Creating Export Forms in RecordsManager

End users can export data from your RecordsManager app using export forms that you define.

How does it work?

End users may have a need to export data from the app you’ve created, and you can define export forms to facilitate that. Export functionality is available in XML for hierarchical export or as flat data in CSV files for Excel.

Export in ISO format is also an option for certain datatypes. This allows the exported data to be processed automatically by all common engines. ISO data can also be used for data import by the app admin back into the system or into another system.

Like all RecordsManager forms, export forms are defined using an easy, visual process.

The following sequences demonstrate the process of creating export forms. Each animation on the first tab shows the steps of designing the export form, and you can view the result on the next tab.

Creating a simple data export form:

Design Process
Final Result

With just a few clicks you can design an easy-to-use form that allows users to export data in the fields you specify. In this example we are also selecting permissions that determine which users may export data from the app. For export of just one data container without any hierarchical data relationships it is sufficient to just list the fields that you want to be able to export. Such data can be exported as CSV (comma separated values) for easy import into Excel or other data processing applications.

For date and time formats you have a choice to export them as formatted values, or you can export them in the standardized ISO date and time formats for easier processing in other applications.

On the Final Result tab, you can see a sample of exported data in Excel.

Defining a complex data export form:

Design Process
Final Result

When you want to export data that has a hierarchical relationship (for example companies containing multiple departments, with each in turn containing multiple persons), you can include the export form for child data elements inside of the parent record export form.

In this example we begin by designing an export form for persons, then designing an export form for departments that includes the child person records using that respective export form. Finally, we modify the company export form we created in the previous example by adding the child export form for departments that we just created. The resulting export form will export the full hierarchy of our data set, so each company record will include a nested set of departments records, and each department record will in turn include a nested set of person records.

Obviously, such a hierarchical export requires the use of XML rather than CSV.

What's Next

Learn about other types of forms supported by RecordsManager:

List forms: display the records of a data container in a layout you define
Data entry forms: allow efficient management of user access and data entry
Report forms: help you design attractive reports of records in a specific data container
Reminder forms: let you define email reminders that will be sent to users from your app

Get Started with RecordsManager

RecordsManager is a free, pre-built MobileTogether solution that is available for you to start using when you install MobileTogether Designer. Use the link below to download and install the free Altova MobileTogether Designer to get started on your first RecordsManager app.

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Download the FREE MobileTogether Designer to get started!