How to Save and Load Report Settings
If you have multiple system administrators working with Active Directory Reports, there may be instances where you need to use the same report settings across different computers. AD Reports offers a feature that allows you to save report definitions to a binary file, which can then be loaded onto another computer to update the report definitions. Import Reports and Export Custom Reports move many custom reports at once.
Save Report Settings
To save the settings of a report, simply right-click on the report and choose "Save Report Settings".
Enter the desired file name for the report definitions file (by default, the file name is the same as the report name).
Click Save.
Load Report Settings
To update a report with saved settings, right-click on the report you wish to modify and select "Load Report Settings".
In the "Load Report Settings" dialog window, choose the report whose settings you want to apply to the currently selected report.
Click Open.
In the confirmation dialog window, click "Yes" to proceed.
The new settings will be applied, and the report will be reloaded with the updated configuration.
Files From AD Reports 6, and Files From Another Report New in 7.6.1
- A report-settings file saved by AD Reports 6 loads too: it is read for this version, its filter is rebuilt, and the file itself is not changed. The confirmation says so.
- Part of a report's query comes from the report itself, so a file made from Locked and loaded into All Users lists every user. When a file was made from a different report, the confirmation names that report — load it into the same report, or a custom copy of it, for the same results. You can still go ahead.
- A file AD Reports cannot read is refused with a sentence saying why.
Reports Limited to a List New in 7.6.3
A report-settings file carries a custom report's list of names. Load Report Settings gives the list to a custom report and leaves it out of a predefined one, saying which. Import Reports, Export Custom Reports, Duplicate and a reset in the Report Wizard keep it; Apply to Other Reports never copies it.
Import Many Reports at Once New in 7.6.1
Import Reports creates custom reports from report-settings files — any number at once, saved by AD Reports 7 or AD Reports 6. Each file becomes a custom copy of the report it was made from, under the name inside the file.
- On the AD Reports page, click Import Reports in the Report Settings group of the Report Menu ribbon.
- Select the
.arsfiles to import. - The Import Reports window shows what each file will do before anything is saved: the File, which version Saved By it, the custom-reports folder it Goes In, the report it was Made From, its Report Name and the Result.
- Check Save the imported reports for all domains if you like; unchecked, they are saved for the current domain only.
- Click Import. The new reports appear on the Custom Reports tab; none of them is run.
- A name already used in the same custom-reports folder is skipped rather than duplicated, so importing the same files twice creates nothing twice.
- A file whose OU is in another domain searches the whole of this domain instead, and the Result column says so.
- A File System report is not imported here — load it on the File System page. Any other file that cannot be imported says why.
Export Every Custom Report New in 7.6.1
Export Custom Reports, beside Import Reports, saves every custom report of the current domain to a folder you choose — one file each, written as Save Report Settings writes one — so Import Reports can create them again on another computer.
- A file already in the folder is never replaced; the new one gets a number, such as
(2). - File System reports are left out.