are becoming a very popular method for authenticating...

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What's New in Laravel 8

Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. With Laravel 8’s release in September 2020, the popular PHP framework continues to offer new features and improvements. After version 5, Laravel moved to...

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