How to Fetch Employee Leave Data from Lucca HR API

Introduction

This article is part of a broader series that explores HR APIs in detail. In this piece, the focus is on a specific and commonly used use case: retrieving employee leave data using the Lucca HR API.

If you’re building HR analytics, payroll workflows, or internal dashboards, access to accurate leave data is critical. Lucca’s API exposes this data through clearly defined resources, but understanding how these fit together is key to implementing it correctly.

Pre-requisites

Before getting started, make sure you have the following in place:

• Valid access credentials for the Lucca HR API
• Basic understanding of REST APIs and JSON responses
• A Python environment with the requests library installed

API Endpoints

• Get leave data for one employee
  /api/leaves?ownerId={employeeId}
• Get leave data for all employees
  /api/leaves

Step-by-Step Process

1. Set up your environment

import requests

2. Define the base URL and request headers

base_url = "https://api.lucca.fr/api/leaves"

headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

3. Get leave data for a single employee

def get_employee_leave(employee_id):
    url = f"{base_url}?ownerId={employee_id}"
    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
    
    if response.status_code == 200:
        return response.json()
    else:
        return {"error": "Failed to retrieve data"}

4. Get leave data for all employees

def get_all_employees_leave():
    response = requests.get(base_url, headers=headers)
    
    if response.status_code == 200:
        return response.json()
    else:
        return {"error": "Failed to retrieve data"}

Common Pitfalls

When working with the Lucca HR leave endpoints, these issues tend to surface most often:

1. Ignoring API rate limits, which can result in throttled or blocked requests
2. Not checking HTTP status codes before processing responses
3. Using expired or incorrectly scoped access tokens
4. Assuming a fixed response structure without validating the JSON payload
5. Mixing up LeaveRequests, LeavePeriods, and Leaves, leading to incorrect aggregation
6. Overlooking time zone handling when interpreting leave dates
7. Not accounting for pagination, which can cause partial data retrieval

Addressing these early will prevent data inconsistencies downstream.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is a LeaveRequest?
   A LeaveRequest is the initial request submitted by an employee for time off.
2. What does a LeavePeriod represent?
   A LeavePeriod is a continuous span of absence associated with a LeaveRequest.
3. What is a Leave in Lucca’s data model?
   A Leave represents a half-day unit that makes up a LeavePeriod.
4. Can leave data be filtered by date?
   Yes, date-based filtering can be applied using supported query parameters.
5. How should API errors be handled?
   Always check the HTTP status code and handle non-200 responses explicitly.
6. Is leave data returned in real time?
   The data reflects the system’s current state based on Lucca’s synchronization behavior.
7. How is authentication handled for this endpoint?
   Authentication is done using a Bearer token passed in the Authorization header.

Knit for Lucca HR API Integration

If you want to avoid managing authentication, token refresh, and long-term maintenance yourself, Knit provides a simplified way to work with the Lucca HR API.

By integrating with Knit once, you get unified access to Lucca HR without worrying about credential handling or API changes. Knit manages authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration upkeep, allowing you to focus on consuming clean leave data rather than maintaining the integration.

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