How to connect to BambooHR Data from IntelliJ

The CData JDBC Driver for BambooHR enables you to access BambooHR as a JDBC data source, providing integration with rapid development tools in IDEs. This article shows how to use the data source configuration wizard to connect to BambooHR data in IntelliJ.

Create a JBDC Data Source for BambooHR

Follow the steps below to add the driver JAR and define connection properties required to connect to BambooHR data.

1. In the Data Sources window, right-click and then click Add Data Source -> DB Data Source.

2. In the Data Source Properties dialog that appears, the following properties are required:

   • JDBC Driver Files: Click the button next to this menu to add the JDBC Driver file cdata.jdbc.api.jar, located in the installation directory.
   • JDBC Driver Class: In this menu, select cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver from the list.

   • Database URL: Enter the connection URL in the JDBC URL property. The URL must start with jdbc:api: and includes connection properties separated with semicolons.

     Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the BambooHR Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\bamboohr.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for BambooHR (see below).

     BambooHR API Profile Settings

     In order to authenticate to BambooHR, you'll need to provide your API Key. To generate an API key, log in and click your name in the upper right-hand corner of any page to get to the user context menu. If you have sufficient permissions, there will be an "API Keys" option in that menu to go to the page, where you can create a new API Key. Additionally, you will need to set the Domain, found in the domain name of your BambooHR account. For example if your BambooHR account is acmeinc.bamboohr.com, then the Domain should be 'acmeinc'. Set both the API Key and Domain in the ProfileSettings property to connect.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.jar

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     A typical JDBC URL is the following:

     jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\BambooHR.apip;ProfileSettings='Domain=acmeinc;APIKey=your_api_key';

Edit and Save BambooHR Data

To discover schema information, right-click the data source you just created and click Refresh Tables. To query a table, right-click it and then click Open Tables Editor.