Integrate Real-Time Access to Paylocity in SAPUI5 MVC Apps

In this article we show how to use the CData API Server to write SAPUI5 apps that leverage the capabilities of the Paylocity API, without writing to a back-end database. The API Server is a lightweight Web application that runs on your server and produces OData feeds of Paylocity data. OData is the standard for real-time data access over the Web and has built-in support in SAPUI5 and OpenUI5.

Set Up the API Server

If you have not already done so, download the CData API Server. Once you have installed the API Server, follow the steps below to begin producing secure Paylocity OData services:

Connect to Paylocity

To work with Paylocity data from SAPUI5, we start by creating and configuring a Paylocity connection. Follow the steps below to configure the API Server to connect to Paylocity data:

1. First, navigate to the Connections page.
2. Click Add Connection and then search for and select the Paylocity connection. 👁 Selecting a data source (SQLite is shown)
   
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. 👁 Connecting to a datasource (SQLite is shown)
   

4. After configuring the connection, click Save & Test to confirm a successful connection.

Configure API Server Users

Next, create a user to access your Paylocity data through the API Server. You can add and configure users on the Users page. Follow the steps below to configure and create a user:

1. On the Users page, click Add User to open the Add User dialog.
2. Next, set the Role, Username, and Privileges properties and then click Add User. 👁 Configure a new user
   
3. An Authtoken is then generated for the user. You can find the Authtoken and other information for each user on the Users page: 👁 API Server user settings
   

Creating API Endpoints for Paylocity

Having created a user, you are ready to create API endpoints for the Paylocity tables:

1. First, navigate to the API page and then click Add Table . 👁 Add tables
   
2. Select the connection you wish to access and click Next. 👁 Select the connection (SQLite is shown)
   
3. With the connection selected, create endpoints by selecting each table and then clicking Confirm. 👁 Adding tables from the connection (SQLite is shown)
   

Gather the OData Url

Having configured a connection to Paylocity data, created a user, and added resources to the API Server, you now have an easily accessible REST API based on the OData protocol for those resources. From the API page in API Server, you can view and copy the API Endpoints for the API:

👁 API Endpoints

Create the View

In this article the user views and interacts with Paylocity data through an SAPUI5 table control. Table columns will be automatically detected from the metadata retrieved from the API Server's API endpoint. We define the following table in a separate View.view.xml file:

<mvc:View
 controllerName="sap.ui.table.sample.OData2.Controller"
 xmlns="sap.ui.table"
 xmlns:mvc="sap.ui.core.mvc"
 xmlns:u="sap.ui.unified"
 xmlns:c="sap.ui.core"
 xmlns:m="sap.m">
 <m:Page
 showHeader="false"
 enableScrolling="false"
 class="sapUiContentPadding">
 <m:content>
 <Table
 id="table"
 selectionMode="MultiToggle"
 visibleRowCount="10"
 enableSelectAll="false"
 rows="{/Employee}"
 threshold="15"
 enableBusyIndicator="true"
 columns="{
 path: 'meta>/dataServices/schema/[${namespace}===\'CData\']/entityType/[${name}===\'Employee\']/property',
 factory: '.columnFactory'
 }">
 <toolbar>
 <m:Toolbar>
 <m:Title text="Paylocity Employee"></m:Title>
 </m:Toolbar>
 </toolbar>
 <noData>
 <m:BusyIndicator class="sapUiMediumMargin"/>
 </noData>
 </Table>
 </m:content>
 </m:Page>
</mvc:View>

Create the Model and Controller

In SAPUI5, you do not need to write any OData queries; an ODataModel instance handles the application's data access commands. The API Server then translates the queries into Paylocity API calls.

The controller processes user input and represents information to the user through a view. Define the controller in a new file, Controller.controller.js. Instantiate the model in the onInit function -- you will need to replace the placeholder values for the URL to the API Server, a user allowed to access the OData endpoint of the API Server, and the authtoken for the user.

sap.ui.define([
 "sap/ui/core/mvc/Controller",
 "sap/ui/model/odata/v2/ODataModel",
 "sap/ui/model/json/JSONModel",
 "sap/ui/table/Column",
 "sap/m/Text",
], function(Controller, ODataModel, JSONModel, Column, Text ) {
 "use strict";
 

 return Controller.extend("sap.ui.table.sample.OData2.Controller", {
 
 onInit : function () {
 
 var oView = this.getView();
 var oDataModel = new ODataModel("http://myserver/api.rsc/",{user: "MyUser", password: "MyAuthToken"});
 
 oDataModel.getMetaModel().loaded().then(function(){
 oView.setModel(oDataModel.getMetaModel(), "meta");
 });
 oView.setModel(oDataModel);
 
 var oTable = oView.byId("table");
 var oBinding = oTable.getBinding("rows");
 var oBusyIndicator = oTable.getNoData();
 oBinding.attachDataRequested(function(){
 oTable.setNoData(oBusyIndicator);
 });
 oBinding.attachDataReceived(function(){
 oTable.setNoData(null); //use default again ("no data" in case no data is available)
 });
 },
 
 onExit : function () {
 },
 
 columnFactory : function(sId, oContext) {
 var oModel = this.getView().getModel();
 var sName = oContext.getProperty("name");
 var sType = oContext.getProperty("type");
 var iLen = oContext.getProperty("maxLength");
 iLen = iLen ? parseInt(iLen, 10) : 10;
 
 return new Column(sId, {
 sortProperty: sName, 
 filterProperty: sName,
 width: (iLen > 9 ? (iLen > 50 ? 15 : 10) : 5) + "rem",
 label: new sap.m.Label({text: "{/#Employee/" + sName + "/@name}"}),
 hAlign: sType && sType.indexOf("Decimal") >= 0 ? "End" : "Begin",
 template: new Text({text: {path: sName}})
 });
 }
 
 });

});

Describe Application Logic

Create a component that contains the resources of your application. Define the following in Component.js:

sap.ui.define([
 'sap/ui/core/UIComponent'
], function(UIComponent) {
 "use strict";

 return UIComponent.extend("sap.ui.table.sample.OData2.Component", {
 metadata : {
 rootView : "sap.ui.table.sample.OData2.View",
 dependencies : {
 libs : [
 "sap.ui.table",
 "sap.ui.unified",
 "sap.m"
 ]
 },

 config : {
 sample : {
 stretch : true,
 files : [
 "View.view.xml",
 "Controller.controller.js"
 ]
 }
 }
 }
 });

});

Bootstrap OpenUI5 and Launch

To complete the MVC application, simply add the bootstrap and initialization code. Add these directly to index.html:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>

<html>
<head>
 <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge">
 <meta charset="utf-8"> 
 <title>Paylocity Employee</title>
 
 <script id="sap-ui-bootstrap"
 src="https://openui5.hana.ondemand.com/resources/sap-ui-core.js"
 data-sap-ui-libs="sap.m"
 data-sap-ui-theme="sap_bluecrystal"
 data-sap-ui-xx-bindingSyntax="complex"
 data-sap-ui-preload="async"
 data-sap-ui-compatVersion="edge" 
 data-sap-ui-resourceroots='{"sap.ui.table.sample.OData2": "./", "sap.ui.demo.mock": "mockdata"}'>
 </script>
 
 <!-- application launch configuration -->
 <script>
 
 sap.ui.getCore().attachInit(function() {
 new sap.m.App ({
 pages: [
 new sap.m.Page({
 title: "Paylocity Employee", 
 enableScrolling : false,
 content: [ new sap.ui.core.ComponentContainer({
 height : "100%", name : "sap.ui.table.sample.OData2"
 })]
 })
 ]
 }).placeAt("content");
 });

 </script>
</head> 
 <!-- UI Content -->
<body class="sapUiBody" id="content" role="application">
</body> 
</html>

The resulting SAPUI5 table control reflects any changes to a table in the remote Paylocity data. You can now browse and search current Paylocity data.

👁 A table in SAPUI5 that reflects changes to the data in real time. (Salesforce is shown.)