Concept: Reports as a Service (RaaS)
Introduction to RaaS
You can enable advanced and search reports as web services. Workday Web Services
enable access to report results through URLs, which you can use in:
- Custom Workday Extend applications.
- Integrations between Workday and external business services. Example: Payroll or benefits providers.
- External reporting tools to access Workday data. Example: Microsoft Excel.
Output options for web services include:
- CSV
- GData
- JSON
- RSS
- Simple XML
- Workday XML
Before enabling a standard report as a web service, consider copying the standard
report to a custom report. To avoid any disruption to your integration processes if
Workday updates a standard report, enable the custom report as a web service
instead.
GET RaaS requests fail if you enable a custom report as a web service and the
username of the report owner contains a backslash (\) character.
RaaS Namespaces
When you enable a custom report as a web service, Workday generates a unique RaaS
namespace for the report, using this format:
urn:com.workday.report/
Report_Name
To minimize disruptions to integrations that use the report output, the RaaS
namespace doesn’t change when the report name or report owner changes.
You can edit the namespace for a custom report. However, consider:
- Workday doesn’t verify that a RaaS namespace is unique.
- If an integration uses the report as a web service, you must update it with the new namespace.
Web Service Output Types
Output Type | Description |
|---|---|
CSV | You can use the CSV output option when you want to import data into a
spreadsheet as simply and quickly as possible. You don't need to know XML or
schemas. If you output data to a CSV file that uses UTF-8 encoding, append
this query parameter to your web service URL:
&bom=true This parameter ensures that other
applications, such as Microsoft Excel, can correctly interpret the encoding and
display the characters in the CSV file. For advanced reports that have
Group Column Headings , the CSV output doesn’t retain
the column groupings or column group headings.The columns in the CSV
output might not match the order of the columns in the report
definition. |
GData | You can use GData output for integrations with Google gadgets. |
JSON | You can use the JSON output option in system-to-system integrations that
require the JSON format. |
RSS | You can enable any advanced custom report as an RSS web service, which users
can subscribe to as an RSS feed. Users can monitor updates in a tenant through an
RSS feed without logging in to Workday. |
Simple XML | Simple XML simplifies Workday XML so that other desktop applications can
process it. Simple XML changes:
You can use simple XML for basic desktop integrations with other reporting
tools, such as Microsoft Excel or Crystal Reports. The Simple XML output
option provides these URLs:
|
Workday XML | The Workday XML option outputs the literal XML code from Workday. This
option might be useful in REST- or SOAP-based integrations. Workday XML might be
too complex for some integration needs. Example: Quickly creating a refreshable
report with Microsoft Excel. In these cases, Simple XML might be more
appropriate. The Workday XML output option provides 3 URLs:
|