Update the Expiry date for an externally imported spreadsheet report data source - Support and Troubleshooting

Update the Expiry date for an externally imported spreadsheet report data source Issue  Description When an external data spreadsheet data source is directly imported to create a report in a ServiceNow instance an expiration data is also set at the time of the import. This Expire data can be set to anywhere from one week to one year. Thus, once the allotted time in the Expiration

Attempting to access the sys_report_import_table record directly will result in a read-only view of the record. However, if the data source is associated to at least one report it can be modified through the report. The following procedures show how this can be done.

Procedure Log into the instance with the same account for which the report associated to the imported report data was created.

Open the record for the report which is associated to the imported data record in edit mode.

Click the Data tab.

On the Data tab, click the Edit external import icon which is found to the right of the External import field.

This will open a dialog window showing data from the external data import record.

If the Expire field contains the timespan (from the current date at which you are performing these steps) for which you want to have this record available, click the Submit button and the Expiry date for this record will automatically be adjusted to expire after the time span selected (from the current date on which you Submit the record). If you want to change the expiry period to another time-span, select the appropriate timespan from the Expire pull-down and then click the Submit button.

Note that the actual spreadsheet file is not reloaded when clicking the Submit button thus if the file is no longer found in the same location as previously, has been renamed or otherwise cannot be accessed by ServiceNow, this will not matter as the system will simply use the data previously loaded corresponding to that spreadsheet. However, if the report is expected to show any changed information from the spreadsheet it will not unless the spreadsheet is reloaded (selecting the Change file button and browsing to the modified version of the file).

The dialog window should then display an affirmative message indicating the update has completed. Click the Done button to close the dialog window and return to the report record. The report record does not need to be saved as the expiration date is associated with the data source and not the report. However, it is usually recommended to Run the report to ensure the data and the report appears as expected.

After this update, the imported report data source will then have an expiry date that coincides with the time period selected in the Expire pulldown at the time the external data import record was last saved. Once that timespan has elapsed, the data source will be set as expired and the report will no longer function.

Additional Information This document is specific to simply updating the Expiry date for the data source. To reload a data source that has changed, or use a different data source for the report, please see the following KB arcticle which describes that process:

KB0722452 - Update data used in an imported report data source