Configurable list export data into separate column

  • pacificunion
    Asked on October 27, 2016 at 4:08 PM

    A portion of a form I created asks for the respondents to list relevant contacts at their organization.  I'm currently using a configurable list to accomplish this, with each row in the list asking for necessary attributes about the contact.

    The problem with the configurable list is the way the data exports to .csv/Excel.  For each submission, Jotform concatenates ALL contacts' data into a single cell.  This makes extracting the data into a format that can be loaded into a SQL database nearly impossible without a lot of restructuring of the data.

    Is there any way jotform can produce a cleaner version of the data export file?  See the attached image that illustrates what I'd like to be able to accomplish.  I'd like each instance of a contact to be on its own row in the export file.

    If I need to use some other widget, I'm open to doing that as well.  My main goal is doing what's necessary to get a .csv/Excel file that resembles something like my example in the attached image.

    Any and all ideas are welcome!

    Jotform Thread 973849 Screenshot
  • jonathan
    Replied on October 27, 2016 at 7:55 PM

    Unfortunately fields and widgets that have multiple options will normally be treated as a single field when exported to spreadsheet. Fields like Checkboxes, Configurable list, Matrix table and so on.. will have only a single column header when viewed on spreadsheet app like Excel or Google docs.

    But spreadsheet do have function that will allow you to separate each entity in column to multiple column. Use the function Text-to-Column in spreadsheets application.

    You can review for a similar solution discussed on this thread.

    https://www.jotform.com/answers/555890-Output-when-using-Purchase-Order-Tool-is-consolidated-into-one-column-only

    Hope this help. Let us know how it goes.

    Thanks.

     

  • jonathan
    Replied on October 27, 2016 at 8:01 PM

    Btw, I have submitted a feature request ticket for this feature. The feature is to have option for the exported Configurable list data to be in separate column/cell when exported.

    Since this is a request for feature ticket, I cannot give an ETA when or even if this feature will be approved. But we will notify you here for any news/updates on the progress of this ticket.

    Thank you.

  • pacificunion
    Replied on October 28, 2016 at 9:42 AM

    Thank you for considering this as a request for a feature enhancement.

    I don't know if Jotform knows this, but one of your competitors - FormAssembly - already has this type of capability in data extraction.  It can produce a .csv file that separates multiple row entries in an expandable list into their own rows in the file!

  • Welvin Support Team Lead
    Replied on October 28, 2016 at 11:42 AM

    You're welcome. 

    I did not know about FormAssembly but thank you for letting us know here. I think that would be a good reference. Our widget team is doing updates on the widgets and they have enhanced a few already. This feature would be a good addition to the configurable list widget so hopefully, they'll consider it. We'll let you know.