Build Paylocity-Connected ETL Processes in Google Data Fusion

Google Data Fusion allows users to perform self-service data integration to consolidate disparate data. Uploading the CData JDBC Driver for Paylocity enables users to access live Paylocity data from within their Google Data Fusion pipelines. While the CData JDBC Driver enables piping Paylocity data to any data source natively supported in Google Data Fusion, this article explains how to pipe data from Paylocity to Google BigQuery,

Upload the CData JDBC Driver for Paylocity to Google Data Fusion

Upload the CData JDBC Driver for Paylocity to your Google Data Fusion instance to work with live Paylocity data. Due to the naming restrictions for JDBC drivers in Google Data Fusion, create a copy or rename the JAR file to match the following format driver-version.jar. For example: cdatapaylocity-2020.jar

1. Open your Google Data Fusion instance
2. Click the to add an entity and upload a driver 👁 Image
   
3. On the "Upload driver" tab, drag or browse to the renamed JAR file.
4. On the "Driver configuration" tab:
   • Name: Create a name for the driver (cdata.jdbc.paylocity) and make note of the name
   • Class name: Set the JDBC class name: (cdata.jdbc.paylocity.PaylocityDriver)
   👁 Configuring the driver (Salesforce is shown.)
   
5. Click "Finish"

Connect to Paylocity Data in Google Data Fusion

With the JDBC Driver uploaded, you are ready to work with live Paylocity data in Google Data Fusion Pipelines.

1. Navigate to the Pipeline Studio to create a new Pipeline
2. From the "Source" options, click "Database" to add a source for the JDBC Driver 👁 Adding a database source
   
3. Click "Properties" on the Database source to edit the properties

   NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Google Data Fusion, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

   • Set the Label
   • Set Reference Name to a value for any future references (i.e.: cdata-paylocity)
   • Set Plugin Type to "jdbc"
   • Set Connection String to the JDBC URL for Paylocity. For example:
     
     jdbc:paylocity:RTK=5246...;OAuthClientID=YourClientId;OAuthClientSecret=YourClientSecret;RSAPublicKey=YourRSAPubKey;Key=YourKey;IV=YourIV;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;

     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.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

      java -jar cdata.jdbc.paylocity.jar
      

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

     👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
     
   • Set Import Query to a SQL query that will extract the data you want from Paylocity, i.e.:
     SELECT * FROM Employee
   👁 Configuring the database source
   
4. From the "Sink" tab, click to add a destination sink (we use Google BigQuery in this example)
5. Click "Properties" on the BigQuery sink to edit the properties
   • Set the Label
   • Set Reference Name to a value like paylocity-bigquery
   • Set Project ID to a specific Google BigQuery Project ID (or leave as the default, "auto-detect")
   • Set Dataset to a specific Google BigQuery dataset
   • Set Table to the name of the table you wish to insert Paylocity data into
   👁 Configuring the BigQuery sink
   

With the Source and Sink configured, you are ready to pipe Paylocity data into Google BigQuery. Save and deploy the pipeline. When you run the pipeline, Google Data Fusion will request live data from Paylocity and import it into Google BigQuery. 👁 Image

While this is a simple pipeline, you can create more complex Paylocity pipelines with transforms, analytics, conditions, and more. Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Paylocity and start working with your live Paylocity data in Google Data Fusion today.