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kiranj0004
kiranj0004
September 30, 2025
Question

Export SQL to Excel" Smart Service issue after Appian upgrade to 25.3

  • September 30, 2025
  • 8 replies
  • 0 views

Hi All,

I have a process which uses "Export SQL to Excel" Smart Service and fetches data from the db and creates a excel sheet.
When using this - generate report, we are creating a select query - SELECT ID AS Number AND LABLE AS 'Label Name' FROM ABC_TEST table (multiple tables with joins to create almost 172 columns), and the plug-in smart service uses these alias names and creates header into the template excel that is - in excel you can see 1st column ('Number') & 2nd column('Label Name') as But after Appian upgrade 25.3, this alias is stopped and it is now taking direct table column names that is - ID & LABEL in excel header.

Anyone has seen this issue and have any work around, please help/suggest.

Thanks in advance.

Note - this is user requirement where excel download report has almost 172 columns data which is used for further reporting. It was working very great before this upgrade but after upgrade it is just working with column header as like table header which is not desired.

8 replies

shubhama926776
shubhama926776
September 30, 2025

As you already know, "Export SQL to Excel" is a plugin function, so generally this issue occurs with newer versions, and the plugin owner needs to update the plugin to provide support.
I would recommend creating a database view with aliases and exporting from that view.

kiranj0004
kiranj0004Author
September 30, 2025

Thanks Shubham, we had already tried using view and again it's a query slowness and timeout issue were observed and again if we use view with alias to it, still the alias will not supported.

A
ashokr7542
October 6, 2025

[mention:c0cad56d7c1b4ea6aaefd05de2d98f95:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05]  If you're experiencing query timeout issues with the Export SQL to Excel Smart Service, I recommend trying the FastExcel Smart Service(community.appian.com/.../fast-excel-plug-in). It offers significantly better performance when exporting large datasets and can help mitigate bottlenecks.

Note: FastExcel currently has issues with alias support following the Appian 25.3 upgrade. This is due to upgrade of the JDBC connector, which affect how Excel header names are handled.

tiagog8947
tiagog8947
September 30, 2025

Hello,

I had a similar issue with that plugin (at least I think it's the same as there are multiple deprecated versions of this smart service, depending on what plugin you got)


I didn't found a good definitive solution but I found that when using an UNION the alias is still used


If in the end of all your selects and joins you add a dummy union, let's say

(Your Selects ATM) UNION ALL (SELECT null as NUMBER, null as LABEL FROM ABC_TEST WHERE 0) for your example

It keeps the alias in the excel header. The 'Where 0' is important so you don't add null values to your excel. Doesn't matter what you but before the AS LABEL, idea is jsut using the union to force the labels

It's not an optimal solution but I hope this helps!


    rakshitha0003
    rakshitha0003
    November 17, 2025

    [mention:371395bb21dc4591832d52fe3ec976ad:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05]  Nice hack

    N
    nirupamaanuragt
    June 2, 2026

    [mention:c0cad56d7c1b4ea6aaefd05de2d98f95:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] Is this issue resolved by solutions recommended or any other option is used to fix the issue you have experience with column alias.

    kiranj0004
    kiranj0004Author
    June 2, 2026

    Yes [mention:e6a77c526cda4697918a8c5f921f4fa4:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] , it is working fine in my application. No issues or no slowness etc.

    N
    nirupamaanuragt
    June 2, 2026

    thanks just to reiterate, you have created view to use the column alias and it worked fine.

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