Choose by what starts the work

Pick the Workday Integration System template when an integration system in the tenant should launch the orchestration: on a schedule, on demand, chained after another integration, or with files to pick up or hand over. Pick the Workday Business Process template when a step in a business process should launch it for one event, such as one hire or one request, with data taken from that event.

Both templates are offered when you add an orchestration to an integration app. Extend apps also list Synchronous, Asynchronous, Workday Home Card and Custom Agent Action templates; this guide covers only the two that connect to tenant processes. The choice is made when you add the orchestration, and it decides the starting step, the components you can use, how the tenant launches the run and where the result is recorded.

What each template puts on the canvas

Orchestration Builder starts an Integration System orchestration with an Integration Framework Trigger step and an Orchestration End step. A Business Process orchestration starts with a Business Process Trigger step and an Orchestration End step.

Everything after that depends on what the trigger gives you. An Integration System orchestration reads its inputs from the integration system: launch parameters through the lp global functions (for example lp.dateParam("Effective Date")), integration attributes and integration maps through the intsys functions, and files on the event through the documents functions. A Business Process orchestration reads the parameters you define on the Business Process Trigger step through Configure Request, plus the event itself through the bp functions: bp.eventTarget(), bp.initiatingPerson(), bp.aboutPerson(), bp.actionEvent() and bp.eventInitiationDateTime().

How each one is wired in the tenant

Integration System. After the app is deployed, run Create Integration System and choose the Orchestrate Integration Template. On the new system, use Integration System > Configure Integration Attributes to set Orchestration Name and Application Reference ID (copied from the App Overview page). Add launch parameters with Maintain Launch Parameters, and run it with Integration > Launch / Schedule. The full first build is in getting started with Orchestrate for Integrations.

Business Process. The Business Process Trigger needs a credential of either the integration system user (ISU) type or the initiating user type. Deploy the app, then edit the business process definition: add a step of type Service, specify Orchestration Service, click Configure Orchestration Service and select the orchestration. Choose who runs it (by default the user who completed the previous step, or a named user, or a user taken from a field), and pass data with the Key and Text Value / Value from Field rows. Those keys must match the parameters on the Business Process Trigger step. Tick Advance business process step when orchestration completes if the process must wait for the orchestration. The step-by-step setup is in adding an orchestration service step to a business process.

The Business Process template is also the only one that can react to an event being cancelled, rescinded, corrected or denied. That route uses Business Process > Configure Orchestrations on the process, an orchestration launch configuration you create yourself (Workday does not create one on deploy), and the User to Perform Orchestration Launches field on Edit Tenant Setup - Business Processes. Workday notes that these launches usually start through the scheduler within 15 minutes, and that the orchestration must use ISU authentication if it calls APIs.

Components only the Integration System template has

Most building blocks exist in both: Send HTTP Request, Send Workday API Request, Send Workday RaaS Request, Trigger Business Process, Loop, Join Loop, Batch Loop, Branch on Conditions, Create Values, Create Text Template, Create JSON, Validate, Log and Call Suborchestration. HTTP polling is available to Asynchronous, business-process-triggered and Integration System orchestrations.

These are listed by Workday for the Integration System template only:

  • Trigger Integration, which launches a Studio, packaged or other Orchestrate integration as a child and waits for it.
  • Trigger PDF Generation, which renders a BIRT layout to PDF.
  • Add Integration Message, which writes a message to the integration event.
  • Log to File, which stores a CSV log that can be attached to the integration event.
  • Find Documents, which fetches stored documents by a shared reference ID.

Store Document is available in both templates, but it behaves differently. In an Integration System orchestration its Integration Event Source defaults to Use Launch Event, so the file can be attached to the event that launched the run and sent on by the integration system's delivery services. In other templates the default is None, and you must supply a custom integration event expression to associate the document with one.

Where each run is recorded

An Integration System run lives on an integration event. Workday describes it as the container for one integration run: its status, messages, attached documents (the Output Files), launch parameters and start and end times. That is where an administrator looks, and where Add Integration Message output appears on the View Background Process page.

A Business Process run belongs to the business process event that launched it. For launches on cancel, rescind, correct or deny, Workday documents the Find Events task's Orchestrations tab as the place to see the status, with a Relaunch option once it has moved from Queued for Launch to In Progress. For both templates, the app's Orchestration Activity dashboard on the Workday Developer Site shows the run, its processes and their timings.

Runtime limits that apply

Workday's runtime limits page gives an Integration System orchestration 48 hours in total. It does not list a separate total for Business Process orchestrations. Every orchestration runs as one or more processes, and each process may run for 60 minutes in an app promoted to production or 45 minutes otherwise; RaaS requests, PDF generation, Trigger Business Process, Trigger Integration and polled HTTP requests start a new process and reset that clock. A per-event orchestration that loops over thousands of records is a sign the work belongs in a scheduled Integration System run instead.

When a business process needs the integration system anyway

You can have both. A business process that supports the Integration step type can launch an integration system as a sub-process, and an Orchestrate integration system is one. Use that route when the work is triggered per event but needs what only an integration event offers: output files, a document retrieval or delivery step, child integrations, or messages an administrator reads in the tenant. Workday's own example is an E-Verify integration that runs after the Complete Form I-9 business process.

Changing your mind later

Workday's documentation describes choosing a template when the orchestration is created; it does not describe converting one orchestration to the other template. Plan for a new orchestration with the other template. Keep the business logic in suborchestrations from the start, because Call Suborchestration is available in both templates, so only the trigger-specific steps at the top need rebuilding. Orchestration Builder supports cut, copy and paste of selected steps, which helps with the rest; the template-only components listed above have no counterpart to paste into a Business Process orchestration.

Prove the choice works end to end

For an Integration System orchestration, launch it from Integration > Launch / Schedule, then check the View Background Process page: the Messages tab should show the messages your orchestration added, and Output Files should hold anything it stored against the launch event. If nothing arrives, confirm the app is installed on that tenant with the App Manager task and that the Orchestration Name and Application Reference ID attributes are exact.

For a Business Process orchestration, run one real event through the process in a non-production tenant. Confirm the orchestration ran in Orchestration Activity, then read back the record it was meant to change. With Advance business process step when orchestration completes ticked, also check that the event moved past the Orchestration Service step; when it does not, triggering an orchestration from a delivered business process covers the usual causes.

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