Build UKG Pro HCM-Connected Web Apps with Axios and CData Connect AI

Axios is a JavaScript library that allows developers to make HTTP requests to servers from a web browser or Node.js. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get access to live UKG Pro HCM data for your web apps. This article shows how to connect to UKG Pro HCM and build web apps in Axios with access to live UKG Pro HCM data.

Connect to UKG Pro HCM from Axios

To work with UKG Pro HCM in Axios, we need to connect to UKG Pro HCM from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the UKG Pro HCM data.

Connect to UKG Pro HCM from Connect AI

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "UKG Pro HCM" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to UKG Pro HCM.

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

   UKGProHCM API Profile Settings

   UKG Pro HCM uses Basic authentication combined with a customer API key to authorize access to the API. To connect, you will need your UKG Pro HCM credentials and a customer API key issued by UKG.

   Set the following connection properties to authenticate:

   • AuthScheme: Set this to Basic.
   • User: Set this to your UKG Pro HCM username.
   • Password: Set this to your UKG Pro HCM password.
   • ProfileSettings: Set this to a semicolon-separated list containing:
     • Host: Your UKG Pro HCM tenant hostname (e.g., yourcompany.ultipro.com).
     • CustomerAPIKey: Your UKG customer API key. This is passed as the US-CUSTOMER-API-KEY request header on each API call.

   To obtain your customer API key, contact your UKG Pro HCM administrator or refer to the UKG Developer Portal at https://developer.ukg.com.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add UKG Pro HCM Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Configure UKG Pro HCM Endpoints for Axios

After connecting to UKG Pro HCM, create a workspace for your desired table(s).

1. Navigate to the Workspaces page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace).
2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
3. Select the UKG Pro HCM connection (e.g. API1) and click Next.
4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm.
5. Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}

With the connection, PAT, and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to UKG Pro HCM data from Axios.

Connect to UKG Pro HCM Data in Axios Workflows

To establish a connection from Axios to CData Connect AI using the OData protocol, follow these steps.

1. Create a project directory for your web app. For example: ~/connect_cloud/
2. Open a terminal, navigate the the project directory and initialize a node project using the command:

   npm init -y

3. Install the Axios dependency in the project using the following command:

   npm install axios

4. In your project directory, create a file called server.js that contains the following code. Provide your CData Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected]) and PAT (the PAT you created in the prerequisites). You must also provide a query for your data, such as SELECT * FROM API1.SCHEMA.UserDetails.

   server.js code

   
         const axios = require('axios')
   
         const user = '[email protected]'
         const pat = '***********************************';
   
         //Your API endpoint
         const url = 'https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}';
   
         //Your data to be sent in the POST request
         const data = {
         "query":"SELECT * FROM {workspace_name}.SCHEMA.UserDetails"
         };
   
         axios.post(url, data, {
         auth: {
         username: user,
         password: pat
         }
         })
         .then(response => {
         const rows = response.data.results[0].rows;
         const schema = response.data.results[0].schema;
   
         //Create an array of column names
         const columnNames = schema.map(col => col.columnName);
   
         //Loop through each row and log the column name with its value
         rows.forEach(row => {
         const rowObject = {};
         row.forEach((value, index) => {
         const columnName = columnNames[index];
         rowObject[columnName] = value;
         });
         console.log(rowObject);
         })
         })
         .catch(error => {
         console.error('Error:', error);
         });
       

5. In the terminal, execute the following command to run the server:

   node server.js

   The query results will appear:

   
       { ID: 1, VALUE: -2 }
       { ID: 2, VALUE: 1 }
       { ID: 11, VALUE: null }
       { ID: 3, VALUE: 2 }
       { ID: 4, VALUE: 5 }
       ...

Simplified Access to UKG Pro HCM Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct connection to live UKG Pro HCM data from Axios. For more information on gaining simplified access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources in cloud applications like Axios, refer to our Connect AI page.