Connect to Paylocity Data in RapidMiner

This article shows how you can easily integrate the CData JDBC driver for Paylocity into your processes in RapidMiner. This article uses the CData JDBC Driver for Paylocity to transfer Paylocity data to a process in RapidMiner.

Connect to Paylocity in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

You can follow the procedure below to establish a JDBC connection to Paylocity:

1. Add a new database driver for Paylocity: Click Connections -> Manage Database Drivers.
2. In the resulting wizard, click the Add button and enter a name for the connection.
3. Enter the prefix for the JDBC URL:

   jdbc:paylocity:
   

4. Enter the path to the cdata.jdbc.paylocity.jar file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
5. Enter the driver class:

   cdata.jdbc.paylocity.PaylocityDriver
   

   👁 The JDBC driver configuration. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Create a new Paylocity connection: Click Connections -> Manage Database Connections.
7. Enter a name for your connection.
8. For Database System, select the Paylocity driver you configured previously.
9. Enter your connection string in the Host box.

   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.)
   

   A typical connection string is below:

   OAuthClientID=YourClientId;OAuthClientSecret=YourClientSecret;RSAPublicKey=YourRSAPubKey;Key=YourKey;IV=YourIV;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;
   

10. Enter your username and password if necessary. 👁 The connection to the JDBC data source. (Salesforce is shown.)
    

You can now use your Paylocity connection with the various RapidMiner operators in your process. To retrieve Paylocity data, drag the Retrieve operator from the Operators view. 👁 A Retrieve operation to select data. (Salesforce is shown.)
With the Retrieve operator selected, you can then define which table to retrieve in the Parameters view by clicking the folder icon next to the "repository entry." In the resulting Repository Browser, you can expand your connection node to select the desired example set.

Finally, wire the output to the Retrieve process to a result, and run the process to see the Paylocity data.