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Get the Report →Create Workday-Connected Nintex Workflows
Use CData Connect Cloud to connect to Workday Data from Nintex Workflow Cloud and build custom workflows using live Workday data.
Nintex Workflow Cloud is a cloud-based platform where you can design workflows to automate simple or complex processes using drag-and-drop interactions — without writing any code. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Workday data for business applications. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Workday in Connect Cloud and build a simple workflow from Workday data in Nintex.
CData Connect Cloud provides a pure, cloud-to-cloud interface for Workday, allowing you to build workflows from live Workday data in Nintex Workflow Cloud — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Nintex allows you to access data directly using SQL queries. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Workday, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Workday data.
About Workday Data Integration
CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Workday. Customers use CData connectivity to:
- Access the tables and datasets you create in Prism Analytics Data Catalog, working with the native Workday data hub without compromising the fidelity of your Workday system.
- Access Workday Reports-as-a-Service to surface data from departmental datasets not available from Prism and datasets larger than Prism allows.
- Access base data objects with WQL, REST, or SOAP, getting more granular, detailed access but with the potential need for Workday admins or IT to help craft queries.
Users frequently integrate Workday with analytics tools such as Tableau, Power BI, and Excel, and leverage our tools to replicate Workday data to databases or data warehouses. Access is secured at the user level, based on the authenticated user's identity and role.
For more information on configuring Workday to work with CData, refer to our Knowledge Base articles: Comprehensive Workday Connectivity through Workday WQL and Reports-as-a-Service & Workday + CData: Connection & Integration Best Practices.
Getting Started
Configure Workday Connectivity for Nintex
Connectivity to Workday from Nintex is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Workday data from Nintex, we start by creating and configuring a Workday connection.
- Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
- Select "Workday" from the Add Connection panel
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Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Workday.
To connect to Workday, users need to find the Tenant and BaseURL and then select their API type.
Obtaining the BaseURL and Tenant
To obtain the BaseURL and Tenant properties, log into Workday and search for "View API Clients." On this screen, you'll find the Workday REST API Endpoint, a URL that includes both the BaseURL and Tenant.
The format of the REST API Endpoint is: https://domain.com/subdirectories/mycompany, where:
- https://domain.com/subdirectories/ is the BaseURL.
- mycompany (the portion of the url after the very last slash) is the Tenant.
Using ConnectionType to Select the API
The value you use for the ConnectionType property determines which Workday API you use. See our Community Article for more information on Workday connectivity options and best practices.
API ConnectionType Value WQL WQL Reports as a Service Reports REST REST SOAP SOAP
Authentication
Your method of authentication depends on which API you are using.
- WQL, Reports as a Service, REST: Use OAuth authentication.
- SOAP: Use Basic or OAuth authentication.
See the Help documentation for more information on configuring OAuth with Workday.
- Click Create & Test
- Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Workday Connection page and update the User-based permissions.
Add a Personal Access Token
If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.
- Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
- On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
- Give your PAT a name and click Create.
- 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, you are ready to connect to Workday data from Nintex Workflow Cloud.
Connect to Workday from Nintex
The steps below outline creating a new connection to Workday data from Nintex (via Connect Cloud).
- Log into Nintex Workflow Cloud
- In the Connections tab, click "Add new"
- Select "Microsoft SQL Server" as the connector and click "Connect"
- In the SQL Server connection wizard, set the following properties:
- Connection Name: a Connect Cloud
- Username: a Connect Cloud username (e.g. [email protected])
- Password: the Connect Cloud user's PAT
- Database Host: tds.cdata.com
- Database Name: the Workday connection (a.g., Workday1)
- Click "Connect"
- Configure the connection permissions and click "Save permissions"
Create a Simple Workday Workflow
With the connection to CData Connect Cloud configured, we are ready to build a simple workflow to access Workday data. Start by clicking the "Create workflow" button.
Configure the Start Event Action
- Click the start event task and select the "Form" event
- Click "Design form"
- Drag a "Text - Long" element onto the Form and click the element to configure it
- Set "Title" to "Enter SQL query"
- Set "Required" to true
- Drag a "Text - Short" element onto the Form and click the element to configure it
- Set "Title" to "Enter desired result column"
- Set "Required" to true

Configure an "Execute a Query" Action
- Add an "Execute a query" action after the "Start event: Form" action and click to configure the action
- Set "SQL Script" to the "Enter SQL Query" variable from the "Start event" action
- Set "Column to retrieve" to the "Enter desired result column" variable from the "Start event" action
- Set "Retrieved column" to a new variable (a.g., "values")

Configure a "Send an Email" Action
- Add a "Send an email" action after the "Execute a query" action and click to configure the action
- Set the "Recipient email address"
- Set the "Subject"
- Set the "Message body" to the variable created for the retrieved column

Once you configure the actions, click "Save," name the Workflow, and click "Save" again. You now have a simple workflow that will query Workday using SQL and sand an email with the results.
To learn more about live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, check out the CData Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.