Why “Last Modified Date/Time” in “Document Summary” is different from ” Last Modified date/time” in WebI Document’s General Properties?

Recently I came across an issue, the issue reported was that “Last Modified Date/Time” in “Document Summary (when you open the WebI document and look for Last Modified:)” is different from ” Last Modified date/time” in WebI Document’s General Properties ( right click on WebI document and hit “Properties” menu)?

After a lot of analysis I found that “If users are using BI Variants ( also called Prompt Variants; used to save and store values of prompt selection for future use), the date and time that you see in Document General Properties( right click on a WebI document -> Properties -> Last Modified:) would be different from the date / time when  the report was last updated by report author or deployed to any system”.

The last modified date/time that you see in WebI document’s “General Properties” would be the date/time when the  most recent BI Variant for the report was created and saved by any user, while the last modified date/time that appears inside the WebI document in Document Summary is the last date /time when the report was updated by report author or the report was deployed to the system ( like Dev/Stage/ Prod).

So if users are using BI Variants you would often find the last modified date in Document General Properties is more recent than the last modified date within / of the report.

Last Modified Date ( Document Summary) –

Last Modified Date (General Properties) –

What I conclude from this is that  the “Last Modified Date” mentioned in “Document Summary” is what is the actual modified date for any report ( because this date reflects the date/time when the report was modified in true sense ( by the report author)) while one should not get confused with the “last modified date” that is seen in General Properties ( this date just gives an indication; when the last BI Variant for this report was saved by any user)

Cheers!

Ashish