A PostgreSQL Interface for Workday Data


Use the Remoting features of the Workday ODBC Driver to create a PostgreSQL entry-point for data access.

There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. From standard Drivers to BI and Analytics tools, PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. Using the remoting features of our JDBC Drivers, you can now create PostgreSQL entry-points that you can connect to from any standard client.

To access Workday data as a PostgreSQL database, use the Remoting feature of the CData JDBC Driver for Workday and the MySQL foreign data wrapper (FDW) from EnterpriseDB. In this article, we install the FDW and query Workday data from PostgreSQL Server.

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


Configure the Connection to Workday

Follow the steps below to configure the driver's MySQL daemon to use the credentials and other connection properties needed to connect to Workday. The MySQL daemon exposes Workday data as a MySQL database named CDataWorkday. Add connection properties to the databases section of the configuration file for the daemon. The configuration file for the daemon is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory for the driver.

Below is a typical connection string:

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

Additionally, create a user in the users section.

You can find all of the configuration options for the MySQL daemon in the help documentation.

Start the Remoting Service

Follow the steps below to enable the MySQL Remoting feature of the CData JDBC Driver for Workday.

  1. The driver creates a default configuration suitable for testing: Simply start the service to connect to Workday data.

  2. Start the MySQL Remoting Service with the following command: java -jar cdata.jdbc.workday.jar -f cdata.jdbc.workday.remoting.ini

Build and Install the MySQL Foreign Data Wrapper

The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL.

If pgxn is available for your operating system, you can install with the following:

pgxn install mysql_fdw USE_PGXS=1

Otherwise, follow the steps below to build it yourself:

  1. Install the MySQL C client library and obtain the source for the EnterpriseDB FDW for MySQL; from GitHub, for example.
  2. Build the FDW. Add the pg_config and mysql_config executables to your PATH: env PATH=/usr/local/pgsql/bin:/usr/local/mysql/bin:$PATH make USE_PGXS=1
  3. Install the FDW: make USE_PGXS=1 install

To complete the installation, you will need to load the libmysqlclient library into the environment; for example by adding it to the path.

Query Workday Data as a PostgreSQL Database

After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to Workday data:

  1. Log into your database.
  2. Load the extension for the database: postgres=#CREATE EXTENSION mysql_fdw;
  3. Create a server object for Workday data: postgres=# CREATE SERVER Workday FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER mysql_fdw OPTIONS (host '127.0.0.1', port '3309');
  4. Create a user mapping for the username and password of a user known to the MySQL daemon. postgres=# CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER Workday OPTIONS (username 'admin', password 'test');
  5. Create the local schema: postgres=# CREATE SCHEMA Workday_db;
  6. Import all the tables in the Workday database you defined in the daemon configuration file: postgres=# IMPORT FOREIGN SCHEMA "Workday" FROM SERVER Workday INTO Workday_db;

You can now execute read/write commands to Workday:

postgres=# SELECT * FROM Workday_db."workers";

Ready to get started?

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

 Download Now

Learn more:

Workday Icon Workday JDBC Driver

Rapidly create and deploy powerful Java applications that integrate with Workday.

In this article

Related articles