Advanced Reporting Option to Import and Export

Products

• Clarity PPM On Premise

Issue/Introduction

Advanced Reporting Import and Export Options

The import and export options enable tenant administrators to move resources such as ad hoc views, ad hoc reports, custom domains, etc. from one server to another.  These options can be very helpful when moving advanced reporting custom content between environments such as development, test, and production.

 This functionality in the UI is available only to CA PPM users with ‘Advanced Reporting – Administer’ access right and it does not require access to the system where the server is installed.

The output of the export option is a set of folders and files that include resources in the repository, such as reports, and their associated files also called dependencies. The result of the export is a single zip file (compressed archive).

Important Note:  The content of the zip file is not intended for external access. The zip file contains files in several private formats. The XML syntax available in files is not publicly available and the data files are not meant to be accessed.  

Consider the dependencies 

Ad hoc reports, ad hoc views and reports developed in Jaspersoft Studio very often have dependencies on resources such as data sources, domains, input controls, queries, language bundles, etc. When you export a report, for example, the export includes all its dependencies even if they are stored in folders that were not selected during the export.

When importing a file that contains such dependencies, the same folder structure is re-created in the target environment. The dependencies carried over can override existing resources in the target environment.

Resolution

To export individual resources or an entire folder of the repository:

1. Log in as CA PPM user with ‘Advanced Reporting – Administer’ access right to the source environment.
    
2. Navigate to Advanced Reporting.
    
3. Select View > Repository.
   You can also export resources such as reports, Ad Hoc views, from the Library page. Use <CTRL> key to select more than one resource.
    
4. Select one or more resources in the main panel (using <CTRL> key), or when viewing the repository, select an entire folder in the left-panel.
    
5. Right-click the selected folder or resources and select Export from the context menu.
   The Export Resources dialog appears:
   
   

   

   You can change the default name of the zip file. This dialog allows only the zip archive format.

6. The export provides the following options:

   • Include report jobs – When checked, the export includes scheduled report jobs with any reports in your repository selection.

   • Include repository permissions – When checked, the export includes any explicit permissions on all items in your repository selection. Clear this check box if you want the exported items to inherit the permissions of the target repository.

7. Click Export. 
   The server generates the zip file and your browser prompts you to save the file. Depending on the size of your repository and the options you have selected, it may take several minutes to generate the file.

Important Note:  Resources are exported along with their dependencies, even if the dependencies are not included in your selection. The export may be very large and take a long time to generate and then download. During this time, the export operation may affect server performance. For this reason we do not recommend to export large amount of data.

Importing into a different organization

Advanced Reporting administrators can use the Manage Organizations page to import advanced reporting custom content into an organization. If the source organization has a different ID than the target organization, the import merges the content of the export into the selected organization. The administrator user is prompted with the following message:

“The file being imported contains a top level organization name that does not match the currently selected organization”
Import file:  <source organization ID>
Selected organizations:  <target organization ID>

Content will be merged into <target organization ID>”

Click Continue Import to start the import. When merging organizations with the update option, the contents of the import override the target organization for any resource with the same name and location.

To import a previously exported file:

1. Log in as CA PPM user with ‘Advanced Reporting – Administer’ access right to the target environment.
2. Navigate to Advanced Reporting.
3. Select Manage > Organizations to display the organization.
4. In the left panel, right-click the organization you want to import into and select Import from the context menu.
   The Import dialog appears:
   
   

   

5. Click Browse to choose the zip file to import.
   The dialog allows only the zip archive format. You can import only files created by the export.
6. The import provides the following options: 
   
                   • Update - When checked, the Update option imports only resources that are new to the current organization (different URI).
                   • Skip user updates - this option allows you to keep the current definition of any users that also exist in the imported organization, in case the exported zip file includes users.
                   • Include themes - When checked, the Include themes option imports any themes that exist in the imported organization.
    
7. Click Import.
   The server uploads the zip file and imports its contents into the organization. If there are any broken dependencies in the catalog, the server displays a message with three choices:
   
                   • Skip – Does not import the resource with the broken dependency, but continues to import other resources.
                   • Include – Attempts to import the resource with the broken dependency. The import succeeds if there is already a resource in the destination that satisfies the dependency. If the dependency is not satisfied in the destination, the                                              resource is skipped and the import continues.
                   • Cancel – Stops the import operation. 

Important Note:  The import may take a long time to upload and then process. During this time, the import operation may affect server performance. For this reason we do not recommend to import large amount of data.

Importing and exporting custom ad hoc and domain content

Usually organization IDs and database schema names in the source environment are different from the target environment. The information about the Organization ID and Database Schema names can be found by logging in to CA PPM and  navigating to Administration, General Settings, System Options, Advanced Reporting section.

When resources are imported into a server where the database schema names are different from the source server, resources will not work as expected right after importing them. This happens when domains are imported, or are included as part of the import as a dependency. Domains keep references to the database schema from the source environment and for this reason it is important to update the domain schema at the target server. We recommend you to update the target server domain schema to eliminate any schema mismatch.

To update the domain schema:

1. Log in as CA PPM user with ‘Advanced Reporting – Administer’ access right to the target environment.
2. Navigate to Advanced Reporting.
3. Select Manage > Update Domain Schema.
4. Select the Domain Name from the target environment that needs update.
5. Select the Domain Schema corresponding to the database accessed by the domain:
   
   · CA PPM Database Schema – for domains accessing the PPM transactional database.
   · Data Warehouse Database Schema – for domains accessing the Data Warehouse database (This option should be selected for all out-of-the-box domains included in the Advanced Reporting Content)
   
   

   

6. Click Update. 
   The Update button is available when the selections are made.