Downloading Data Lists

A data list download option is available for most data lists throughout the application, giving users more ways to report on vulnerability management and policy compliance data within the IT infrastructure. Users can download data lists to these formats: CSV, XML, HTML and MHT. To download a data list, go to the data list page, and select the Download option from the New menu. In the pop-up provided, select a format and click the Download button.

For all data lists, the data list is downloaded based on the view presented in your browser. You can filter the data list using the View menu and Search options to control the size of data list that is downloaded.

Download File Name

When requested, a data list is downloaded to a file on the local file system with the following format:

DL_<datalist_name>_<login>_<date>.<format_extension>

where <datalist_name> is the data list name displayed in the data list title bar, <login> is the user's login ID, <date> is the date of the download, and <format_extension> is the file name extension for the selected format (.csv, .xml, .zip, .mht). Note the data list name value appears in lower case, and whitespaces are replaced by underscore characters.

For example, if John Doe (with user login "john_doe") downloads the scan history list on May 12, 2007 in XML format, the file name is DL_scan_history_john_doe_20070512.xml.

Download File Content

The download file content mirrors the data list view as it appears in your browser, without pagination and without navigation options. The content of the download formats HTML and MHT is similar to the HTML online view. The CSV and XML output have different structures.

The View filters and Search options for each data list may be used to save a filtered data list to one of the download formats. For example, instead of downloading the entire scan history list, you can download a shorter scan history list that includes tasks launched within the past week. To do this, go to the scan history list, search for scans launched in the past week using the Scanned Since field. When the scan history list in your browser shows scans from the past week, select the Download option from the New menu and the desired download format.

When downloading CSV and XML, the Download function translates icons and color for data list items automatically as follows.

Icons. Some data lists use icons to display information for items (in rows). Icons representing data (as opposed to actions) are translated to the mouse-over values in CSV and XML output. (Note that icons for actions such as Info, View, Edit and Run are not translated). For example, the scan history list displays the Type column with an icon indicating a scheduled scan, on demand scan or API scan. In the CSV and XML output the mouse-over text values appear.

Color. Some data lists use color to display information for items (in rows). Colored data is translated to the meaning associated with the color. For example, the tickets data list shows the due date for overdue tickets in red. In the CSV and XML output the word "overdue" appears instead.

HTML / MHT Formats

For HTML and MHT, the output is similar to the HTML view however it does not have pagination and navigation options. The number of records (data list items) appears above the list area, and the menu bar is available in the download output so that users can print the downloaded data list.

CSV Format

The CSV output file is composed of the following lines.

#1 Data List Name, Date and Time, Number of Records
#2 Company Name, Address, City, State, Country
#3 User Name, Login ID, User Role
#4 Header Columns
#5 1st row results separated by commas
#6 2nd row results separated by commas
#7 3rd row results separated by commas
...
...
#n Last row results separated by commas

XML Format

The XML output has a format based on the DTD called datalist.dtd. The same DTD is used for all data lists. To access this DTD, append the DTD filename to the API server URL appropriate for your account location. See the table below.