Remove flatdict requirement

[martinvelez]

Many companies require internal approval before using an open source pip package. Often, the internal approver has to review not only the package but also the other pip package it depends on.

For example, I noticed that this project depends on flatdict. I see that this is used to help prune the config. Could that dependency be removed? I figure the _prune_config method could be written without it and this package can "prune" it's dependencies.

okta-sdk-python/okta/config/config_setter.py

Line 66 in 4618466

def _prune_config(self, config):

okta-sdk-python/okta/config/config_setter.py

Line 72 in 4618466

flat_current_config = FlatDict(config, delimiter='_')

[bryanapellanes-okta]

@martinvelez,
Thanks for reaching out! I'll bring your request to the attention of our python developers. Someone will respond here with more.

Thanks for using Okta!

[serhiibuniak-okta]

@martinvelez Yes, it's possible to remove this dependency, but it requires to write and test properly our own methods. By the way, there are few other methods in config_setter.py module which use FlatDict too.
So, I don't think we should drop any dependency just because we can: any library can use less dependencies, but it requires too much time and efforts to write and test solutions from scratch, so we need to find some balance.

Are there any security reasons why you want to get rid of "flatdict"?

[martinvelez]

I didn't see the other usages of FlatDict in the Github search results. I see them now looking at https://github.com/okta/okta-sdk-python/blob/master/okta/config/config_setter.py. I understand that removing a dependency can be non-trivial and it might be in this case.

I don't have any security reasons to remove flatdict. I just wanted to highlight that adding some dependencies like flatdict solves an engineering problem but potentially introduces other problems (incompatible version, licenses, etc.). Companies evaluating okta-sdk-python might opt to not rely on it for some unforeseen non-technical problem. Or it can slow down internal processes because they have to evaulte all of okta-sdk-pythons dependencies. For example, okta-sdk-python indirectly adds four new dependencies to our codebase not just flatdict.

I don't doubt you are aware of all of this. I defer to you. If you like, we can close this issue.

[serhiibuniak-okta]

I've got your point too. First of all, thanks for attracting our attention to this, we really appreciate this.
At this point, I consider this issue as non-critical, but we'll keep it in mind.
I see several ways how to deal with this:

1. we'll take a look at it after fixing all critical issues
2. if it is critical for you, any contribution is welcome, i.e. you can provide your own solution: we'll review it and merge to our codebase if everything is fine. Here's the contributing guide: https://github.com/okta/okta-sdk-python/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

Again, thanks for paying attention to details and let us know if it works for you.

[martinvelez]

Yes, this works. If I have time. I'll take a shot at it.