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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2023-06-23
Concept: Reports as a Service (RaaS)

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.
To successfully execute GET RaaS requests for custom reports that are enabled as web services, ensure that the report owner’s username doesn't contain 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:
  • Single instance fields to simple string-type elements.
  • Multi-instance fields to simple string-type elements.
  • Multi-instance fields within the primary business object to simple string-type elements, with a semicolon separating each value.
  • Date fields that don’t contain times to dates only, with no times or offset from GMT.
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:
  • Simple XML
    : The simplified XML output from a report.
  • XSD
    : The schema definition associated with the simplified XML.
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:
  • Workday XML
    : The pure XML output from a report that might be useful for REST-based integrations.
  • XSD
    : The schema definition associated with the Workday XML.
  • WSDL
    : Web Services Definition Language, often used with SOAP.