Use CData Connect AI to Access Workday Data in Microsoft Power Pivot

This article will explain how to use CData Connect AI to present Workday data as OData services and then consume the data in Microsoft Excel's Power Pivot business intelligence tool. Follow the steps below to retrieve and edit Workday data in Power Pivot.

Getting Started

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Connect to Workday from Power Pivot

To work with Workday data from Power Pivot, we need to connect to Workday from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the Workday data.

Connect to Workday 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 "Workday" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

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

   To connect to Workday, users need to find the Tenant and BaseURL and then select their API type.

   Obtaining the BaseURL and Tenant

   To obtain the BaseURL and Tenant properties, log into Workday and search for "View API Clients." On this screen, you'll find the Workday REST API Endpoint, a URL that includes both the BaseURL and Tenant.

   The format of the REST API Endpoint is: https://domain.com/subdirectories/mycompany, where:

   • https://domain.com/subdirectories/ is the BaseURL.
   • mycompany (the portion of the url after the very last slash) is the Tenant.
   For example, in the REST API endpoint https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com/ccx/api/v1/mycompany, the BaseURL is https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com and the Tenant is mycompany.

   Using ConnectionType to Select the API

   The value you use for the ConnectionType property determines which Workday API you use. See our Community Article for more information on Workday connectivity options and best practices.

   API	ConnectionType Value
   WQL	WQL
   Reports as a Service	Reports
   REST	REST
   SOAP	SOAP

   
   

   Authentication

   Your method of authentication depends on which API you are using.

   • WQL, Reports as a Service, REST: Use OAuth authentication.
   • SOAP: Use Basic or OAuth authentication.

   See the Help documentation for more information on configuring OAuth with Workday.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Workday 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 Workday Endpoints for Power Pivot

After connecting to Workday, 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 Workday connection (e.g. Workday1) 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 Workday data from Power Pivot.

Import Workday Tables in Power Pivot

Follow the steps below to import tables that can be refreshed on demand:

1. In Excel, click Data -> Get Data -> From Other Sources -> From OData Feed 👁 Starting the OData connection.
   
2. Fill out the OData feed URL (e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}) 👁 The URL of the OData endpoint for Connect AI.
   
3. On the next screen, select Basic and configure the username and password. Password will be your PAT. 👁 Authenticating with Connect AI
   

4. Select the tables that you would like to import into Excel 👁 Selecting tables (Salesforce is shown.)
   

5. After selecting your table(s) and clicking Load, you should see the data appear in an Excel spreadsheet 👁 Loading tables (Salesforce is shown.)
   

6. Now, click the Power Pivot tab on the ribbon, and then select Add to Data Model. 👁 Loading data into Power Pivot (Salesforce is shown.)
   This can now work with your Workday data in Power Pivot.

   👁 The Pivot Table that is consuming OData feeds from Connect AI. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

Free Trial & More Information

If you are interested in connecting to your Workday data (or data from any of our other supported data sources) from Power Pivot, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI today! For more information on Connect AI and to see what other data sources we support, refer to our CData Connect AI page.