About Importing Metadata in Smart View

The Import Metadata option of Smart View helps you copy a sheet's metadata which the copy and paste commands of Excel cannot do. Learn the guidelines for importing metadata in Smart View.

While creating a new Excel sheet, you may want to make use of Smart View content in an existing sheet that contains not only the formatting and layout that you need, but the Smart View metadata as well. Smart View metadata consists of details such as the POV, alias tables, and connection information. Instead of recreating the Smart View content from scratch, you can reuse the work that is already available.

When you use the Excel copy and paste commands to copy Smart View content within or between sheets, the static data and formatting is copied; but the Smart View metadata is not copied in the new sheet. For example, if you open Sheet Information in the new sheet, it does not show any connection details and displays the Sheet Type as Empty.

After copying the sheet data to the new sheet, you can use the Import Metadata feature to import the metadata from the original sheet into the new sheet in the same workbook. Now if you open Sheet Information for the new sheet, you can see the same connection details and sheet type as the original sheet.

Guidelines for Importing Metadata

To use the Import Metadata feature, note the following considerations:

  • You can import metadata from sheets containing forms or ad hoc grids.
  • You can import metadata from a multiple ad hoc grid sheet. The metadata of all the grids present in the source sheet is imported in the destination sheet.
  • Metadata is required in at least one sheet in the original or source workbook.
  • Once the metadata from a source sheet is imported in a destination sheet, this operation cannot be undone.
  • You can import only Smart View metadata using the Import Metadata feature.
  • For importing metadata from flex forms, you must copy the grid from source sheet to destination sheet, before clicking Refresh in the destination sheet.

  • After importing metadata, if you make changes to the grid structure in the source sheet, and again import the metadata in the destination sheet, then on clicking Refresh, the grid structure in the destination sheet does not update as per the changed grid structure of the source sheet. This happens because the refresh action refreshes the grid that is already present on the destination sheet. If the destination sheet is empty, then the updated grid structure gets imported correctly on refresh.

    To get the updated grid structure, you can copy it from the source sheet to the destination sheet, before clicking Refresh in the destination sheet.