Build MVC Applications with Connectivity to Workday Data

In this article, we will guide you through the process of utilizing wizards within Visual Studio to seamlessly integrate the CData ADO.NET Provider for Workday into a basic MVC (Model, View, Controller) project.

Create the Entity Framework Model

Follow the steps below to save connection properties and map tables to entities in the data model.

1. Create a new MVC project in Visual Studio. In this example, the project name is MvcWorkdayApp.

2. If you are using Entity Framework 6, you will need to take the preliminary step of registering the Workday Entity Framework provider for your project. See the "LINQ and Entity Framework" chapter in the help documentation for a guide.

   Note that MVC 3 scaffolding and MVC 4 scaffolding do not support Entity Framework 6. You can use your scaffolding with Entity Framework 6 by upgrading to the latest version of MVC.

3. To add the .edmx file from the designer, right-click your Models folder and click Add New Item. Select ADO.NET Entity Data Model, name the model, and click Add. In this example, the name of the model is WorkdayModel.
4. In the Entity Data Model wizard, select the option 'EF Designer from database'. The Entity Data Model wizard is displayed.
5. Click New Connection. Select CData Workday Data Source in the dialog that is displayed.

6. Specify the required connection string properties.

   To connect, there are three pieces of information required: Authentication, API URL, and WSDL URL.

   Authentication

   To authenticate, specify your User and Password. Note that you must append your Tenant to your User separated by an '@' character. For instance, if you normally log in with 'geraldg' and your Tenant is 'mycompany_mc1', then your User should be specified as 'geraldg@mycompany_mc1'.

   API URL

   The API URL may be specified either directly via APIURL, or it may be constructed from the Tenant, Service, and Host. The APIURL is constructed in the following format: <Host>/ccx/service/<Tenant>/<Service>.

   WSDL URL

   The WSDLURL may be specified in its entirety, or may be constructed from the Service and WSDLVersion connection properties. The WSDLURL is constructed in the following format: https://community.workday.com/sites/default/files/file-hosting/productionapi/<Service>/<WSDLVersion>/<Service>.wsdl

   A typical connection string is below:

   User=myuser;Password=mypassword;Tenant=mycompany_gm1;Host=https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com

7. Name the connection and select whether to include sensitive information, such as connection credentials, in the connection string. For simplicity, this example saves sensitive information in Web.config. The connection settings are saved as WorkdayEntities.

8. Select the views you need. In this example, Workers is imported. Also, the option to pluralize object names is deselected in this example. Click Finish to create the .edmx file.
9. Build your project to complete this step.

Scaffold the Controller and Views

Once you've established the model and completed the project build, you can employ ASP.NET Scaffolding wizards to generate both the controller and the views.

1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the controllers folder and click Add -> Controller. Select MVC 5 Controller with views, using Entity Framework.
2. In the Add Controller dialog that is then displayed, select the following options:
   • Model class: Select a table you imported; for example, Workers.
   • Data context class: Select your context class.
3. Leave the default values for the other fields.