Workday enables you to expose advanced custom reports as web services. Web services allow inter-operable, machine-to-machine interaction over the Internet. In Workday, web services present report results as URLs, enabling integration between Workday and external business services, such as payroll or benefits providers.
WORKDAY XML
The Workday XML option outputs the literal, and somewhat advanced, XML code used internally within Workday. This option might be useful in cases where REST (representational state transfer) or SOAP (simple object access protocol) is used to leverage Workday's sophisticated use of the XML language.
Review the following the example of a report in Workday XML. Notice that the related business objects have more data than simple types. The Workday ID (WID) is also included for each of the business objects.
Workday XML may be too complex for many integration needs, such as quickly creating a refreshable report with Microsoft Excel. In such cases, the Simple XML option may be more appropriate.