Insightful Data Source

Insightful
Create a New Data Flow
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To create a new data flow, navigate to the Integrate section, and click the New Data Flow button. Then, select the desired flow type from the list, and click the Create button.
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Select the Insightful connector tile from the list of available connectors. Then, select the credential that will be used to connect to the Insightful account, and click Next; or, create a new Insightful credential for use in this flow.
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In Nexla, Insightful data sources can be created using pre-built endpoint templates, which expedite source setup for common Insightful endpoints. Each template is designed specifically for the corresponding Insightful endpoint, making data source setup easy and efficient.
• To configure this source using a template, follow the instructions in Configure Using a Template.Insightful sources can also be configured manually, allowing you to ingest data from Insightful endpoints not included in the pre-built templates or apply further customizations to exactly suit your needs.
• To configure this source manually, follow the instructions in Configure Manually.
Configure Using a Template
Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure data sources to ingest data from common Insightful endpoints. Each template is designed specifically for the corresponding Insightful endpoint, making data source setup easy and efficient.
Endpoint Settings
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Select the endpoint from which this source will fetch data from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Available endpoint templates are listed in the expandable boxes below. Click on an endpoint to see more information about it and how to configure your data source for this endpoint.
Endpoint Testing
Once the selected endpoint template has been configured, Nexla can retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched according to the current settings. This allows users to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.
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To test the current endpoint configuration, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu. Sample data will be fetched & displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right.
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If the sample data is not as expected, review the selected endpoint and associated settings, and make any necessary adjustments. Then, click the Test button again, and check the sample data to ensure that the correct information is displayed.
Configure Manually
Insightful sources can also be configured to ingest data from any valid Insightful API endpoint. Configuration options available for Insightful sources allow them to be fully customized to suit any use case — including using chained API calls to fetch data from multiple endpoints or applying custom request parameters for fine-grained data filtering.
First, select the method that will be used for calls to the Insightful API from the Method pulldown menu. The most common methods are:
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GET: For retrieving workforce analytics data, employee records, productivity reports, and time tracking data from the API.
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POST: For sending data to the API or triggering specific actions, such as initiating a report or querying data with a request body.
Most Insightful API endpoints use the GET method. The Insightful API is organized around REST principles, and most data retrieval operations are performed with GET requests. For the complete list of available endpoints and their supported methods, refer to the Insightful Developer Portal.
API Endpoint URL
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Enter the URL of the Insightful API endpoint from which this source will fetch data in the Set API URL field. This should be the complete URL including the protocol (
https://) and any required path parameters.The Insightful API base URL is
https://api.insightful.io. Append the specific endpoint path to this base URL to form the complete endpoint URL. For example:https://api.insightful.io/v1/employees— retrieves employee recordshttps://api.insightful.io/v1/time-tracking/sessions— retrieves time tracking session datahttps://api.insightful.io/v1/productivity/reports— retrieves productivity report data
For the full list of available API endpoints, endpoint paths, required parameters, and response formats, refer to the Insightful Developer Portal or the Insightful Postman collection.
Date/Time Macros (API URL)
Optionally, the API URL can be customized using macros — all macros added to the API URL will be converted into values when Nexla executes the API call. Macros are dynamic placeholders that allow you to create flexible API endpoints that can adapt to different time periods or data requirements.
This is especially valuable for Insightful data flows, as many Insightful API endpoints accept date range parameters (such as start_date and end_date) to filter the data returned. Using date/time macros allows Nexla to automatically calculate and apply the appropriate date range on each run.
Macros are particularly useful for Insightful endpoints that return time-series data such as employee activity logs, productivity reports, and time tracking sessions, where you typically want to retrieve data for a rolling time window (such as the past day or past week).
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To add a macro, type
{at the appropriate position in the API URL (within the Set API URL field), and select the desired macro from the dropdown list.{now}– The current datetime{now-1}– The datetime one time unit before the current datetime{now+1}– The datetime one time unit after the current datetimecustom– Datetime macros can reference any number of time units before or after the current datetime — for example, enter(now-7)to indicate the datetime seven time units before the current datetime
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Select the format that will be applied to datetime macros from the Date Format for Date/Time Macro pulldown menu. This format will be applied to the base datetime value of the macro — i.e., the value of
{now}in{now-1}. -
Select the datetime unit that will be used to perform mathematical operations in the included macro(s) from the Time Unit for Operations pulldown menu — for example, for the macro
{now-1}, whenDayis selected,{now-1}will be converted to the datetime one day before the current datetime.
Lookup-Based Macros (API URL)
Column values from existing lookups can also be included as macros in the API URL. Lookup-based macros allow you to reference data from previously configured data sources or lookups, enabling dynamic API endpoints that can adapt based on existing data.
Lookup-based macros are useful when you need to create Insightful API endpoints that reference specific employee IDs, team IDs, or project identifiers from other data sources in your Nexla environment.
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To include a lookup column value macro, select the relevant lookup from the Add Lookups to Supported Macros pulldown menu.
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Type
{at the appropriate position in the API URL, and select the lookup column-based macro from the dropdown list. Lookup-based macros are automatically populated into the macro list when a lookup is selected in the Add Lookups to Supported Macros pulldown menu.
Path to Data
If only a subset of the data that will be returned by the API endpoint is needed, you can designate the part(s) of the response that should be included in the Nexset(s) produced from this source by specifying the path to the relevant data within the response. This is particularly useful when Insightful API responses contain metadata, pagination information, or wrapper objects alongside the actual data records.
For example, when querying an Insightful endpoint that returns a list of employee activity records, the API response typically wraps the records in a top-level object along with pagination metadata. By entering the path to the records array, you can configure Nexla to treat each element of that array as an individual record.
Path to Data is essential for Insightful API responses that have nested structures. Without specifying the correct path, Nexla might not be able to properly parse and organize your workforce analytics data into usable records.
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To specify which data should be treated as relevant in responses from this source, enter the path to the relevant data in the Set Path to Data in Response field.
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For responses in JSON format, enter the JSON path that points to the object or array that should be treated as relevant data. JSON paths use dot notation (e.g.,
$.data.items[*]to access an array of items within a data object). -
For responses in XML format, enter the XPath that points to the object/array containing relevant data. XPath uses slash notation (e.g.,
/response/data/itemto access item elements within a data element).
Path to Data Example:If the Insightful API response is in JSON format and includes a top-level array named
datathat contains the relevant records, the path to the response would be entered as$.data[*]. -
Autogenerate Path Suggestions
Nexla can also autogenerate data path suggestions based on the response from the API endpoint. These suggested paths can be used as-is or modified to exactly suit your needs.
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To use this feature, click the Test button next to the Set API URL field to fetch a sample response from the API endpoint. Suggested data paths generated based on the content & format of the response will be displayed in the Suggestions box below the Set Path to Data in Response field.
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Click on a suggestion to automatically populate the Set Path to Data in Response field with the corresponding path. The populated path can be modified directly within the field if further customization is needed.

Metadata
If metadata is included in the response but is located outside of the defined path to relevant data, you can configure Nexla to include this data as common metadata in each record. This is useful when you want to preserve important contextual information that applies to all records but isn't part of the main data array.
For example, when querying an Insightful endpoint that returns a list of time tracking sessions, the API response may include pagination metadata (such as total record count or page number) alongside the sessions array. If you have specified the path to the sessions array, you can specify a separate path to the pagination metadata to include it with each record in the generated Nexset(s).
Metadata paths are particularly useful for preserving Insightful API response context like request timestamps, total record counts, or pagination identifiers that apply to all records in the response.
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To specify the location of metadata that should be included with each record, enter the path to the relevant metadata in the Path to Metadata in Response field.
- For responses in JSON format, enter the JSON path to the object or array that contains the metadata, and for responses in XML format, enter the XPath.
Request Headers
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If Nexla should include any additional request headers in API calls to this source, enter the headers & corresponding values as comma-separated pairs in the Request Headers field (e.g.,
header1:value1,header2:value2). Additional headers may be required for API versioning or custom content type specifications.You do not need to include the
Authorizationheader here — it is automatically applied by Nexla using your Insightful credential. Common headers like Authorization and Content-Type are handled automatically based on your credential configuration.
Endpoint Testing
After configuring all settings for the selected endpoint, Nexla can retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched according to the current configuration. This allows users to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.
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To test the current endpoint configuration, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu. Sample data will be fetched & displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right.
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If the sample data is not as expected, review the selected endpoint and associated settings, and make any necessary adjustments. Then, click the Test button again, and check the sample data to ensure that the correct information is displayed.
Save & Activate the Source
- Once all of the relevant steps in the above sections have been completed, click the Create button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the new Insightful data source. Nexla will now begin ingesting data from the configured endpoint and will organize any data that it finds into one or more Nexsets.