How to Use a Microsoft Access Database to Update Workday Data in Real Time

Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism

Update Workday data by creating a linked table in Microsoft Access with the CData Workday ODBC Driver.

CData ODBC drivers connect your data to any database management tool that supports Open Database Connectivity (ODBC). This includes many of the most popular productivity tools, adding new capabilities for document sharing and collaboration. Using the CData ODBC driver for Workday, you can update live Workday data in Microsoft Access; for example, you can make updates that can be immediately seen by other users.

About Workday Data Integration

CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Workday. Customers use CData connectivity to:

Access the tables and datasets you create in Prism Analytics Data Catalog, working with the native Workday data hub without compromising the fidelity of your Workday system.
Access Workday Reports-as-a-Service to surface data from departmental datasets not available from Prism and datasets larger than Prism allows.
Access base data objects with WQL, REST, or SOAP, getting more granular, detailed access but with the potential need for Workday admins or IT to help craft queries.

Users frequently integrate Workday with analytics tools such as Tableau, Power BI, and Excel, and leverage our tools to replicate Workday data to databases or data warehouses. Access is secured at the user level, based on the authenticated user's identity and role.

For more information on configuring Workday to work with CData, refer to our Knowledge Base articles: Comprehensive Workday Connectivity through Workday WQL and Reports-as-a-Service & Workday + CData: Connection & Integration Best Practices.

Getting Started

Connect to Workday as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

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.

Create a Linked Table to Workers Data

Follow the steps below to create a linked table, which enables you to access live Workers data.

On the External Data tab in Access, click ODBC Database. 👁 Use the Get External Data wizard to work with ODBC data sources in Access.
Select the option to link to the data source. A linked table will enable you to read from and write data to the Workers table. 👁 Linked Tables enable you use the live connection to Workday that is provided by the driver.
Select the CData Workday data source from the Machine Data Source tab.
👁 DSNs listed in the Get External Data wizard.
Select the Workers table. For more information on this table, see the "Data Model" chapter in the help documentation. 👁 Available tables. (Google is shown.)
Double-click the linked table to make edits. The linked table will always have up-to-date data and any changes will be reflected back to the underlying table.
👁 A linked table to the live data. (Google is shown.)

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Workday ODBC Driver to get started:

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Learn more:

👁 Workday Icon
Workday ODBC Driver

The Workday ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Workday, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Workday data like you would a database - read, write, and update Workday Cash Management, Compensation, Financial Management, Payroll, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/workday-odbc-access-linked-tables.rst