excel gibberish

Hi - I upgraded to 2.3.6. CSV export is great but Excel yields a lot of gibberish.

Any thoughts on why?

Hi digiweb,

No real idea, I'm afraid. This happened to me testing a form yesterday, then I tried again without changing anything and the excel was fine.

By all means upload the gibberish file here and maybe Max can see what's happening.

Bob

Hi,

All what I can say is that I found that the excel library used is not very good and planning to remove the excel backup option, I think you can open the CSV file very fine in Excel application too, right ?

Sincerely,

Max

Hi all, I've scoured the forum reading almost all the posts which have the term EXCEL and the term BACKUP in them...whew...lotta posts!

Anyways, this one seems to be the closest to my issue in terms of its heading, not necessarily the same problem. But that's why I ask the question here. There was one other one with the title PROBLEM EXPORTING TO EXCEL, which, again, is not the same issue as mine, but the title is the closest to my issue.

Ok, issue: I go to forms management, click on the database of my form under TABLES CONNECTED, and then I can use either BACKUP TO EXCEL or BACKUP TO CSV, I get the same result:

I see the following "headers" or column "headers" in the resulting excel/csv doc
cf_id uid recordtime ipaddress cf_user_id
with their corresponding data in the rows below (which just looks like gibberish to a commoner like me), but NO ACTUAL DATA that the clients (form submitters) filled in. There are no "names, last names, email addresses, telephone numbers" etc etc etc, only those five columns.

The data is emailed, so I do have emails with the data, but obviously I want to export it and be able to work with it in excel.

My assumption is (and I SHUDDER TO THINK!) that the data is not actually correctly submitted to the database? Or, possibly, I have to change some setting to make the other fields export also?

Additionally, when I go to TABLES MANAGER, and then click on VIEW FORM (the little computer screen next to my relevant table), it also does not show any actual "data"...it just shows record 1 through whatever the last one is. When I click on a record, it shows only those five fields

Any help appreciated,
Thanks folks

Hi riaaneloff ,

I'd suggest that you first look in the database using PHPMyAdmin to see what you have stored there.

It might also be helpful to post a sample export file here to give us some clue about what is happening.

The most common export problems are with mismatched character sets so you should probably also check those.

Bob

Hi, thanks for the advice. Will do the phpmyadmin quickly...in the meantime, the excel file:
cf_id uid recordtime ipaddress cf_user_id
1 IODY3MjRlOGExNTZia473d12015c7030f0ba1735923ac8f16 2010-05-12 - 05:19:01 196.210.161.70 62
2 IYjA2M2U0N2EwNzhl30d478f33092120c168c97735cf312cf 2010-05-24 - 12:58:09 41.145.12.153 88
3 IMDY5Y2MzOGJmMzBhe09f7dbbf5fb3e05ed8f836b72f98a44 2010-05-24 - 13:58:50 41.185.140.215 376
4 IYWI5ZDM4MjUxOTA218d069eaf0409ee35fd1a3c5f6dfd8d2 2010-05-24 - 14:23:08 41.185.140.215 377
5 IMjlkOWY3YTE0YmI3a553b6f05bd00d578287758ac0fb0269 2010-05-24 - 14:40:58 41.16.217.30 201
6 IYTc0NTYwMDFiYTZj8be422c1942cff3446e418cf09dfaaa9 2010-05-24 - 16:07:46 41.124.179.86 75
7 IZWY4NWQ5N2MyNTMxe6fcd4a8acf8c54c28e2d102e4d49d3d 2010-05-25 - 02:06:39 41.133.56.26 277
8 IYTk0MmM0ZDE5YTBkc08cfd557b1cc94f1181f23cafc29417 2010-05-25 - 03:18:28 41.15.51.19 0
9 IYzE4ZjZkZjBlMjFi15c4095439caf3c17a5aeac686c98f5b 2010-05-25 - 03:26:18 41.15.51.19 0
10 IMjM3MTU3NzBhYzRhe9bf84f2af61371cfea92f752aa62a5a 2010-05-25 - 15:13:13 196.208.246.82 139
11 IMjI2NjYzNTQzOWE1f35de64e3d4f01d5b4ba8163bff5ffa7 2010-05-26 - 03:20:59 196.35.158.181 218
12 IZGIxNzAzYjgyNGNk44b37ae1115fae3e41f20a072f05b14e 2010-05-26 - 03:30:31 41.132.31.131 234
13 IZWFmNjdhMjI2YmFk768ace590aba2deb6d03125851015965 2010-05-27 - 01:55:54 146.64.81.8 118
14 INmJkNDVkZjk5NjJi01d6efc0a23ab249d92f99637f6ebb75 2010-05-27 - 13:59:23 41.14.248.210 270
15 IOWVhYjdlZDBhOTY5a9c5676bd0cf29d253201ecd0460df5e 2010-05-29 - 02:52:28 198.54.202.30 349
16 IMWE0NTA1NjliZGRkddb433c951c50acc694330a6fb5ea85b 2010-05-30 - 12:55:36 41.16.26.222 0
17 IYmViM2Q1YzA3MjEze325c92be1e30e57d363582bd27e4fa1 2010-06-09 - 08:20:51 65.64.189.80 137
18 IZWVjYTVlMDU2YjU3ef3efa57ad7d321006717b13de5b081d 2010-06-09 - 12:47:14 196.210.158.141 345
19 IZjFlNzUzZGM1OTQx0369826833d6167220deff747f84fb8a 2010-06-09 - 13:34:59 41.19.67.23 95
20 IODljMzE5MDliZDRk7a915971e437dc7190b79ddea3720b41 2010-06-13 - 05:39:19 41.11.145.106 182
21 IMTNiZGIwZWY3YThi90a45e8df73b74fc53204ed445219b66 2010-06-14 - 11:00:30 165.145.57.180 104
22 IZGRiODA2ZWE5Yjcz57502d0e13588e756ad6f4287a8bac2a 2010-06-14 - 13:04:59 196.210.48.20 154
23 IZDM4OGJhYjE0NzE1ebf3b0e052a3129351a326618d531c54 2010-06-15 - 06:15:46 198.54.202.154 117
24 IODlhMzA5OGFjYjRl063bd85628a20486dbefd7b3aee62a9e 2010-06-22 - 13:45:19 41.29.115.60 142
25 INWY5NDhkNDQ2OTMw6f32677cabd691096b62771d9dfdbf08 2010-07-13 - 03:51:25 41.27.253.78 416
26 IMThhNGJmMzU5Nzc4d05176ecf98a6b4a0060d75d3638323c 2010-07-22 - 07:22:12 41.57.154.125 466
27 IOGYyNGEyNGEzNjJmec9900998035126269ef88c9ff3095f9 2010-07-27 - 15:48:21 196.210.144.173 413
28 IZTI2Mjc0ZTk2ZTFi89953ddf378a40bf744c82b55eff80eb 2010-09-13 - 03:37:14 41.133.98.177 485
29 INjAzMzVlYmJiYTEy5015accec82a07529e91b2d5c0ae6c2a 2010-12-27 - 09:20:17 196.215.41.145 129
30 IMmVmZjhjNGFkZjg4407da9a743f38558886f04dff0703ece 2011-01-27 - 00:40:45 41.15.20.37 280
31 IMjU0ODc2Yzc3YWQw104b892bd201a9af62f7bc643252dbea 2011-03-21 - 23:48:48 41.19.232.175 554

Ok, when I go to PHPMYADMIN, I see only those five columns with their data also, so obviously the export is working 100% correctly. The issue is thus that I MUCKED UP the original "write to database" settings! ARRGGHH!!!
Sorry about the frustration folks. Could you advise as to where I should start looking for the settings to correct this?
Kind regards

Ok, yes, I verified now again.

I just submitted a form, but only some those five fields are showing....all the data I entered shows in the email, but NOT in the database.

Could it be the EXTRA DATAVIEW COLUMNS FIELD NAMES?

Hi riaaneloff,

It looks as though there are no columns in the table for the missing data. When you use the Create Table command in ChronoForms only the standard ChronoForms columns are selected by default. If you don't select the others (click the bars to turn them green) then they are not added.

I'd suggest that you create a new table (use a slightly different table name), make sure that all the bars are green; then attach the new table in the form DB Connection and check that all the data is being saved.

Bob

Yup, I'm convinced you're right...this makes a lot of sense...I didn't understand the stuff well enough at the time of creating it, and this sounds right...didn't even think about this.

Created new table, connected it in DB COnnections. Now, may I go to phpmyadmin and delete the other table, the old one, or could I simply do it through table management?

Hi riaaneloff,

Either is fine as long as there is no useful data left in the table?

Bob

Cool, thanks for the help! This works like a charm. Now I can go to Froms management, click on the table listed in the connected tables column, and then simply click export and it goes!

I realize what I am about to ask has probably been asked, I did not scour the forums again (although I read through a lot of stuff yesterday, most of which I couldn't properly understand and get my head around).

The questions dealt with creating forms for the front end to export etc etc etc...what I'm thinking: is there not just a simple way to create, essentially, a "shortcut" or link directly to that back-end button called BACKUP TO CSV, and simply have the person doing the backup type in their credentials, and then have the backup run? Obviously, the reason here is that the person who'll be using the downloaded database does not want to "mess about" in the back-end.

Again, thanks for the help...this works like a charm!

Hi riaaneloff ,

I don't think that there is any easy way of doing that but I haven't really tried. I just borrow the code and create a new form in the front-end.

Bob

Hi GreyHead,

Yeah, that's what I was running into in all those questions about downloading an Excel Database, and that's what I'm probably too slow to understand: what do you mean when you say: "borrow the code"...could you point me to a thread that has some form of guidance on what exactly this means, and how one actually "uses" it in the front-end form?

I apologize if I seem REALLY DENSE! I just have NO CLUE as to where to find this borrowed code, and where to PUT it on a front-end form?

Do you have an example of a site where you used it, that I may view, or same example of what the actual form turns out like in the back end?

Again, even just a link to any thread that has some detail or explanation of that would eb very kind, thanks.

HI riaaneloff,

There a thread here talking about this. Max's example towards the end is taking the admin code and using it in the front-end.

There's also a worked example in the document I have here that you can buy. Its really aimed at heavy-duty exporting of big tables with many columns but you might find it useful.

Bob

Hi, and again, thanks a stack for the great help. Following these link right now.

Help much appreciated. And...word are just words, but it's when one buys the beer that it REALLY means thanks.

Cheers