Export Data Using the Data Exporter

[Grant]

The Schema Mapper allows you to export all, or a portion, of your data into a .csv, .xls, or .txt file format. There are two parts to this process; creating an export mapping and exporting the data. For this process, you must be a manager or admin level user, or be given permission to the Export Mapper.

To Create an Export Mapping:

Helpcast: Schema Mapper

1. In Specify, go to System → Schema Mapper.

2. In the Schema Mapper, you can either import a schema if you have one or Create a New Mapping.

3. If you select to Create a New Mapping, you can either choose to use “no schema” or the “DarwinCoreTDWG (1.4)” schema. The Darwin Core schema option has Darwin Core named fields for easy upload to a shared portal using the Darwin Core. The fields exported will have the Darwin Core field names. The no schema option allows you to choose and name the fields however you want for the export. The difference between the two is only the field names used in the Export.

For the no schema option, skip to step 5.

4. The DarwinCoreTDWG (1.4) schema provides a set of fields based on the Darwin Core fields. Specify attempts to auto map fields from the database to the Darwin Core fields.

You can edit the mappings to match your fields better or to add fields that are missing.

To remove a field from the mapping: For example, if you want to remove Locality and Habitat Notes from your mapping, click the x at the end of the line for that field.

To add a field to the mapping: Select the field you want to add from the list of fields at the top of the window then click the green plus to add it. If the field correlates to a Darwin Core field, click the Schema Concept field to reveal the pick list and select the appropriate Darwin Core field to correlate to the field.

To change a current Darwin Core mapping: For example, if you want to change AltCatNumber to the Darwin Core mapping field fieldNumber instead of otherCatalogNumbers, click otherCatalogNumbers to reveal the pick list. Select the Darwin Core field it should be mapped to from the list.

To change a mapping to a different Specify Field: For example, in the image above lifeStage was mapped to Collection Object Attribute Text4. To change it to a different field, you must first remove the incorrect field from the mapping. Then, add the correct field to the mapping and select the correct Darwin Core concept.

5. The no schema option gives the user a blank slate to which they can add fields and name them for export. Fields can be added, moved, sorted, and operators added the same way they are in queries.

The fields can be renamed by clicking in the Schema Concept field and adding the name you would like to use. For example, in the image above, the Taxon/FullName field was renamed to “Taxonomic Full Name”.

6. Once you have added all the fields you want to add to the mapping, click the Preview button at the bottom of the screen. This will display the first 20 records to be exported. If there are any problems with the mapping, the Preview screen will notify you so you can correct the issues.

7. Once the Preview is successful, click Save to save the mapping.

To Export the Data:

1. Log into the Data Exporter. It comes with the Specify installation and is located in the Specify directory.

2. The first time you export a mapping, you will have to build the mapping. If you have more than one mapping, make sure you have highlighted the mapping you want to build then click Build/Update. This process may take a while depending on the size of your database.

Note: You only have to build the mapping the first time, but you will have to update the mapping if the data has been added to or modified in the database before you update. The update should take a much shorter time to run.

3. The IT username and password is required to build the mapping. Enter the IT information and click OK.
   The IT user information is not required to update the mapping, just to build it.

4. Once the mapping has been built successfully, a message will appear to say the cache was updated successfully.

5. Click Export to export the data.

6. In the next window, navigate to the location you would like the data to go. Name the file and give it an extension then click Save. The file can be saved as a .csv or .xls.

The data will be exported to the specified location.