Concept: Custom Objects in Solutions and Integrations

You can migrate and share custom object definitions using Solutions. Custom object definitions in Solutions include the object attributes, plus the associated:

Active, draft, and inactive custom fields.
Custom field types (both Workday-delivered and external).
Custom validation rules.

To prevent duplicate custom object definitions, don't use Solutions if you have manually created custom object definitions in your target tenant.

When a custom validation rule for a custom object references a custom field in another custom object, Workday adds the custom object definition to the Solution.

When you migrate or import a Solution containing a custom object definition into your tenant, the custom object definition is initially inactive. When you activate the custom object and migrate or import the custom object definition again, it remains active. You can't migrate a custom object that has data in the target tenant.

The Workday REST API supports single- and multi-instance custom objects. The custom object and its attributes pass through when you add or update single- or multi-instance custom object data using these APIs.

Workday REST API doesn't support effective-dated custom objects. To update an effective-dated custom object, use SOAP APIs.

Workday Web Services don't support custom validations. Workday doesn't enforce custom validations when you add or update custom object data using these APIs:

Workday Studio.
Workday-delivered integrations.

The EIB integration tool enables you to load and update custom object and field data (but not definitions) using inbound custom object EIB spreadsheets.

You can't load custom object data using a web service EIB spreadsheet.

You can't use an inbound custom object EIB spreadsheet to:

Load data into noneffective-dated custom objects that contain custom instance reference fields.
Load custom object data if the custom object definition extends effective-dated business objects.
Add new custom object definitions.
Update existing custom object definitions.
Delete custom object definitions.
Add
{empty}
to a custom field cell to delete the cell contents.
Load standard Workday data.

When you upload a custom object EIB spreadsheet, you can't use the

Load Error Limit

,

Add Only

, and

Validate Only

options.

Workday creates an event lite in the transaction log when you use EIB to load data for a custom object that isn't effective dated on the Worker business object.

When you load multi-instance custom objects, ensure values in the custom field used as the Reference ID are unique. Subsequent rows in the EIB with duplicate Reference ID values overwrite previous rows.

When a multi-instance custom object doesn’t display in the EIB prompt, access the

Edit Custom Object

task and check if there's a specified Reference ID. When there's no specified Reference ID, you can't create a custom object spreadsheet template to load data for the multi-instance custom object. You can't add or update the Reference ID if the custom object has data.

In the Format row of an EIB spreadsheet, Workday displays these restrictions for the custom field data. Ensure that the data you enter in the cells conforms to the format.

Custom Field Type	Format
Currencies	total_digits . fraction_digit total_digits is the maximum number of digits before the decimal. fraction_digit is the maximum number of digits after the decimal.
Decimals	total_digits . fraction_digit
Integers	Integer (N, nn) N is the minimum value. nn is the maximum value.
Paragraph Text	Text (nn) nn is the maximum number of characters.
Text	Text (nn)

You can use custom fields with outbound Connectors for which you enable Document Field Overrides. You can export the current value of a custom object, not the preceding value.

When you configure custom reports with custom objects and fields, you can use Reports as a Service (RaaS) to retrieve data using a REST web service.