Access ADP Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

The CData JDBC Driver for ADP connects ADP data to Mule applications enabling read , write, update, and delete functionality with familiar SQL queries. The JDBC Driver allows users to easily create Mule applications to backup, transform, report, and analyze ADP data.

This article demonstrates how to use the CData JDBC Driver for ADP inside of a Mule project to create a Web interface for ADP data. The application created allows you to request ADP data using an HTTP request and have the results returned as JSON. The exact same procedure outlined below can be used with any CData JDBC Driver to create a Web interface for the hundreds of available data sources.

1. Create a new Mule Project in Anypoint Studio.
2. Add an HTTP Connector to the Message Flow.
3. Configure the address for the HTTP Connector. 👁 Add and Configure the HTTP Connector
   
4. Add a Database Select Connector to the same flow, after the HTTP Connector.
5. Create a new Connection (or edit an existing one) and configure the properties.
   • Set Connection to "Generic Connection"
   • Select the CData JDBC Driver JAR file in the Required Libraries section (e.g. cdata.jdbc.adp.jar). 👁 Adding the JAR file (Salesforce is shown).
     
   • Set the URL to the connection string for ADP

     Connect to ADP by specifying the following properties:

     • OAuthClientId: The client Id of the custom OAuth application you obtained from ADP.
     • OAuthClientSecret: The custom OAuth application's client secret.
     • SSLClientCert: Set this to the certificate provided during registration.
     • SSLClientCertPassword: Set this to the password of the certificate.
     • UseUAT: The connector makes requests to the production environment by default. If using a developer account, set UseUAT = true.
     • RowScanDepth: The maximum number of rows to scan for the custom fields columns available in the table. The default value will be set to 100. Setting a high value may decrease performance.

     The connector uses OAuth to authenticate with ADP. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with ADP using the browser. OAuth access can be configured in ADP through ADP API Central. For more information, refer ADP's API Central Quick Start Guide and the OAuth section in CData's Help documentation.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     		java -jar cdata.jdbc.adp.jar
     		

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

   • Set the Driver class name to cdata.jdbc.adp.ADPDriver. 👁 A configured Database Connection (Salesforce is shown).
     
   • Click Test Connection.
6. Set the SQL Query Text to a SQL query to request ADP data. For example:

   SELECT AssociateOID, WorkerID FROM Workers WHERE AssociateOID = 'G3349PZGBADQY8H8'

   👁 Configure the Select object (Salesforce is Shown)
   
7. Add a Transform Message Component to the flow.
8. Set the Output script to the following to convert the payload to JSON:

   %dw 2.0
   output application/json
   ---
   payload
    

   👁 Add the Transform Message Component to the Flow
   
9. To view your ADP data, navigate to the address you configured for the HTTP Connector (localhost:8081 by default): http://localhost:8081. The ADP data is available as JSON in your Web browser and any other tools capable of consuming JSON endpoints.

At this point, you have a simple Web interface for working with ADP data (as JSON data) in custom apps and a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools. Download a free, 30 day trial of the JDBC Driver for ADP and see the CData difference in your Mule Applications today.