ETL Workday in Oracle Data Integrator



This article shows how to transfer Workday data into a data warehouse using Oracle Data Integrator.

Leverage existing skills by using the JDBC standard to read and write to Workday: Through drop-in integration into ETL tools like Oracle Data Integrator (ODI), the CData JDBC Driver for Workday connects real-time Workday data to your data warehouse, business intelligence, and Big Data technologies.

JDBC connectivity enables you to work with Workday just as you would any other database in ODI. As with an RDBMS, you can use the driver to connect directly to the Workday APIs in real time instead of working with flat files.

This article walks through a JDBC-based ETL -- Workday to Oracle. After reverse engineering a data model of Workday entities, you will create a mapping and select a data loading strategy -- since the driver supports SQL-92, this last step can easily be accomplished by selecting the built-in SQL to SQL Loading Knowledge Module.

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


Install the Driver

To install the driver, copy the driver JAR (cdata.jdbc.workday.jar) and .lic file (cdata.jdbc.workday.lic), located in the installation folder, into the ODI appropriate directory:

  • UNIX/Linux without Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib
  • UNIX/Linux with Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib and $ODI_HOME/odi/agent/lib
  • Windows without Agent: %APPDATA%\Roaming\odi\oracledi\userlib
  • Windows with Agent: %APPDATA%\odi\oracledi\userlib and %APPDATA%\odi\agent\lib

Restart ODI to complete the installation.

Reverse Engineer a Model

Reverse engineering the model retrieves metadata about the driver's relational view of Workday data. After reverse engineering, you can query real-time Workday data and create mappings based on Workday tables.

  1. In ODI, connect to your repository and click New -> Model and Topology Objects.
  2. On the Model screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
    • Name: Enter Workday.
    • Technology: Select Generic SQL (for ODI Version 12.2+, select Microsoft SQL Server).
    • Logical Schema: Enter Workday.
    • Context: Select Global.
  3. On the Data Server screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
    • Name: Enter Workday.
    • Driver List: Select Oracle JDBC Driver.
    • Driver: Enter cdata.jdbc.workday.WorkdayDriver
    • URL: Enter the JDBC URL containing the connection string.

      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.

      APIConnectionType Value
      WQLWQL
      Reports as a ServiceReports
      RESTREST
      SOAPSOAP

      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.

      Below is a typical connection string:

      jdbc:workday:User=myuser;Password=mypassword;Tenant=mycompany_gm1;BaseURL=https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com;ConnectionType=WQL;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
  4. On the Physical Schema screen, enter the following information:
    • Name: Select from the Drop Down menu.
    • Database (Catalog): Enter CData.
    • Owner (Schema): If you select a Schema for Workday, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter Workday.
    • Database (Work Catalog): Enter CData.
    • Owner (Work Schema): If you select a Schema for Workday, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter Workday.
  5. In the opened model click Reverse Engineer to retrieve the metadata for Workday tables.

Edit and Save Workday Data

After reverse engineering you can now work with Workday data in ODI. To edit and save Workday data, expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator, right-click a table, and click Data. Click Refresh to pick up any changes to the data. Click Save Changes when you are finished making changes.

Create an ETL Project

Follow the steps below to create an ETL from Workday. You will load Workers entities into the sample data warehouse included in the ODI Getting Started VM.

  1. Open SQL Developer and connect to your Oracle database. Right-click the node for your database in the Connections pane and click new SQL Worksheet.

    Alternatively you can use SQLPlus. From a command prompt enter the following:

    sqlplus / as sysdba
  2. Enter the following query to create a new target table in the sample data warehouse, which is in the ODI_DEMO schema. The following query defines a few columns that match the Workers table in Workday: CREATE TABLE ODI_DEMO.TRG_WORKERS (LEGAL_NAME_LAST_NAME NUMBER(20,0),Worker_Reference_WID VARCHAR2(255));
  3. In ODI expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator and double-click the Sales Administration node in the ODI_DEMO folder. The model is opened in the Model Editor.
  4. Click Reverse Engineer. The TRG_WORKERS table is added to the model.
  5. Right-click the Mappings node in your project and click New Mapping. Enter a name for the mapping and clear the Create Empty Dataset option. The Mapping Editor is displayed.
  6. Drag the TRG_WORKERS table from the Sales Administration model onto the mapping.
  7. Drag the Workers table from the Workday model onto the mapping.
  8. Click the source connector point and drag to the target connector point. The Attribute Matching dialog is displayed. For this example, use the default options. The target expressions are then displayed in the properties for the target columns.
  9. Open the Physical tab of the Mapping Editor and click WORKERS_AP in TARGET_GROUP.
  10. In the WORKERS_AP properties, select LKM SQL to SQL (Built-In) on the Loading Knowledge Module tab.

You can then run the mapping to load Workday data into Oracle.

Ready to get started?

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