Connect to Live UKG Pro HCM Data in PostGresSQL Interface through CData Connect AI

There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. When you pair PostgreSQL with CData Connect AI, you gain database-like access to live UKG Pro HCM data from PostgreSQL. In this article, we walk through the process of connecting to UKG Pro HCM data in Connect AI and establishing a connection between Connect AI and PostgreSQL using a TDS foreign data wrapper (FDW).

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for UKG Pro HCM, allowing you to query data from UKG Pro HCM without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to UKG Pro HCM, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested UKG Pro HCM data quickly.

Connect to UKG Pro HCM in 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.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to UKG Pro HCM data from PostgreSQL.

Build the TDS Foreign Data Wrapper

The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The tds_fdw extension is used as an example (https://github.com/tds-fdw/tds_fdw).

1. You can clone and build the git repository via something like the following view source:

   
   sudo apt-get install git
   git clone https://github.com/tds-fdw/tds_fdw.git
   cd tds_fdw
   make USE_PGXS=1
   sudo make USE_PGXS=1 install
   

   Note: If you have several PostgreSQL versions and you do not want to build for the default one, first locate where the binary for pg_config is, take note of the full path, and then append PG_CONFIG= after USE_PGXS=1 at the make commands.
2. After you finish the installation, then start the server:

   
   sudo service postgresql start
   

3. Then go inside the Postgres database

   
   psql -h localhost -U postgres -d postgres
   

   Note: Instead of localhost you can put the IP where your PostgreSQL is hosted.

Connect to UKG Pro HCM data as a PostgreSQL Database and query the data!

After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to UKG Pro HCM data:

1. Log into your database.
2. Load the extension for the database:

   
   CREATE EXTENSION tds_fdw;
   

3. Create a server object for UKG Pro HCM data:

   
   CREATE SERVER "API1" FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER tds_fdw OPTIONS (servername'tds.cdata.com', port '14333', database 'API1');
   

4. Configure user mapping with your email and Personal Access Token from your Connect AI account:

   
   CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER "API1" OPTIONS (username '[email protected]', password 'your_personal_access_token' );
   

5. Create the local schema:

   
   CREATE SCHEMA "API1";
   

6. Create a foreign table in your local database:

   
   #Using a table_name definition:
   
   CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "API1".UserDetails  (      
   id varchar,      
   UserName varchar)      
   SERVER "API1"
   OPTIONS(table_name 'API.UserDetails', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all');
   
   #Or using a schema_name and table_name definition:
   
   CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "API1".UserDetails (      
   id varchar,      
   UserName varchar)      
   SERVER "API1"
   OPTIONS (schema_name 'API', table_name 'UserDetails', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all');
   
   #Or using a query definition:
   
   CREATE FOREIGN TABLE  "API1".UserDetails (
   id varchar,      
   UserName varchar)      
   SERVER "API1"
   OPTIONS (query 'SELECT * FROM API.UserDetails', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all');
   
   #Or setting a remote column name:
   
   CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "API1".UserDetails (
   id varchar,
   col2 varchar OPTIONS (column_name 'UserName'))
   SERVER "API1"
   OPTIONS (schema_name 'API', table_name 'UserDetails', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all');
   

7. You can now execute read/write commands to UKG Pro HCM:

   
   SELECT id, UserName
   FROM "API1".UserDetails;
   

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a simple query from live UKG Pro HCM data. For more information on connecting to UKG Pro HCM (and more than 200 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live UKG Pro HCM data in PostgreSQL.