Sections

Reporting as a Service (RaaS)

With Reporting as a Service, you have the flexibility to output Report Builder data to a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) API format. The JSON API format allows seamless integration with API endpoints in your other systems to ensure a continuous updated data feed.

Beeline’s Report Builder gives you hundreds of standard reports for full visibility into your contingent workforce program. Using the Report Builder, you can build the customizable reports you need and reduce the time you spend gathering complex analytics about your contingent workforce program.

The JSON API option is available from the Output Type list in the Report Builder module. JSON is a lightweight data interchange format that integrates with your web services and systems. JSON is preferred for web application development where fast, compact, and convenient serialization of data is required.

Report Builder and the JSON API output format provide these benefits to your organization:
  • Streamline your integration by building on any one of numerous standard reports.
  • Create your own business conditions and select your own data filters.
  • Eliminate custom RESTful APIs/web services and custom interfacing libraries.
  • Leverage JSON URL returns and integrate with a potentially evolving client API.
  • Optimize integration with HTTP and HTML.
  • Add code customization.
  • Reduce data redundancy and packet size.

Ready to start building your own customizable reporting to a JSON output? Follow the steps below to get started.

Helpful Tools

Web Service client application – An application that can make web service calls
  • Postman
  • RESTlet
  • SoapUI

API Setup

Before using the Beeline Restful API, an API key needs to be generated that will be used for the API calls/requests. This API key will be attached to a Client User account and will remain valid as long as the user remains active.

1
ENABLE API CONFIGURATION IN CWS
  1. Navigate to Admin=>Configuration->Global Settings (Override)->API
  2. Under Client API, change “Enable CWS Client API” to Yes
  3. Save and flush the cache
2
Enable Client Api Security Configuration
  1. Navigate to Admin=>Security->Client API Settin
  2. Click “Add New”
  3. Set up new API setting
    • API Setting Type should be “Import API
    • Security Type should be “Auth Zero
  4. Click Ok
  5. Click on the triple bar to flush cache and security

Generating A New Api Key And Acquiring An Access Token

Once the steps above are completed, the site will now be Restful API-ready and can now accommodate RaaS API Calls. Tapfin should now be able to get the API details specific to their user login account for the site to generate their API key in order to generate an access token and extract API Reporting Outputs (RaaS). To get the API details, below steps can be referenced.

ENABLE API CONFIGURATION IN CWS

In the homepage/dashboard, click on the help button (question mark icon) and click on API Authentication

The next page should show the screen that looks something like below, which contains the following:

  • Foundational Token Endpoint URL - to get the access/foundational token for the site
  • Header Keys and Values
    • ClientID
    • ClientSecret
    • Username
    • UserAPI Key – “If the user does not have any UserAPIKey, simply click on the Generate API Key button to create one”
    Test
    Production

In order to use the Restful API, the user needs to make a call to the foundational get token. This foundational/access token will be used to authenticate the user and make the RaaS call to extract published reports from the site. The user will need to trigger a GET API call using the endpoint from the page described above together with the Header Keys and values.

If all information is entered correctly, the user should then be able to generate a “Bearer” access token code from the GET API Call, which can then be used to make RaaS Calls. The access token will expire. We should instruct the clients that every time they call us, they should request a new token. This is done systematically on the client side. This is best practice.

Testing Raas Api Calls For Beeline Published Reports

Once the user can generate an access “Bearer” token code from the steps in #2, he/she can now make RaaS Calls.

To test this, we need to have a published report’s Report ID, the generated bearer/access token, and site’s RaaS Endpoint URL to make a foundational report (RaaS) call. For step by step instructions, please refer to the Hive page

  • The user will need to set the authentication type of the RaaS API call to be Bearer Token using the access token generated.
  • The report ID can be acquired from the Beeline report’s URL/GUID (after the equal sign as shown below)
  • The RaaS Endpoint URL is the same as the Foundational Token Endpoint URL from the API details previously, except that after the client site, it needs to be replaced with foundational/RunReport/ReportID
    Test Sample:

    From - https://projapi.beeline.com/Proj113/foundational/getToken
    To - https://projapi.beeline.com/Proj113/foundational/RunReport/ReportID

    Prod Sample:

    From - https://projapi.beeline.com/Proj113/foundational/getToken
    To - https://projapi.beeline.com/Proj113/foundational/RunReport/ReportID

Using all the details above, the user can now make a GET API call to trigger the RaaS and extract the report data in JSON format as shown below:

Note: It will be the responsibility of the User to set up the reports and to make the API calls. Beeline is only to enable the process.