WebFOCUS Online Help > Managed Reporting Administrator > Change Management > Understanding Internal Managed Reporting References

Developers and end users see and use Descriptions to navigate their way about Managed Reporting. Managed Reporting uses internal references instead to locate and process requests for Managed Reporting resources.

At any time, developers are free to change these Descriptions. Users will see changes the next time they log on to Managed Reporting (or refresh their view). A Description change does not affect how the file is processed, since the internal reference remains the same.

The following are internal references for Managed Reporting objects:

• Domain. Visible on the Domain Properties dialog box (for example, untitled/untitled.htm).
• Standard Report. Visible on the Report Properties dialog box (for example, app/prospect.fex or app/launchpa.htm).
• Reporting Object. Visible on the Reporting Object Properties dialog box (for example, mrv/salesdat.fex).
• Folders and Sub-Folders. Visible on the object's Property dialog box (for example, #westernregio).
• Repository. This is not visible from within the Java applet tools, but you can specify to override the default value on the signon page. Developers using Developer Studio can specify the repository within the WebFOCUS Environment Properties dialog box. (For more information, see the Developing Reporting Applications With Graphical Tools manual.) The variable MR_BASE_DIR specifies the full operating system path to the root of the Managed Reporting Repository (for example, d:\ibi\WebFOCUS76\basedir) and is defaulted in the WebFOCUS script file, cgivars.wfs.

When you create a Domain, Report, or Folder with the tools, Managed Reporting generates the internal reference for the object and stores it. The Description you provided is used to create the reference.

Note: When you create a Description, spaces and special characters are removed and the reference is truncated to a fixed length.

If you create another object with a similar Description, Managed Reporting will randomly generate the reference to ensure that each reference is unique within its namespace.

Products and features that use internal Managed Reporting references include:

• Published Launch pages (inside or outside the repository).
• ReportCaster (to retrieve the report at execution time).
• Drill down links.
• End user My Reports.

When moving files between Managed Reporting Repositories, such as between your development and test environments, it is critical that these references (and the Descriptions) remain the same. This can be accomplished by:

• Creating the domains in each of your environments in the same order. The internal references will be created the same in each.
• Using the Properties dialog box to check references.
• Paying attention to alert windows when copying files.
• Testing your application before moving it into the production environment.
• Using the CM Extract and CM Load program to move Domain files between environments.