Query Workday Data in ColdFusion

The CData JDBC driver for Workday seamlessly integrates connectivity to Workday data with the rapid development tools in ColdFusion. This article shows how to connect to Workday data in ColdFusion and query Workday tables.

Getting Started

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Create a JDBC Data Source for Workday in ColdFusion

The JDBC data source enables you to execute SQL from standard ColdFusion tags like cfquery and CFScript like executeQuery.

1. Copy the driver JAR and .lic file from the installation directory onto the ColdFusion classpath. For example, copy the files into C:\MyColdFusionDirectory\cfusion\wwwroot\WEB-INF\lib. Or, open the Java and JVM page in the ColdFusion Administrator and enter the path to the files in the ColdFusion Class Path box.

   The JAR and license for the driver are located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.

   Restart the server after this step.

2. Add the driver as a data source:

   From the ColdFusion administrator interface, expand the Data & Services node and click Data Sources. In the Add New Data Source section, enter a name for the data source and select Other in the Driver menu.

   👁 Adding a JDBC data source to ColdFusion. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

3. Populate the driver properties:

   • JDBC URL: Enter connection properties in the JDBC URL. The JDBC URL begins with jdbc:workday: and is followed by the connection properties in a semicolon-separated list of name=value pairs.

     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.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.workday.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 JDBC URL is below:

     jdbc:workday:User=myuser;Password=mypassword;Tenant=mycompany_gm1;BaseURL=https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com;ConnectionType=WQL;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;

   • Driver Class: Enter the driver class. The driver class is cdata.jdbc.workday.WorkdayDriver.
   • Driver Name: Enter a user-defined name for the driver.
   • Username: Enter the username used to authenticate.
   • Password: Enter the password used to authenticate.

You can now test the connection by enabling the CData Workday data source in the Actions column. After reporting a status of OK, the Workday data source is ready for use.

Execute Queries

The cfquery tag can pass SQL statements to Workday, including INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE.. Use the cfqueryparam tag to create parameterized queries and prevent SQL injection through the query string.

Note: To use the cfquery and cfscript, create a .cfm file. Inside the .cfm file, write the code to execute the query (see below). Place the file directly in the root directory of your web server (e.g., wwwroot in Adobe ColdFusion). Restart the service after placing the file for the changes to take effect.

<cfquery name="WorkdayQuery" dataSource="CDataWorkday">
 SELECT * FROM Workers WHERE Legal_Name_Last_Name = <cfqueryparam value="#Legal_Name_Last_Name#" cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar">
</cfquery>
<cfdump var="#WorkdayQuery#">

Below is the equivalent in CFScript:

<cfscript>
result = queryExecute(
 "SELECT * FROM Workers WHERE Legal_Name_Last_Name = ?", 
 [
 { value="Morgan", cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar" }
 ],
 { datasource="CDataWorkday" }
);

writeDump( var= result );
</cfscript> 

You can then make requests to your .cfm like the following:

http://MyServer:8500/query.cfm?Legal_Name_Last_Name=Morgan