Information can be downloaded from the service in various formats. The service generates a file either on a scheduled basis or when requested via the user interface. This file contains content defined by the extraction rules of a rule set. These data downloads are typically used to transfer information to external systems, such as payroll systems (e.g., Mepco, Sonet, CGI), reporting systems (e.g., QlikView / Qlik Sense, Cognos, Power BI), and billing systems. Information can be transferred to any external service capable of receiving one of the available transfer formats. File-based transfer formats are described here. The transfer format can be a scheduled transfer, file download, or content retrieval from the service’s API using the RunIntegrationRuleset function.
For reporting systems, the data is typically transferred by generating the dataset once per night into an SFTP folder, from which the reporting system retrieves it.
Creating a new ruleset
The content to be transferred is defined using rule sets. Rule sets are added in the section: Worktime > Administration > Working Community Settings > Integrations > Add Integration Rule Set. A rule set describes the extraction rules used to select data for the transfer. Extraction rules can retrieve data about people, projects, events, or working time interpretations. Any rule set can be downloaded in various file formats. Instructions for creating extraction rules can be found here. Each content item to be extracted from the service must have an extraction rule defined in the rule set. For example, a rule can extract a pay type and its amount to be transferred to the payroll system.
The Description column should contain the name of the extraction rule, preferably as informative as possible, indicating what the rule extracts.
The Salary Code column can include the pay type code for the result of the extraction rule, which is exported to a report or from Nepton to an external system. In many integrations, the pay type code can be overridden by setting the value OverrideSalaryCode, allowing the pay type code to be generated directly from the extraction rule. In this case, the pay type code does not need to be defined in this separate column.
The integration rule contains the actual logic for retrieving the data.
The Salary Code exported as column defines the unit (e.g., seconds, hours, days) in which the result of the rule set’s extraction rule row is returned. Once the unit is defined, the amount returned by the query is in that unit, and no separate calculation is needed in the query due to the unit.
In many integrations, the unit of the amount can also be overridden in the query using the value OverrideUnitType.
Possible values for the unit are:
"U" – integer
"D" – decimal number
"S" – seconds
"H" – hours
"J" – days
"C" – currency
The service displays an error message if the structure of the extraction rule is incorrect. Below each rule, there is a function that allows you to check the validity of the rule. If the structure is correct, the background color of the field turns green.
Checking the rule accuracy
The content of the rule can be checked using the "View rule results" function, which displays the results generated by the extraction rule. You can define the time range, individuals, and result format as options. The result format "Table" presents the results in a database-like format. In other formats, the result is shown as it would appear in the file download for that specific file format. In this view, you can verify that the correct data is transferred into the correct columns of the file format.
The export of rule set results can be automated. In that case, the dataset is generated according to a given schedule, for example, to an SFTP server. More information about automating the transfer of rule sets can be found here.
Once the rule set is ready, the data defined by the rule set can be downloaded in any file format from the menu: Worktime > Administration > Integrations.
Copying rulesets
A rule set that already exists in the deployment can be used as a base when creating a new rule set. This can be done either at the working community or setting group level in the menu Worktime > Administration > Working Community/Settings Group Settings > Integrations > Add Integration Rule Set.
In the "Create from template" section, select the rule set that you want to use as the base for the new rule set. When this is selected, the service copies all other settings from the selected rule set, except for the Export File Name and Target Server.