Exporting data into other formats

Discus Pro contains functionality to export portions of the program data into three potentially usable formats:

• Offline viewing: Produces a set of HTML files with relative links and all dynamic functions removed, suitable to be burned onto a CD-ROM or otherwise distributed as an archived record of conversation.

• Tab-delimited: Produces a listing of all messages in tab-delimited format, suitable for use in a spreadsheet.

• User database as CSV: Produces a CSV (comma separated value) listing of all users in the user database, suitable for being imported into a spreadsheet.

Important! The data produced by these "Export" functions is suited for use in other applications, but it cannot be used to restore data onto a Discus board. Creating an "Export" of your data is not intended to be a replacement for creating a board backup!

Offline Viewing Export

An offline viewing export produces a set of HTML files suitable for burning onto a CD-ROM. These files have all links to your web site converted into relative links that will work properly when the archive is extracted according to the instructions that follow. The content of your "icons" and "clipart" directories are also exported for your convenience.

To create and subsequently access an "offline viewing" export, follow these instructions:

1. Go to Backup Manager and click the "Export" tab.

2. For "Export Format" select "Offline Viewing Format."

3. Check the boxes next to the topics whose messages you want exported. Generally you will leave all topics checked. You can quickly check or un-check all topics by clicking the "All" or "None" link under "Topic(s) to Export."

4. Choose a file name for the file to export. A file name containing the date is suggested. This file name is not ultimately important, but it should be easily recognizable as you seek to obtain and manipulate the exported data later.

5. Click the "Create Export" button. An "Operation in Progress" gauge screen will perform several operations. Leave the browser open during this process. Your backup has been successfully completed when the gauge disappears and you are returned to the "Existing" tab of your Backup Manager.

6. The exported file should appear at the top of the file list in the "Existing" tab of Backup Manager. To download this export archive to your computer, click the download icon (in the "Dnld" column) next to the exported archive. You should be prompted to specify a file name and location. Save the file in a place on you computer where it will be easy to find later.

7. Create a directory where you wish to extract the export. In this example we will suggest that you use c:\temp, although any location is acceptable.

8. Double-click the downloaded file to invoke your zip program. Be sure that the zip program is set to preserve subdirectory structure (how exactly your zip program is configured to do this depends on the program itself ... for WinZip, it's a checkbox called "Use Folder Names"). Choose to extract the files to c:\temp.

9. Open Explorer and navigate to c:\temp. You should see three directories there -- double-click on "messages" to enter. Double-click on board-topics.html to open the first page in your exported data.

10. Click around to ensure that the exported data appears correct. Take note of any missing images or broken links, which could result from customization of templates and skins. These will need to be fixed manually.

11. To burn to a CD-ROM, be sure that you burn the "clipart," "icons," and "messages" directories. Preserve the subdirectory structure so that all of the links will work properly. The "start page" for the board is the "board-topics.html" page.

Tab-delimited Export

An tab-delimited export produce a single text file with all messages from topics that you select from your board. This file can be imported into a spreadsheet for analysis.

1. Go to Backup Manager and click the "Export" tab.

2. For "Export Format" select "Offline Viewing Format."

3. Check the boxes next to the topics whose messages you want exported. Generally you will leave all topics checked. You can quickly check or un-check all topics by clicking the "All" or "None" link under "Topic(s) to Export."

4. Choose a file name for the file to export. A file name containing the date is suggested. This file name is not ultimately important, but it should be easily recognizable as you seek to obtain and manipulate the exported data later.

5. Click the "Create Export" button. An "Operation in Progress" gauge screen will perform several operations. Leave the browser open during this process. Your backup has been successfully completed when the gauge disappears and you are returned to the "Existing" tab of your Backup Manager.

6. The exported file should appear at the top of the file list in the "Existing" tab of Backup Manager. To download this export archive to your computer, click the download icon (in the "Dnld" column) next to the exported archive. You should be prompted to specify a file name and location. Save the file in a place on you computer where it will be easy to find later.

7. Open the exported file in your compression/zip file by double-clicking it. The archive will contain one file, which is the tab-delimited export of your message database. The following are the columns used within this export:

   {message number} | {topic number} | {page number} | {time} | {author} | {e-mail/profile link} | {message text}

CSV Export of User Database

An CSV export of the user database produces a CSV (comma separated value) file containing entries for all users in your user database. This file is suitable for opening in a spreadsheet application to analyze the user database manually.

1. Go to Backup Manager and click the "Export" tab.

2. For "Export Format" select "Offline Viewing Format."

3. Click the "Export Users" button from the "Export User Database" section. After a brief pause, your browser should prompt you to save a file. Save this to a location where it can be easily found later.

4. Double-clicking the saved file, which should have a ".csv" extension, should cause the file to be opened in your preferred spreadsheet application. Alternatively, you may open the spreadsheet application first and then open the CSV file.

5. Depending on your spreadsheet application, you may need to parse the data. In Microsoft Excel, the data are separated into columns automatically. Each line in the exported data has the following format:

   {username} | {encrypted password} | {e-mail address} | {full name} | {editing privilege} | {e-mail notification settings} | {registration time} | {last access time} | {last search time} | {groups} | {picture} | {preferences} | {favorites} | {signature} | {personal info 1} | {personal info 2} | ... | {personal info 20} | {custom field descriptor 1} | {custom field answer 1} | ... | {custom field descriptor 10} | {custom field answer 10} | {post counter} | {status}