Start with a context-free task

Every task-based way into an Extend app from Workday's own navigation starts from a context-free model task: a .task component with a routePath and securityDomains but no businessObject. Once that task is deployed, an administrator can put it on the Global Navigation Menu, on a dashboard or hub, in Shortcuts, in an announcement or alert, or in a To Do. What you cannot do is add a model task as a worklet; landing pages need a custom dashboard in between (Concept: Use Model Tasks to Access Extend Apps in Workday).

The task, from Add Context-Free Tasks:

{
  "id": 1,
  "name": "EquipmentRequestHome",
  "label": "Equipment Requests",
  "routePath": "/",
  "securityDomains": ["SelfServiceEquipmentRequests", "ManageEquipmentRequests"]
}

routePath must match a routingPattern in the tasks array of the app's AMD, and that entry names the page to open:

{ "id": "root", "routingPattern": "/", "page": { "id": "home" } }

Leaving out businessObject is what makes it context-free. A task with a business object is reached as a related action from that object instead, which suits "do something to this record" and not opening the app. Users can also find a context-free task in global search. An app can have 20 tasks (Reference: Limits on Extend App Components), so a separate context-free task per entry page (home, a manager view, an admin view) is affordable. The securityDomains array must include one or more domains defined in your app.

Placing a task somewhere does not bypass its security. Workday states the rule for two entry points: to add a task to Shortcuts you must belong to a security group on the task's domain, and recipients of a Journey must be on the task's domain security policy to run it. Treat a domain mismatch as the first suspect when a task is on a dashboard but a user cannot open it; see why a user can't see a task.

Context-free model tasks can be added to the Apps menu on the Global Navigation Menu. If your tenant uses menu categories, an administrator first opts in: Maintain Feature Opt-Ins, enable Global Navigation Menu Categories, Opt In to Feature, then sign out and back in. After that, Configure Global Navigation Menu places the task in a specific category.

A menu item on a dashboard

  1. Run Maintain Dashboards and edit the dashboard.
  2. On the Content tab, add a Menu section and give it a Section Label.
  3. Add an item. In the Task prompt, choose Create Custom Allowed Worklet Task, then select your task. You can give it a custom display name here.

The "Create Custom Allowed Worklet Task" step comes up in several of these procedures. Workday's announcement procedure states the rule behind it: the model task must first be configured as an allowed worklet task before these prompts accept it.

On a landing page such as Home

Workday does not support model tasks as worklets, so you cannot put the task on Home directly. The documented route has a custom dashboard in the middle:

  1. Create Custom Dashboard, name it, adjust its settings.
  2. From its related actions, Dashboard > Edit. On Content, enter a Tab Name, add a Menu section with a label, and add your task through Create Custom Allowed Worklet Task.
  3. Maintain Dashboards, select the landing page (for example Home) and Edit. On Content, add a Worklet and choose the custom dashboard.
  4. On the landing page itself, open the Configure Applications (gear) icon and add the custom dashboard to the Optional Worklets grid.

A tenanted custom task, by contrast, can go onto a custom dashboard as a worklet directly. If that difference matters to your design, the trade-offs are in model tasks versus custom tasks.

Hubs, Shortcuts, announcements, alerts and To Dos

  • Hubs. Maintain Hubs, then Action > Customize Hub Navigation, Edit, choose Configurable, and add the task as a hub navigation item.
  • Shortcuts. Users add it themselves from the Shortcuts tab of the Global Navigation menu, up to 10 shortcuts. They need access to the task's domain, and the Shortcuts tab requires the Self Service: Quick Access Shortcuts domain in the System functional area.
  • Announcements. Configure Announcements, choose a landing page, add a row and pick the task, again through Create Custom Allowed Worklet Task the first time. Create Bulletin Worklet adds the task as an action instead, and Maintain Dashboards then places that worklet.
  • Configurable alerts. On Configure Alert, add the task as the Included Task, the thing the recipient should do in response.
  • To Dos. Add the task on Maintain To Dos; it can then be used in a To Do step of any Workday business process.
  • Journeys. With Journeys enabled, a task can be a step in a journey, found under Tasks by Functional Area using the functional area on your app's domain group (Concept: People Experience and Extend).
  • Quicklinks. Maintain Quicklinks can link to the app's URL from App Manager. The URL is tenant-specific, so update it after migrating the Quicklink.

Workday does not currently support tasks on Profile Groups.

When you want data on the page, not a link: Extend Cards

A menu item opens the app. To show the app's data where people already are, build an Extend Card (a Card component plus Card Tenant Settings) and add it in the tenant: in the Work Tools section of the Home Cards Workspace, in a hub through Maintain Hubs, as a custom search topic in Maintain Search Topics, or as a Journeys step (Configure Extend Cards in the Tenant).

The limits are tight and enforced during configuration (Card Best Practices and Considerations):

  • 3 Card components and 3 Card Tenant Settings per app, and 2 non-deferred inbound endpoints per card.
  • 4 Extend Cards on the Home page across the whole tenant, whatever the security group, and 4 per hub.
  • On Home, each card endpoint has 5 seconds and the card 15 seconds to load. A card that times out simply doesn't display.

Measure the card's endpoint response time before choosing Home as its location. A report worklet is the other way to put Extend data on a dashboard; see reporting on Extend business objects.

Prove each entry point as a real user

Configuring the entry as an administrator proves little, because an administrator's own access can hide a missing domain. For each place you added the task:

  1. Sign in as a user in one of the task's domains and confirm the entry appears and opens the right page.
  2. Sign in as a user outside the domains and confirm they cannot run it.
  3. For a landing-page worklet, confirm the custom dashboard is available under Optional Worklets for a test user, and that the menu item inside it opens the app.

kiweely can make this check in the tenant: it opens the dashboard, hub or menu as a chosen test user in the browser and reports what that person actually sees.

Sources checked