Exports and Imports - Template Data Exports

Exporting your data from Damstra Forms.

Why use a Template Data export?

Template Data exports are the simplest type of export. No setup is required, you just specify the template you are interested in, and you can extract all the data for the memos, forms or actions created using that template.

Custom Data exports are potentially more useful, but they need more work in order to define the fields that you want to extract. A Custom Data export would typically be used for one or more of the following reasons:

• To filter out unwanted fields (so that you are only exporting data that is relevant for a particular type of analysis).
• To combine data from different templates. For example, you may have timesheet information on more than one template. In this case Custom Data exports can be used to combine data from multiple templates into a single timesheet export.
• To restructure how the data is presented. 

How To: Template Export

Click on Exports in the navigator or menu.

Click on the Export button and select Template Data

Complete the fields shown:
 - Choose a template
 - Choose a project (or all projects)
 - Filter by status
 - Select a date range
 - Make data filterable if you want to (this pertains to the presentation of table data see below for an explanation)  

Once all fields are filled in, click Submit. 

Once the export is ready, you should receive a notification email.

You can also refresh the export request Details page or the Export Register to see if the CSV has been generated. If it has, these pages will have links to download the CSV file. Here is what the Details page would look like:

And here is what the Exports Register would look like:

Exporting Templates with tables

What happens when we have a template with tables? Here we’ll look at an export of Toolbox Meeting forms. Note that the template has two tables: one for Attendees and one for Minutes.

The process of creating the export is the same. However, there are differences with the output. The two cases are discussed below.

 Make data filterable: Unchecked

Here is the exported data:

Note that there are now gaps between each form. This is because table data is causing the export to created additional rows for each form. Table fields always appear at the end, so we need to scroll right to see the table data as follows – the highlighted areas contain the data for the first form.

All non-table fields appear first. Then the rows of the first table appear followed by the rows of the second table. If there were additional tables, they would follow the same pattern.

Make data filterable: Checked

If we tick Make data filterable then the export gives us the following (scrolled to the right).

The difference here is that the non-table fields appear on every row.

Why the difference? The unchecked version is easier to read. The checked version may be easier to analyse or import into other systems (e.g. you would probably want to repeat non-table rows if you were doing a pivot table analysis in Excel).

Reference

Metadata fields

These are system fields that are provided in addition to all of the fields defined in the template.

Metadata Field Name             Contents
Id                                               Unique Identifier
Template Id                               A unique identifier for the published template                                                                     associated with the memo/form/action.
Template Type                          The type of template (RFI, Issue, General Memo,                                                                  Form, or Action)
Internal Template Version       The internal version of the published template (a                                                                new version is created every time the draft template                                                          is published).
Creator User Id                        The unique Id of the user who created the memo,                                                               form, or action.
Creator Name                          The name of the user who created the memo, form,                                                           or action.
Created                                    The date and time that the memo/form/action was                                                             created on the server in the Coordinated Universal                                                             Time (UTC) zone (effectively the same as GMT).
Updated                                    The UTC date and time that the memo/form/action                                                              was last updated on the server.
Created On Client                    The UTC date and time that the memo/form/action                                                              was created on the client device (e.g. iPad).  
Updated On Client                   The UTC date and time that the memo/form/action                                                              was last updated on the client device.
Status                                         The status of the memo, form, or action.