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Hello,
I’m fairly new to ChronoForms and Joomla!
I created a customer survey for our clients to fill out online and the results are then emailed to our PM team. However, they told me they want the results:
1. Emailed to them
2. Automatically downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet.
Is this possible? I’ve already got 1 taken care of, but can someone please tell me, step by step, how to make #2 work?
Thank you so much!

Hi bflynn16,

Save the results to a database and then you can export from the database to Excel (or to a CSV file).

Do take care to think through wnat exporting means - they could end up with a lot of spreadsheets with 2 or 3 new results in each and someone will need to merge them and remove the duplicates!!

Bob

Good Morning Bob,

I just want to make sure I have this correct. If I save the results to a database (create a table showing results) and then export it to Excel, will it update the Excel spreadsheet every time I open it or will I need to export it every time I want the most current information?

What my company would like is for once you click 'submit' the information is automatically entered into a spreadsheet (without us having to export it every time).

Thank you so much for your help.

Beth

Hi Beth,

As it's set up in ChronoForms the export is of all the records in the database - it's all or nothing.

It's quite possible to code something different - but that does need to be coded. For example I have a form where the backup process sets a flag on the database table so that future backups only download new records.

It it all a question of work-flow.

If you'll excuse a <mini-rant> . . . most clients who specify Excel export do so because they are used to handling data in spreadsheets and they haven't really thought through what they want. Often, with form data that changes and grows, it's better to keep the main data in the database table and write reports to interrogate it. That way you avoid all the problems of multiple spreadsheets and synchronisation.

That's not to say that you shouldn't export to do some special analysis - just that the *master* data should be in the database, not in the spreadsheet. </end mini-rant>

Bob

Hi Bob,

I don’t think I explained this very well. In order for the information to be transferred into Excel, do I have to export it from Joomla! each time or after I do it the first time, will the updated information automatically show up when I open the Excel file on my computer. Basically what I’m trying to find out is:

When a client submits a survey, can those results automatically be entered into a spreadsheet without me doing anything?

Does this make sense?

Thank you so much for your help. Sorry for any confusion.

Hi Beth,

No - no automatic export.

Bob

Hi Beth,

I posted a sticky topic here few weeks ago which shows how you can make a form create a full CSV backup, you can use my code in the OnSubmit box to let it create a CSV file onsubmit!

Cheers
Max