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Connect to live data from BambooHR with the API Driver

Connect to BambooHR

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How to Access Live BambooHR Data in Power Automate Desktop via ODBC


The CData ODBC Driver for BambooHR enables you to integrate BambooHR data into workflows built using Microsoft Power Automate Desktop.

The CData ODBC Driver for BambooHR enables you to access live BambooHR data in workflow automation tools like Power Automate. This article shows how to integrate BambooHR data into a simple workflow, moving BambooHR data into a CSV file.

Through optimized data processing, CData ODBC Drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live BambooHR data in Microsoft Power Automate. When you issue complex SQL queries from Power Automate to BambooHR, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to BambooHR and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (e.g. SQL functions and JOIN operations).

Connect to BambooHR 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.

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.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing workflows.

Integrate BambooHR Data into Power Automate Workflows

After configuring the DSN for BambooHR, you are ready to integrate BambooHR data into your Power Automate workflows. Open Microsoft Power Automate, add a new flow, and name the flow.

In the flow editor, you can add the actions to connect to BambooHR, query BambooHR using SQL, and write the query results to a CSV document.

Add an Open SQL Connection Action

Add an "Open SQL connection" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

  • Connection string: DSN=CData BambooHR Source

After configuring the action, click Save.

Add an Execute SQL Statement Action

Add an "Execute SQL statement" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

  • Get connection by: SQL connection variable
  • SQL connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)
  • SQL statement: SELECT * FROM Employees

After configuring the action, click Save.

Add a Write to CSV File Action

Add a "Write to CSV file" action (Actions -> File) and configure the properties.

  • Variable to write to: %QueryResult% (the variable from the "Execute SQL statement" action above)
  • File path: set to a file on disk
  • Configure Advanced settings as needed.

After configuring the action, click Save.

Add a Close SQL Connection Action

Add a "Close SQL connection" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

  • SQL Connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)

After configuring the action, click Save.

Save & Run the Flow

Once you have configured all the actions for the flow, click the disk icon to save the flow. Click the play icon to run the flow.

Now you have a workflow to move BambooHR data into a CSV file.

With the CData ODBC Driver for BambooHR, you get live connectivity to BambooHR data within your Microsoft Power Automate workflows.

Related Power Automate Articles

This article walks through using the CData ODBC Driver for BambooHR with Power Automate Desktop. Check out our other articles for more ways to work with Power Automate (Desktop & Online):