Information > How to export or import data using FossLook?
How to Export and Import Data with FossLook
Sometimes it may be necessary to transfer some information from FossLook to other applications. For example, if you have a dictionary or a list of any information stored within the system, you can easily export it into .csv format. After that, it can be used in other applications like Microsoft Excel for statistical data analysis. Additionally, system can export email attachments into .eml format, or simply save them as files on your hard drive.
The list of all possible export options:
- Export/Import into .csv,
- Export of the attachments to the disk,
- Export/Import into .eml (only for email messages).
Exporting Data
The first step in using the Export is to make sure that you have set up a correct data appearance. Basically, this means that you need to reorganize the columns as you'd like them to appear in the export file. Fields of the document will become columns, column headers in the folder/tab will become column headers in the resulting table.
If you need more information on how to change appearance, please refer to our article: How to Modify Your Folder or Document View Settings. The process of exporting data from the tab of the document or folder looks the same.
As an example, we will export a list of hiring applications from our document "Hiring Project 2015". First, go to the tab “Hiring applications” and select all applications by pressing Ctrl+A.
Next, in the following dialog you need to specify a folder to store a file and some additional export options:
- Open export results - will launch Microsoft Excel after export,
- Csv format delimiter - you can select "," or ";" as your delimiter,
- Include unique names in the title - includes additional technical information about the fields.
Once you've selected your options, click "Next".
The program will open the export results in Excel, where you can view and edit your data.
Exporting Attachments
If you need to save all attachments from selected documents or messages, select the documents, go to the "File" menu and choose “Export attachments”. The export settings dialog will show up, where you need to specify the directory to save files.
As you can see, the process is pretty much identical for all export options available here.
Importing Data
You can use data import in the following scenarios:
- Filling in dictionary data: this comes in handy when you have a lot of repeating dictionary-type data that needs to be entered into the system.
- Importing users into the system: it's very convenient to use the import feature to create users in the FossLook server automatically from the .csv file.
- Transferring documents from one server to another: this may be needed if you want to transfer a list of documents in the specified folder from one server to another.
FossLook allows you to import data from the *.csv files. You can import data into directories and documents. To import data into a directory, you should give the user from whom you will import the documents full access to your directory.
Let's look at one of the possible options here - importing users from .csv file.
So, first thing we need to do is to select "Users" in FossLook Administrator and open import dialog to generate a user import template.
Next, we need to generate a user template by clicking on the corresponding link in the dialog:
Once you've generated a template, you need to fill it with all necessary data, in our case it would be employees "Name", "Department", "Role" and other information.
And finally, you need to select our template in the "Import" dialog and hit "Next". That's all, you should see your employees created under the "Users" tree branch.
FossLook can import more than just simple documents and messages, but also whole document libraries with more complex structure, for more information on this topic please contact us on our feedback page.
Get FREE Version
Related articles