While the CYS platform provides for a great diversity of reporting options and calculations in its dashboarding section, we understand that sometimes you would like to check some separate records, filter them or create your own analysis over the gathered data.


In this case, creating a manual export of the raw data of a project is a great solution.



Table of contents:


Exporting the data

To export data from the database of your project, please follow the steps as described below.

  • In your main menu, choose Data Garden, then Database to open the overview screen of all your projects.
  • Go to the database that contains the data you wish to export and click Edit database to access it.
  • Open the tab Data View in your project database.
  • Use the selection boxes at the left side of the data view and check the records that you wish to include in your export. Use the checkbox in the top left corner to select all of the records that are in the database at once.
  • Open the actions menu at the top right side of the data view tab and click the option Export to Excel.
  • You will get a pop-up window in which you can confirm if you would like to export the selected records only, or all records that are present in the database. Make your choice and click on Submit to confirm.
  • An Excel file will now be generated and automatically downloaded in your browser. Please be aware that in case of large data sets, it might take a while for the data file to be generated. However, you can continue your work and the process is executed in the background. As soon as the file is ready, it will pop-up at the bottom of your browser and be present in your Downloads folder as well.


For more information on manually exporting data, please check out this article


Selecting your data

If you select separate records to be exported, please bear in mind that records that you have selected will save over different pages. To unselect previously selected records on a former page, you'd have to actively do so.

If you click the select all box in the top left corner, automatically all records on that page will get selected. This means the first twenty records that are shown. If you then select the pop-up window you are asked if you meant to have selected those 20 records on that page, or all of the records that are currently in the database.


Your export file

Once your data is exported and you open the excel file, you'll notice your export will contain two tabs. The tab that is labelled "Data" contains all project data that is available in the database. The second tab, labelled "Data map" contains a legend or translation, explaining or 'translating' all column headers with the type of data that is logged in them. This way you are able to look up what answer corresponds to a particular option code and what question it belongs to.


Creating a custom export

If your database is too large to analyze, and you only wish to export a targeted selection of columns, the best way to handle this is by creating a data grid in you dashboarding section. Here you can add all of the columns you would need for your export and subsequently export that selection.


For more information on the data grid, please check out this article