Exporting and Importing Report Data
You can export the data for a report to an XML file for review, testing, and debugging purposes. You can then import an XML file containing report data and run it. The exporting and importing actions will not take place until a preview of the report is run from the Report Designer.
Importing report data from an XML file is a useful tool for scenarios such as:
• Repeated testing of a report whose data source takes a long time to run.
• Manually changing data values for the purpose of quickly testing report design logic, without having to change them in the live production database.
To export report data
1 On the toolbar, choose Actions and click Enable Data Export.
2 In the Save As dialog box, specify the name of the XML file and where you want to save the file. By default, the file is named after the current report with _data.xml appended.
When you preview a report, the report data will be exported to the XML file you specified.
Note: You cannot enable both exporting and importing for the same XML file at the same time.
3 Click Preview.
4 In the report viewer, click Run.
The report is displayed on the screen and the report data is exported to the XML file you specified.
To import and run report data
1 On the toolbar, choose Actions and click Enable Data Import.
2 In the Save As dialog box, choose the XML file containing report data that you want to import.
Note: You cannot enable both exporting and importing for the same XML file at the same time.
3 Click Preview.
4 In the report viewer, click Run.