8 Importing and Sharing

You can import and export projects to share them with other users. You can also share a file of a visualization, canvas, or story that can be used by other users.

Topics:

• Importing and Sharing Projects or Folders

• Sharing Visualizations, Canvases, or Stories

Typical Workflow for Importing and Sharing Artifacts

Here are the common tasks for sharing and importing folders, projects, visualizations, canvases, and stories with other users.

Task	Description	More Information
Import projects and folders	Import projects and folders as applications.	Importing an Application or Project
Share a folder, project, visualization, canvas, or story	Share a project or folder as an application with users. You can also share your project's visualizations, canvases, or stories as a file.	Sharing a Project or Folder as an Application Sharing a File of a Visualization, Canvas, or Story

Importing and Sharing Projects or Folders

You can import projects and applications from other users and sources, and export projects to make them available to other users.

Topics:

• Importing an Application or Project

• Sharing a Project or Folder as an Application

Importing an Application or Project

You can import an application or project created and exported by another user, or you can import an application from an external source such as Oracle Fusion Applications.

The import includes everything that you need to use the application or project such as associated data sets, connection string, connection credentials, and stored data.

1. On the Home page, click Projects, then Page Menu, and select Import.
2. In the Import dialog, click Select File or drag a project or application file onto the dialog, then click Import.
3. If an object with the same name already exists in your system, then choose to replace the existing object or cancel the import. See When I import a project, I get an error stating that the project, data source, or connection already exists.
4. If an object with the same name already exists in your system, then choose to replace the existing object or cancel the import. See “When I import a project, I get an error stating that the project, data source, or connection already exists” in the Troubleshooting chapter.

Sharing a Project or Folder as an Application

You can share a project to export it as an application that can be imported and used by other users.

The export produces a .DVA file that includes the items that you specify such as associated data sets, connection string, connection credentials, and stored data.

1. On the Home page, click Projects, then select the project or folder that you want to share.
2. Click the Actions menu, select Share, then click File.
3. In the File dialog, click the Include Data option to include the data with the project or folder.
4. Click the Connection Credentials option if you want to include the data source connection’s user name and password with the exported project. Note the following information:
   • For a project with an Excel, CSV, or TXT data source - Because an Excel, CSV, or TXT data source doesn’t use a data connection, clear the Include Connection Credentials option.
   • For a project with a database data source - If you clear the Connection Credentials option, then the user must provide a valid user name and password to load data into the imported project.
   • For a project with an Oracle Applications or Oracle Essbase data source - Selecting the Connection Credentials option works if on the connection setup’s Create Connection dialog you specified the Always use this name and password option in the Authentication field.

     If you clear the Connection Credentials option or specified the Require users to enter their own username and password option in the Authentication field, then the user must provide a valid user name and password to load data into the imported project.

5. If you selected the Include Data option or the Include Connection Credentials option, then enter and confirm a password that the user must provide to import the project or folder and decrypt its connection credentials and data.
6. Click Save.

Sharing Visualizations, Canvases, or Stories

You can share visualizations, canvases, or stories to make them available to other users.

Topics:

• Sharing a File of a Visualization, Canvas, or Story

• Printing a Visualization, Canvas, or Story

• Writing Visualization Data to a CSV or TXT File

Sharing a File of a Visualization, Canvas, or Story

You can share one or more of your project's visualizations, canvases, or stories as a file.

1. Create or open a data visualization project.
2. Click the Share icon on the project toolbar, then click File to open the File dialog.
3. In the File dialog, specify and select the options based on the selected format of the file.

   • Powerpoint (pptx), Acrobat (pdf), and Image (png): Specify the file name, and paper size and orientation. Based on the pane, do one of the following:

     • Visualize - You have to select either to include the active canvas or visualization, or all canvases.

     • Narrate - You have to select either to include the active page or visualization, or all story pages.

   • Data (csv) - Specify the file name.

   • Package (dva) - Specify the file name. You can also select the Include Data, and Connection Credentials options. If you select the Connection Credentials option, enter and confirm a password to retrieve the packaged data. You can also select Include ACLs in archive.

   Note:

   You can only select Package (dva) as the file format for sharing a project.
4. Click Save.
5. In Save As dialog, change the file name if you want, making sure to including the file extension, and browse to the location where you want to save the file. Click Save.

Printing a Visualization, Canvas, or Story

You can print one or more of your project's visualizations, canvases, or stories.

1. Create or open a data visualization project.
2. Click the Share icon on the project toolbar, then click Print to open the Print dialog.
3. In the Print dialog, specify the file name, and paper size and orientation. You also have to select either to include all the open visualization or canvas, or only the active visualization or canvas in the file.
4. Click Print. The browser's print dialog is displayed.
5. Specify other printing preferences such as which printer to use and how many copies to print and click Print.

Writing Visualization Data to a CSV or TXT File

You can write the data from a visualization to a CSV or TXT file. This lets you open and update the visualization data in a compatible application such as Excel.

1. Locate the visualization with data that you want to write to the CSV or TXT format, and click Share on the visualization toolbar, and then select File, select the Format (for example .CSV) and click Save.
   The Save As dialog is displayed.
2. Name the file and browse to the location where you want to save the file. Change the file extension to .txt, if needed. Click Save.