Connect to Workday Data in Aqua Data Studio



Access Workday data from tools in Aqua Data Studio such as the Visual Query Builder and the Table Data Editor.

The CData JDBC Driver for Workday integrates Workday data with wizards and analytics in IDEs like Aqua Data Studio. This article shows how to connect to Workday data through the connection manager and execute queries.

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 JDBC Data Source

You can use the connection manager to define connection properties and save them in a new JDBC data source. The Workday data source can then be accessed from Aqua Data Studio tools.

  1. In Aqua Data Studio, select Register Server from the Servers menu.
  2. In the Register Server form, select the 'Generic - JDBC' connection.
  3. Enter the following JDBC connection properties:
    • Name: Enter a name for the data source; for example, Workday.
    • Driver Location: Click the Browse button and select the cdata.jdbc.workday.jar file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
    • Driver: Enter the Driver's class name, cdata.jdbc.workday.WorkdayDriver.
    • URL: Enter the JDBC URL, which starts with jdbc:workday: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.

      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.
      For example, in the REST API endpoint https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com/ccx/api/v1/mycompany, the BaseURL is https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com and the Tenant is mycompany.

      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.

      APIConnectionType Value
      WQLWQL
      Reports as a ServiceReports
      RESTREST
      SOAPSOAP

      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.

      Built-in Connection String Designer

      For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Workday JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

      java -jar cdata.jdbc.workday.jar

      Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

      A typical JDBC URL is below:

      jdbc:workday:User=myuser;Password=mypassword;Tenant=mycompany_gm1;BaseURL=https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com;ConnectionType=WQL;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH

Query Workday Data

You can now query the tables exposed.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Workday Driver to get started:

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