Access Workday Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

The CData JDBC Driver for Workday connects Workday data to Mule applications enabling read , write, update, and delete functionality with familiar SQL queries. The JDBC Driver allows users to easily create Mule applications to backup, transform, report, and analyze Workday data.

This article demonstrates how to use the CData JDBC Driver for Workday inside of a Mule project to create a Web interface for Workday data. The application created allows you to request Workday data using an HTTP request and have the results returned as JSON. The exact same procedure outlined below can be used with any CData JDBC Driver to create a Web interface for the hundreds of available data sources.

Getting Started

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1. Create a new Mule Project in Anypoint Studio.
2. Add an HTTP Connector to the Message Flow.
3. Configure the address for the HTTP Connector. 👁 Add and Configure the HTTP Connector
   
4. Add a Database Select Connector to the same flow, after the HTTP Connector.
5. Create a new Connection (or edit an existing one) and configure the properties.
   • Set Connection to "Generic Connection"
   • Select the CData JDBC Driver JAR file in the Required Libraries section (e.g. cdata.jdbc.workday.jar). 👁 Adding the JAR file (Salesforce is shown).
     
   • Set the URL to the connection string for 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.

     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.

   • Set the Driver class name to cdata.jdbc.workday.WorkdayDriver. 👁 A configured Database Connection (Salesforce is shown).
     
   • Click Test Connection.
6. Set the SQL Query Text to a SQL query to request Workday data. For example:

   SELECT Worker_Reference_WID, Legal_Name_Last_Name FROM Workers WHERE Legal_Name_Last_Name = 'Morgan'

   👁 Configure the Select object (Salesforce is Shown)
   
7. Add a Transform Message Component to the flow.
8. Set the Output script to the following to convert the payload to JSON:

   %dw 2.0
   output application/json
   ---
   payload
    

   👁 Add the Transform Message Component to the Flow
   
9. To view your Workday data, navigate to the address you configured for the HTTP Connector (localhost:8081 by default): http://localhost:8081. The Workday data is available as JSON in your Web browser and any other tools capable of consuming JSON endpoints.

At this point, you have a simple Web interface for working with Workday data (as JSON data) in custom apps and a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools. Download a free, 30 day trial of the JDBC Driver for Workday and see the CData difference in your Mule Applications today.