BIRT report not refreshing with latest order data after cloud deployment

ERP Workday
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1

After our recent cloud deployment to R1 2023, BIRT reports in order management are showing stale data. The reports run successfully but display order information that’s 2-3 days old instead of current data.

I’ve verified that the underlying order data is correct in the system - I can see the latest orders when I query them directly. But when I run the BIRT report, it shows older data. The report cache settings look normal, and I’ve tried manually clearing the cache with no improvement. The calculated fields in the report might be using cached data sources, but I’m not sure how to force a refresh. Anyone experienced BIRT report data source refresh issues after cloud deployment?

system 2

Your issue involves three interconnected areas that all need to be addressed for BIRT reports to show current data after cloud deployment.

BIRT Report Cache Configuration:

The primary issue is likely a mismatch between BIRT’s internal caching and Workday’s report cache settings. Here’s how to fix it:

Step 1: Update BIRT Report Cache Settings In your BIRT report design (.rptdesign file):

  1. Open the report in BIRT Report Designer
  2. Go to Report Properties → Cache
  3. Set Cache Mode to “No Cache” or “Refresh on Run”
  4. For the Data Source, set Auto-Refresh to “True”
  5. Save and redeploy the report to Workday

This ensures BIRT doesn’t use its own cached data.

Step 2: Workday Report Definition Cache In Workday report configuration:

  1. Navigate to the report definition
  2. Find “Advanced” settings
  3. Locate “Cache Results” setting
  4. Change from “6 hours” to “Never” or “1 hour” maximum
  5. Enable “Refresh on Open” if available
  6. Save changes

After R1 2023 deployment, cache settings sometimes revert to defaults.

Data Source Refresh Issues:

The 2-3 day lag suggests your BIRT report is querying a replicated or synchronized data source rather than the live transactional database.

Identify Your Data Source Type: Check your BIRT data source configuration:

  1. Open the report in BIRT Designer
  2. Expand Data Sources in the Outline view
  3. Check the JDBC URL or connection string
  4. Look for keywords like “replica”, “reporting”, “analytics”, or “warehouse”

If you see any of these, your report is using a replicated database that syncs periodically (typically daily).

Switch to Live Data Source: To query real-time order data:

  1. Create a new Data Source in BIRT Designer
  2. Use the primary transactional database connection
  3. Connection string should point to the production OLTP database
  4. Update your datasets to use this new data source
  5. Test query performance (live queries are slower but show current data)

Important: Live queries against transactional databases can impact performance. If your report is complex or run frequently, consider:

  • Optimizing your SQL queries
  • Adding appropriate indexes
  • Limiting the date range queried
  • Running during off-peak hours

Calculated Fields Data Freshness:

Calculated fields can introduce additional caching layers that prevent data refresh.

Audit Your Calculated Fields: For each calculated field in your report:

  1. Identify if it references other reports (using GETREPORTDATA)
  2. Check if it uses lookup tables or reference data
  3. Determine if it performs cross-report calculations

Fix Calculated Field Caching:

Option 1: Replace Report References If calculated fields use GETREPORTDATA():

// Instead of:
GETREPORTDATA("Order_Summary_Report", "Total")

// Use direct query:
SELECT SUM(order_amount) FROM orders WHERE...

Option 2: Force Calculated Field Refresh Add a timestamp parameter to calculated fields:

  1. Create a hidden parameter “RefreshTime” with current timestamp
  2. Reference this parameter in calculated field logic
  3. This forces recalculation on each report run

Option 3: Simplify Calculated Logic Move complex calculations from BIRT to the SQL query:

  • Calculate totals, averages, and aggregations in SQL
  • Use SQL window functions instead of BIRT calculated columns
  • This ensures calculations use fresh data from the source

Cloud Deployment Specific Checks:

R1 2023 cloud deployments often change infrastructure settings:

  1. Connection Pooling: Verify BIRT connection pool isn’t reusing stale connections

    • Set connection pool max age to 5 minutes
    • Enable connection validation on checkout

  2. Report Engine Cache: Check if Workday enabled report engine caching

    • Contact Workday Support to verify tenant cache settings
    • Request cache disable for your order management reports

  3. Load Balancer Cache: Some cloud deployments add CDN/load balancer caching

    • Verify no HTTP cache headers are being added to report requests
    • Check if report URLs are being cached by intermediate proxies

Comprehensive Solution Steps:

  1. Immediate Fix:

    • Set all cache settings to “Never” or minimum duration
    • Verify data source points to live transactional database
    • Redeploy report to Workday

  2. Calculated Field Review:

    • Audit each calculated field
    • Replace report references with direct queries
    • Test each field individually

  3. Performance Optimization:

    • Add appropriate database indexes for report queries
    • Optimize SQL to reduce query time
    • Consider scheduled report runs instead of on-demand

  4. Monitoring:

    • Add timestamp field to report showing data as-of time
    • Compare with current system time to verify freshness
    • Set up alerts if data age exceeds threshold

Verification: After implementing these changes:

  1. Create a test order in order management
  2. Note the exact timestamp
  3. Run your BIRT report immediately
  4. Verify the new order appears in the results
  5. If there’s still a delay, the data source is definitely replicated

The most likely root cause is that your report is querying a replicated analytics database that syncs every 2-3 days, which is why you see that specific lag. Switching to the live transactional data source will resolve this, though you’ll need to optimize for performance.

This draft is based on general Workday knowledge. It has not been verified against your specific version and environment. Practitioners: verify the steps and share your experience below.

3

Check the data source connection in your BIRT report design. After cloud deployments, the connection parameters sometimes need to be updated. Open the report in BIRT Designer and verify the data source is pointing to the correct tenant URL.

4

This sounds like a report caching issue at the Workday level, not BIRT. Go to the report definition in Workday and check the cache settings. There’s a setting for ‘Data Refresh Frequency’ that might have been changed during the deployment. Set it to ‘Real-time’ or reduce the cache duration to force more frequent refreshes.

5

I checked the data source connection and it looks correct. The report definition cache settings are set to refresh every 6 hours, which should be sufficient. But even after waiting 12+ hours, the report still shows old data. Could this be related to how calculated fields are evaluated?

6

If your calculated fields reference other reports or data sources, they might be using their own cached results. Check if any of your calculated fields use the GETCELL or GETREPORTDATA functions - these can pull stale data from cached report results. You might need to update the calculated field definitions to bypass the cache or use direct data source queries instead.

pamela_wizard 7

Tested this on our Workday cloud tenant and setting Cache Mode to ‘No Cache’ in the .rptdesign file immediately resolved stale order data in BIRT reports.

8

After cloud deployments, Workday sometimes enables additional caching layers for performance optimization. Check with Workday Support to see if they enabled any new caching features during your R1 2023 deployment. There might be a tenant-level cache setting that’s affecting your reports specifically.

9

I’ve seen this before with BIRT reports that use datasets with pre-aggregated data. If your report queries a summary table or materialized view instead of the base order tables, that summary data might not be refreshing properly after the deployment. Check what tables your BIRT data source is actually querying.