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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2023-06-23
Concept: Extended Indexed Data Sources

Concept: Extended Indexed Data Sources

Workday enables you to extend some Workday-delivered indexed data sources by adding a limited number of these field types:
  • Calculated fields from your tenant.
  • Custom fields from your tenant.
  • Nonindexed delivered fields from the primary business object.
Workday indexes the fields you add, enabling you to create high-performing reports for executive dashboards and scorecards.
An extended indexed data source provides functionality similar to a Workday-delivered data source, including:
  • Drilling on summary data in reports based on the indexed data source.
  • Support for all report types. Advanced and matrix reports with multiple filters yield the greatest performance benefit from indexed data sources.
  • Support for scorecards, worklets, and worksheets.
When you create a custom report based on an extended indexed data source and you include facets, you can search on these field types in report results:
  • Indexed delivered fields.
  • Text fields that you add to the data source.

Field Suitability for Indexing

Security is one reason some fields aren't suitable for indexing. Example: A multi-instance field contains 3 values. If some users should only have access to 1 or 2 of the values, Workday doesn't index the multi-instance field.
You can add a maximum of 20 additional fields to an Extended Indexed data source. Workday displays an error message when you try to add a field to your data source that isn't suitable for indexing. Workday also displays an alternate field, if one is available. You can also:
  • Access the
    Field Suitability for Business Objects
     report, which enables you to display indexing suitability for fields on a business object.
  • Select the related actions menu for any field to check if the field is
    Suitable for Indexing
    .

Data Source Security

Workday recommends that you set up a user-based security group for the data administrator and assign the group to the
Manage: Custom Data Sources
 security domain.

Data Source Approval and Publishing Process

When the data administrator submits a draft version of an extended indexed data source for approval, Workday sends a pending review action to the security administrator's or approver's
My Tasks
. The security administrator or approver reviews the security domains for the calculated fields in the extended indexed data source. After approval, the data administrator can publish the data source.
Workday schedules an hourly background publishing process job that indexes the fields that you add to the data source. For any calculated fields that you add, Workday creates a duplicate field with the same name. You can use the duplicate calculated field in custom reports to ensure that your report still runs in
Optimized for Performance
 mode.
After indexing completes for all fields, Workday marks the data source as
Published
. You can click
View
 for a data source on the
Maintain Custom Data Source
 to view the
Status
 tab, which displays the details on the background indexing job.
You can create a
Custom Data Source Extension Approval Event
 business process for data source approval and publishing steps.

Versioning Process

Workday supports versioning for an extended indexed data source. Only 1 version of an extended indexed data source can be in
Published
 status; Workday marks other versions as
Historical
.
The data administrator can edit the extended indexed data source to add new fields. Every new draft version requires security review and approval.