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Create Workday Dashboards in Bold BI
Use CData Connect Server to create a virtual SQL Server Database for Workday data to build custom dashboards in Bold BI.
Bold BI allows you to create, share, and collaborate on interactive BI dashboards. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant access to Workday data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Workday and build reports from Workday data in Bold BI.
CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Workday, allowing you to easily build reports from live Workday data in Bold BI — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Bold BI generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Server pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Workday, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Workday data.
About Workday Data Integration
CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Workday. Customers use CData connectivity to:
- Access the tables and datasets you create in Prism Analytics Data Catalog, working with the native Workday data hub without compromising the fidelity of your Workday system.
- Access Workday Reports-as-a-Service to surface data from departmental datasets not available from Prism and datasets larger than Prism allows.
- Access base data objects with WQL, REST, or SOAP, getting more granular, detailed access but with the potential need for Workday admins or IT to help craft queries.
Users frequently integrate Workday with analytics tools such as Tableau, Power BI, and Excel, and leverage our tools to replicate Workday data to databases or data warehouses. Access is secured at the user level, based on the authenticated user's identity and role.
For more information on configuring Workday to work with CData, refer to our Knowledge Base articles: Comprehensive Workday Connectivity through Workday WQL and Reports-as-a-Service & Workday + CData: Connection & Integration Best Practices.
Getting Started
Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for Workday Data
CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.
- Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
![]( "Adding a connection")
- Select "Workday" from Available Data Sources.
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Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Workday.
To connect to Workday, users need to find the Tenant and BaseURL and then select their API type.
Obtaining the BaseURL and Tenant
To obtain the BaseURL and Tenant properties, log into Workday and search for "View API Clients." On this screen, you'll find the Workday REST API Endpoint, a URL that includes both the BaseURL and Tenant.
The format of the REST API Endpoint is: https://domain.com/subdirectories/mycompany, where:
- https://domain.com/subdirectories/ is the BaseURL.
- mycompany (the portion of the url after the very last slash) is the Tenant.
Using ConnectionType to Select the API
The value you use for the ConnectionType property determines which Workday API you use. See our Community Article for more information on Workday connectivity options and best practices.
API ConnectionType Value WQL WQL Reports as a Service Reports REST REST SOAP SOAP
Authentication
Your method of authentication depends on which API you are using.
- WQL, Reports as a Service, REST: Use OAuth authentication.
- SOAP: Use Basic or OAuth authentication.
See the Help documentation for more information on configuring OAuth with Workday.
![]( "Configuring a connection (SQL Server is shown).")
- Click Save Changes
- Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.
With the virtual database created, you are ready to connect to Workday data from Bold BI.
Visualize Live Workday Data in Bold BI
The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Server from Bold BI to create a new Workday data source and build a simple visualization from the data.
- Log into your Bold BI instance, click the data sources tab, create a new data source, and choose the SQL Server connector.
- Choose the basic configuration and set the connection properties:
- Name: Name your connection
- Server name: Your Connect Server instance (CONNECT_SERVER_URL)
- Port: 1433
- Username: Your Connect Server username
- Password: Your Connect Server password
- Mode: Choose Live to query Workday on-demand or choose Extract to load the data into Bold BI
- Database: Choose the database you created from the drop-down menu (workdaydb)
- Click Connect
- Select the table to visualize and drag it onto the workspace.
- Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
- Click the gear icon for the visualization to configure the visualization properties and assign columns to the visualization.
SQL Access to Workday Data from Applications
Now you have a direct connection to live Workday data from your Bold BI workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Workday data.
To get SQL data access to 200+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your applications, see the CData Connect page.
