Reference: WQL and RaaS Comparisons
Use the tables to compare how Workday Query Language (WQL) and Reports as a Service (RaaS)
support the various ways you can extract data from Workday.
Feature Support Summary
Feature | Supported by WQL | Supported by RaaS |
|---|---|---|
Access fields from a Global business object. | No | Yes |
Use the percentile function as an aggregation operator in SELECT
clauses. | No | Yes |
Use the GROUP BY clause to aggregate results. | Yes | No |
Paginate results. | Yes | No |
Use Cases
Use Case | WQL Support | RaaS Support |
|---|---|---|
Group your extract by 1 or more dimensions. | Supported. You can use the GROUP BY clause to aggregate results
by various dimensions. | Not Supported. |
Download the results in partitions instead of 1 large response. | Supported. You can paginate results 10,000 rows at a time using
the LIMIT and OFFSET parameters. | Not Supported. |
Extract data using web services. | Supported with RESTful web services. | Supported with RESTful and SOAP web services. |
Dynamically change the query extract without signing in to
Workday. | Supported. Because WQL requests are string values, you can
change the request outside of Workday. | Supported. You can dynamically update parameters in the URL. |
Persist the definition of an extract to enable
collaboration. | You can save a WQL query outside of Workday. | Supported. RaaS is a Report as a Service and, as such, can
persist report definitions in Workday. |
Audit the extraction to identify changes and revert them as
necessary. | Not Supported. | Supported. Because RaaS persists report definitions, you can
track changes through the Workday audit framework. |
Extract data from multiple environments without having to create or
migrate reports across tenants. | Supported. You can change the request URL for WQL as needed to
point to any customer tenant. | Not Supported. To extract report from another tenant, you must
migrate the report to that tenant. |
Extract small to moderately sized result sets. | Supported. Up to 1 million rows. | Supported. Up to 1 million rows. |
Extract data within time limits. | WQL queries time out at 30 seconds. | RaaS processing times out at 6 hours. |
Extract results in multiple formats. | You can extract results in JSON. | Supported. You can extract results in these formats:
|
Extract only the appropriate data for the issuing user. | Supported. WQL honors object and data-level security based on the
issuing user. | Supported. RaaS honors object and data-level security based on
the issuing user. |
Create outbound integrations with only limited knowledge of Workday
custom reports. | Supported. You don't have to understand the Workday Report Writer to use WQL. WQL
is similar to standard database languages. | You must have some knowledge of Workday reporting. |
Start an integration from a Workday standard report. | Supported. You can use the Convert Report to WQL
report to convert Workday advanced and matrix reports
to WQL. | Supported. You can copy and customize standard and advanced
reports for outbound integrations. |
Programmatically explore any of these items:
| Supported. WQL provides APIs for data sources, data source filters, and
fields. To query any data sources, filters, and fields in WQL,
you must have access to them in Workday. | Not Supported. You must create a report definition in Workday and
complete the prompts for data sources, filters, and
fields. |