Build a PostgreSQL Interface for UKG Pro HCM Data using the CData JDBC Driver

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use the Remoting features of the UKG Pro HCM JDBC Driver to create a PostgreSQL entry-point for data access.

There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. From standard Drivers to BI and Analytics tools, PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. Using our JDBC Drivers, you can now create PostgreSQL entry-points that you can connect to from any standard client.

To access UKG Pro HCM data as a PostgreSQL database, use the CData JDBC Driver for UKG Pro HCM and a JDBC foreign data wrapper (FDW). In this article, we compile the FDW, install it, and query UKG Pro HCM data from PostgreSQL Server.

Connect to UKG Pro HCM Data as a JDBC Data Source

To connect to UKG Pro HCM as a JDBC data source, you will need the following:

  • Driver JAR path: The JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
  • Driver class:

    
    cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver
    

  • JDBC URL: The URL must start with "jdbc:api:" and can include any of the connection properties in name-value pairs separated with semicolons.

    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.

    Built-in Connection String Designer

    For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the UKG Pro HCM JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

    
    java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.jar
    

    Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

    Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)

    A typical JDBC URL is below:

    
    jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\UKGProHCM.apip;AuthScheme=Basic;User=your_username;Password=your_password;ProfileSettings='Host=yourcompany.ultipro.com;CustomerAPIKey=your_customer_api_key';
    

Build the JDBC Foreign Data Wrapper

The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The jdbc2_fdw extension is used as an example (downloadable here).

  1. Add a symlink from the shared object for your version of the JRE to /usr/lib/libjvm.so. For example:
    
    ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so /usr/lib/libjvm.so
    
  2. Start the build:
    
    make install USE_PGXS=1
    

Query UKG Pro HCM Data as a PostgreSQL Database

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 jdbc2_fdw;
    
  3. Create a server object for UKG Pro HCM:
    
    CREATE SERVER API 
    FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER jdbc2_fdw OPTIONS (
    drivername 'cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver',
    url 'jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\UKGProHCM.apip;AuthScheme=Basic;User=your_username;Password=your_password;ProfileSettings='Host=yourcompany.ultipro.com;CustomerAPIKey=your_customer_api_key';',
    querytimeout '15',
    jarfile '/home/MyUser/CData/CData\ JDBC\ Driver\ for\ Salesforce MyDriverEdition/lib/cdata.jdbc.api.jar'); 
    
  4. Create a user mapping for the username and password of a user known to the MySQL daemon.
    
    CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER API OPTIONS (
    username 'admin', 
    password 'test');
    
  5. Create a foreign table in your local database:
    
    postgres=# CREATE FOREIGN TABLE userdetails (
    userdetails_id text,
    userdetails_UserId text,
    userdetails_UserName numeric) 
    SERVER API OPTIONS (
    table_name 'userdetails');
    
You can now execute SELECT commands to UKG Pro HCM:

postgres=# SELECT * FROM userdetails;

Ready to get started?

Connect to live data from UKG Pro HCM with the API Driver

Connect to UKG Pro HCM