Connect to Workday Data in the Denodo Platform

Denodo Platform is a data virtualization product providing a single point of contact for enterprise database data. When paired with the CData JDBC Driver for Workday, Denodo users can work with live Workday data alongside other enterprise data sources. This article walks through creating a virtual data source for Workday in the Denodo Virtual DataPort Administrator.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Workday data. When you issue complex SQL queries to Workday, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Workday and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations). Its built-in dynamic metadata querying allows you to work with and analyze Workday data using native data types.

Getting Started

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Create the Workday Virtual Port

To connect to live Workday data from Denodo, you need to copy the JDBC Driver JAR file to the external library directory for Denodo and create a new JDBC Data Source from the Virtual DataPort Administrator tool.

1. Download the CData JDBC Driver for Workday installer, unzip the package, and run the JAR file to install the driver.
2. Copy the JAR File (and license file if it exists) from the installation location (typically C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for Workday\lib\) to the Denodo external library directory (C:\Denodo\Denodo Platform\lib-external\jdbc-drivers\cdata-workday-19).
3. Open the Denodo Virtual DataPort Administrator tool and navigate to the Server Explorer tab.
4. Right-click "admin" and select New -> Data source -> JDBC.
5. Configure the JDBC Connection:
   • Name: your choice, e.g.: workday
   • Database adapter: Generic
   • Driver class path: C:\Denodo\Denodo Platform\lib-external\jdbc-drivers\cdata-workday-19
   • Driver class: cdata.jdbc.workday.WorkdayDriver

   • Database URI: Set this to a JDBC URL using the necessary connection properties. For example,

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

     Information on creating the Database URI follows:

     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.

     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.

     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.

6. Click the "Test connection" button to confirm the configuration and click Save.

View Workday Data in the VirtualPort Administrator Tool

After creating the data source, you can create a base view of Workday data for use in the Denodo Platform.

1. Click the "Create base view" button in the newly created VirtualPort (admin.Workday).
2. Expand the object tree and select the objects (tables) you wish to import.
3. Click the "Create selected" button to create views of the Workday data.
   Optional: Click "Create associations from foreign keys" to define relationships between the objects.
4. With the view(s) created, navigate to a table (cdata_workday_workers) in the Server Explorer and double-click the selected table.
5. In the new tab, click "Execution panel" to open a query panel.
6. Customize the query in the "Execute" tab or use the default:

   SELECT * FROM cdata_workday_workers CONTEXT ('i18n'='us_est', 'cache_wait_for_load'='true')
   

7. Click Execute to view the data.

With the base view created, you can now work with live Workday data like you would any other data source in Denodo Platform, for example, querying Workday in the Denodo Data Catalog.

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Workday and start working with your live Workday data in Denodo Platform. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.