Salesforce: Retrieve Report Metadata via REST Explorer

Posted by Vinay Vernekar 17th December 2025

Quick tip: Use Workbench’s REST Explorer to fetch a report’s metadata (JSON/XML) instantly. This helps identify report fields, objects, and row-level values without deploying a package.xml.

Overview

This short guide shows how to retrieve Salesforce report metadata using Workbench’s REST Explorer (or Salesforce Inspector). It’s a fast way to inspect a report’s structure, find API field names, and see the report type and row aggregates without extracting the full metadata package.

When to use this

Use the REST endpoint when you need to:

  • Identify the API field name and object for a column in a report.
  • Confirm whether a field in the report is a lookup or standard field.
  • Inspect aggregated values and raw row cells returned by the report.

Steps

  • Open Workbench (or Salesforce Inspector Reloaded) and go to REST Explorer.
  • Use the GET method against the analytics reports endpoint with the report ID you want to analyze.
  • Review the returned JSON (or XML) and focus on factMap and reportMetadata sections.

Example GET request

GET /services/data/v62.0/analytics/reports/00OGB00000Dt9Qv2AJ

# Full curl example:
# curl -H "Authorization: Bearer " \
#   https://yourInstance.salesforce.com/services/data/v62.0/analytics/reports/

What to look for in the response

  • factMap > T|T > aggregates – aggregated values (for example, number of rows, sum totals).
  • factMap > T|T > rows – individual row cells exposed by the report query.
  • reportMetadata > detailColumns – API field names for each column; includes the object name and whether a column represents a lookup.
  • reportMetadata > reportType – the custom or standard report type used by the report.

Tips and alternatives

If you prefer XML output, Salesforce Inspector Reloaded can return the same report metadata in XML format. Using the REST Explorer is usually faster than retrieving metadata via package.xml when your goal is to inspect a single report.

Conclusion

Retrieving a report via the analytics REST endpoint is a lightweight and efficient way to inspect report internals. It’s especially useful for admins and developers troubleshooting field mappings, report types, or verifying aggregated results without performing a full metadata retrieve.

Why this matters: It reduces the time needed to understand report structure, helps avoid deployment mistakes, and speeds troubleshooting for Salesforce admins, developers, and business users who need to validate report fields and data.

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