1. A method of providing object-based content to be reported in an external general reporting application, the method comprising: receiving a user selection of a business object having associated attributes, and displaying a view of the attributes associated with the selected business object; receiving a user selection of at least one of the attributes, the selected at least one attribute to be displayed in a report generated in the external reporting application, and adding the selected at least one attribute to a business content structure of selected attributes; retrieving data associated with the business content structure; and generating an output file that the external reporting application can use to generate the report, the report to include the business content structure and the data associated therewith.