Analyze Paylocity Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

SAP Analytics Cloud is a cloud-based business intelligence platform. CData Connect AI creates a pure, cloud-to-cloud connection to Paylocity and can be used to generate an OData API (natively supported in Analytics Cloud) for Paylocity. By pairing SAP Analytics Cloud with CData Connect AI, you get true cloud-to-cloud connectivity to all of your SaaS and cloud-based Big Data and NoSQL sources — no need to migrate your data or write your integrations. Simply connect to Connect AI as you would any other OData service and get instant, consolidated access to all of your data.

In this article, we walk through connecting to Paylocity from SAP Analytics Cloud (through CData Connect AI) to create a model and build a simple dashboard.

Connect to Paylocity from SAP Analytics Cloud

To work with live Paylocity data in SAP Analytics Cloud, we need to connect to Paylocity from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the Paylocity data.

Connect to Paylocity from Connect AI

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "Paylocity" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Paylocity.

   Set the following to establish a connection to Paylocity:

   • RSAPublicKey: Set this to the RSA Key associated with your Paylocity, if the RSA Encryption is enabled in the Paylocity account.

     This property is required for executing Insert and Update statements, and it is not required if the feature is disabled.

   • UseSandbox: Set to true if you are using sandbox account.
   • CustomFieldsCategory: Set this to the Customfields category. This is required when IncludeCustomFields is set to true. The default value for this property is PayrollAndHR.
   • Key: The AES symmetric key(base 64 encoded) encrypted with the Paylocity Public Key. It is the key used to encrypt the content.

     Paylocity will decrypt the AES key using RSA decryption.
     It is an optional property if the IV value not provided, The driver will generate a key internally.

   • IV: The AES IV (base 64 encoded) used when encrypting the content. It is an optional property if the Key value not provided, The driver will generate an IV internally.

   Connect Using OAuth Authentication

   You must use OAuth to authenticate with Paylocity. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Paylocity using the browser. For more information, refer to the OAuth section in the Help documentation.

   The Pay Entry API

   The Pay Entry API is completely separate from the rest of the Paylocity API. It uses a separate Client ID and Secret, and must be explicitly requested from Paylocity for access to be granted for an account. The Pay Entry API allows you to automatically submit payroll information for individual employees, and little else. Due to the extremely limited nature of what is offered by the Pay Entry API, we have elected not to give it a separate schema, but it may be enabled via the UsePayEntryAPI connection property.

   Please be aware that when setting UsePayEntryAPI to true, you may only use the CreatePayEntryImportBatch & MergePayEntryImportBatchgtable stored procedures, the InputTimeEntry table, and the OAuth stored procedures. Attempts to use other features of the product will result in an error. You must also store your OAuthAccessToken separately, which often means setting a different OAuthSettingsLocation when using this connection property. 👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   

4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Paylocity Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
   
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Configure Paylocity Endpoints for SAP Analytics Cloud

After connecting to Paylocity, create a workspace for your desired table(s).

1. Navigate to the Workspaces page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace). 👁 The Workspaces page.
   👁 Adding a new Workspace.
   
2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
3. Select the Paylocity connection (e.g. Paylocity1) and click Next. 👁 Selecting an Asset (Salesforce is shown).
   
4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm. 👁 Selecting Tables (Salesforce is shown).
   
5. Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}

With the connection, PAT, and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to Paylocity data from SAP Analytics Cloud.

Create a Model of Paylocity Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

With the connection to Paylocity configured and the OData endpoint(s) created, we can create a Model for Paylocity data in SAP Analytics Cloud.

1. Log into your Analytics Cloud instance and click Create -> Model from the menu.
2. Choose "Get data from a datasource" and select "OData Services"
3. Choose an existing connection to your Connect AI OData or Create a new one:
   • Set Connection Name
   • Set Data Service URL to the Base URL for your OData API: https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}
   • Set Authentication Type to Basic Authentication
   • Set User Name to the Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
   👁 Creating a new OData Services Connection
   
4. Choose "Create a new query" and click Next
5. Name the Execute, select an OData endpoint (like Employee) and click Next 👁 Choosing a Connect AI OData endpoint to query
   
6. Drag the columns you wish to work with into the Selected Data workspace and click Create 👁 Selecting fields (columns) from the OData endpoint
   
7. At this point, a Draft Data source is created; click the draft to finalize the model
8. Perform any transformations, including creating calculated dimensions, location dimensions, and combining data sources, then click Create Model 👁 Finalizing the model
   
9. Name your model and click OK

Build a Dashboard in SAP Analytics Cloud

With the model created, you are ready to create a dashboard in SAP Analytics Cloud based on Paylocity data.

1. From the menu, click Create -> Story
2. Click on SAP Analytics Template (this article uses the "Dashboard" template)
3. Choose a layout and click Apply
4. From the More menu, select a visualization to insert (Chart) 👁 Inserting a visualization
   
5. Select a model to visualize
6. Select a structure and the required Measures and Dimensions
7. Save the store 👁 Saving the Story
   

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a simple but powerful dashboard from live Paylocity data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Paylocity (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Paylocity data in SAP Analytics Cloud.