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Tal CohenTal Cohen 

Field names in report when Using Metadata API

I Use the Metadata API to read, analyze, edit and create/update reports.

I noticed that the field names (when specifying columns, filters, and groupings) which are returned when reading are not always the same names, and seem to depend upon Report Type.

Suppose I create a simple report on accounts, and I only return two columns, Account owner and Account Name.
1. If I chose standard system-generated "Accounts" report types when creating this report, then upon reading it in the metadata API the column names are
ACCOUNT.NAME, USERS.NAME

2. If I chose custom report type which I created manually, then the column names are (These seem to be the API names)
Account.Name, Account.Owner.Name

3. If I choose a system-generated report type where account is not the main object, for example "Activities with Account" I get the following column names:
ACCOUNT.NAME, ACCOUNT_OWNER_NAME

This happens with other (not custom) columns as well. Maybe there are even more possible column names for the same column in different report types, I don't know...

How to know when to use which names? Also, Is there a way I read the other (besides API, option 2) column names programmatically? Can't find these names in the describe when using Partner or REST API.
Rick Roesler 7Rick Roesler 7
Did you ever get an answer to this? I just ran into the same issue.