Create Workday Reports on JasperReports Server



Deploy the CData JDBC Driver on JasperReports Server to provide real-time Workday data access from reports, embedded analytics, and more.

The CData JDBC driver for Workday enables you to provide access to Workday data across the enterprise. This article shows how to deploy the driver on JasperReports server and create a simple report based on a reporting domain, a business view of 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


Deploy the Driver JAR

Follow the steps below to deploy the driver JAR on JasperReports Server. The instructions below contain specifics for Workday and the Tomcat server bundled with JasperReports Server. If you are using JBoss AS 7 instead of Tomcat, you can follow the standard process to deploy the Workday JDBC Driver on JBoss.

  1. Copy the driver JAR and .lic file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory, to the lib subfolder of the apache-tomcat folder, located in the JasperReports Server installation directory.
  2. Navigate to apache-tomcat -> webapps -> jasperserver-pro -> META-INF and add the following resource entry to the context.xml file:

    <Resource name="jdbc/workday" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource" driverClassName="cdata.jdbc.workday.WorkdayDriver" url="jdbc:workday:User=myuser;Password=mypassword;Tenant=mycompany_gm1;BaseURL=https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com;ConnectionType=WQL;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH" maxActive="20" maxIdle="10" maxWait="-1" factory="com.jaspersoft.jasperserver.tomcat.jndi.JSCommonsBasicDataSourceFactory"/>

    Specify the required connection properties in the JDBC URL -- the url attribute.

    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.

    When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

  3. Navigate to jasperserver-pro -> WEB-INF and add the following reference to the web.xml file: Workday data JSP jdbc/workday javax.sql.DataSource Container
  4. Restart the server.

Create the Workday JDBC Data Source

Follow the steps below to map the Workday JDBC driver to a JDBC data source:

  1. Log into JasperReports Server and click Create -> Data Source.
  2. In the Type menu, select JNDI Data Source.
  3. In the Service Name box, enter the JDNI lookup defined in the resource definition in the web.xml file. In the example, the lookup is "jdbc/workday".
  4. Click Save to create the Data Source.

Create a Domain

A domain is a metadata and access-control layer that surfaces a relevant business view to report creators. Follow the steps below to select Workday columns, apply filters, and execute SQL to create a domain.

  1. Click Create -> Domain. Enter an Id for the domain and select a save location.
  2. Click Browse in the Data Source section and select the Workday data source you created.
  3. In the Domain Design section, click Create with Domain Designer.
  4. Select the schema containing your tables.
  5. On the Tables tab, select a table in the Data Source pane and then click the arrow to add them to the Selected Tables pane.
  6. On the Derived Tables tab, you can define domains based on SQL queries. For example,
      SELECT Worker_Reference_WID, Legal_Name_Last_Name FROM Workers WHERE Legal_Name_Last_Name = 'Morgan'
      
  7. On the Joins tab, you can join tables by selecting the columns you want to build the join condition and selecting the join type.
  8. On the Pre-Filters tab, drag and drop columns to define search criteria that filters the data exposed through the domain.
  9. On the Display tab, select Workday data into the data sets presented to the user.
  10. Click OK to accept your changes and click Submit to create the domain.

Explore Data in Real Time

After you have created a domain, you are ready to connect to data. Follow the steps below to create an Ad Hoc View in the Ad Hoc Editor.

  1. Click Create -> Ad Hoc View.
  2. In the resulting dialog, select the Workday domain you created.
  3. On the Choose Data page, select columns that you want to use in the view. In the Pre-Filters section, you can create filters based on the selected fields. In the Display section, you can modify column information as presented by the domain.
  4. After completing the wizard, select the view type and add columns to the view. JasperSoft uses the metadata of the driver to detect the available dimensions and measures, based on the data type. Drag dimensions and measures onto the Columns and Rows boxes. Right-click a measure to change the summary calculation. Drag the Columns slider to the the desired data level in the Filters section.
  5. To access updates to the data as you design the view, change the menu selection from Sample Data to Full Data in the design mode toolbar. As you make changes, JasperSoft Server executes the underlying SQL queries to the driver.
  6. Save the view.

Create a Real-Time Report

You can now create reports hosted on JasperSoft Server. To do so from the Ad Hoc Editor, click Save Ad Hoc View and click Create Report.

Ready to get started?

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