Create Power BI Reports on Real-Time UKG Pro WFM Data
With built-in support for ODBC on Microsoft Windows, the CData ODBC Drivers provide self-service integration with self-service analytics tools such as Microsoft Power BI. The CData ODBC Driver for UKG Pro WFM links your Power BI reports to operational UKG Pro WFM data. You can monitor UKG Pro WFM data through dashboards and ensure that your analysis reflects UKG Pro WFM data in real time by scheduling refreshes or refreshing on demand. This article details how to use the ODBC driver to create real-time visualizations of UKG Pro WFM data in Microsoft Power BI Desktop and then upload to Power BI.
The CData ODBC Drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live UKG Pro WFM data in Power BI due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from Power BI to UKG Pro WFM, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to UKG Pro WFM and utilizes the embedded SQL Engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can visualize and analyze UKG Pro WFM data using native Power BI data types.
Connect to UKG Pro WFM 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 UKGProWFM Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\UKGProWFM.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for UKGProWFM (see below).
UKGProWFM API Profile Settings
UKG Pro Workforce Management uses OAuth 2.0 with the Resource Owner Password Credentials grant (grant_type=password) to authorize access to the API. Unlike most OAuth-based profiles, this does not use a browser redirect/authorization-code step: the driver exchanges your UKG Pro WFM username, password, client ID, and client secret directly for an access token.
Set the following connection properties to authenticate:
- AuthScheme: Set this to OAuthPassword.
- Host: Set this to the hostname of your UKG Pro Workforce Management datacenter/tenant (for example, yourcompany.mykronos.com). Do not include the protocol (https://) or a trailing slash.
- OAuthClientId: Set this to the client ID issued for your UKG Pro Workforce Management OAuth application.
- OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret issued for your UKG Pro Workforce Management OAuth application.
- User: Set this to your UKG Pro Workforce Management username.
- Password: Set this to your UKG Pro Workforce Management password.
Access tokens are obtained from https://{Host}/api/authentication/access_token. Refresh tokens issued by UKG Pro Workforce Management expire after 7 days; if a refresh attempt fails because the refresh token itself has expired, the driver must re-authenticate with your User/Password credentials to obtain a new access token.
Create Data Visualizations
After creating an ODBC DSN, follow the steps below to connect to the UKG Pro WFM ODBC DSN from Power BI Desktop:
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Open Power BI Desktop and click Get Data -> More... to open the Get Data window.
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In the Get Data window select Other -> ODBC to open the next window.
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Select the DSN in the menu. If you know the SQL query you want to use to import data, you can expand the Advanced options node and enter the query in the SQL Statement box. Otherwise, click OK to continue.
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Choose Default or Custom as the authentication option and click Connect.
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Select tables in the Navigator dialog.
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Click Transform Data to edit the query. The table you imported is displayed in the Power Query Editor. In the Power Query Editor, you can enrich your local copy of UKG Pro WFM data with other data sources, pivot UKG Pro WFM columns, and more. Power BI detects each column's data type from the UKG Pro WFM metadata retrieved by the driver.
Power BI records your modifications to the query in the Applied Steps section, adjusting the underlying data retrieval query that is executed to the remote UKG Pro WFM data. When you click Close and Apply, Power BI executes the data retrieval query.
Otherwise, click Load to pull the data into Power BI.
Create Data Visualizations
After pulling the data into Power BI, you can create data visualizations in the Report view by dragging fields from the Fields pane onto the canvas. Follow the steps below to create a pie chart (Salesforce shown):
- Select the pie chart icon in the Visualizations pane.
- Select a dimension in the Fields pane: for example, Name.
- Select a measure in the Fields pane: for example, Annual Revenue.
You can change sort options by clicking the ellipsis (...) button for the chart. Options to select the sort column and change the sort order are displayed.
You can use both highlighting and filtering to focus on data. Filtering removes unfocused data from visualizations; highlighting dims unfocused data. You can highlight fields by clicking them:
You can apply filters at the page level, at the report level, or to a single visualization by dragging fields onto the Filters pane. To filter on the field's value, select one of the values that are displayed in the Filters pane.
Click Refresh to synchronize your report with any changes to the data.
Free Trial & More Information
If you are interested in connecting to your UKG Pro WFM data from Microsoft Power BI, or any applications that support ODBC connectivity, download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for UKG Pro WFM. As always, our world-class support team is ready to answer any questions you may have.