csv export - labels are all in one column

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beedle
Member

Any idea on why the labels are stacked up in one column?

http://goo.gl/SiQbg

Posted 11 years ago on Tuesday January 29, 2013 | Permalink
Chris Hajer
Key Master

Can you post a link to the original CSV you exported? You can use pastebin.com or pastie.org. It looks like the program that read the CSV was looking for a different delimiter than a comma. If you post the CSV, or a portion of it, we can open it and see how it goes.

I think you just need to change the field delimiter from tab (or whatever is default) to comma and this will be fine.

Posted 11 years ago on Wednesday January 30, 2013 | Permalink
beedle
Member

Thought the same thing, so rather than use the AUTO function when importing to Google Spreadsheet, I forced COMMA. Same result.

http://pastebin.com/s3vTMCc3

Posted 11 years ago on Wednesday January 30, 2013 | Permalink
David Peralty

I just went to Google Drive - Created a new spreadsheet, and Imported the downloaded text file of your data, and it worked flawlessly. I am not sure where the issue lies currently, but the data is formatted correctly, and Google Drive Spreadsheets can import it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Anmp832ToqVpdHpPVVMxSm0wQnJBaFY4OVU3QVU5ekE

Posted 11 years ago on Wednesday January 30, 2013 | Permalink
Chris Hajer
Key Master

I opened your CSV in OpenOffice.org. I changed the delimiter from Tab to Comma and it opened in columns as expected.

Posted 11 years ago on Wednesday January 30, 2013 | Permalink
beedle
Member

Thank you both for the replies. I'd like to go directly from the CSV into Google Spreadsheets as David indicated he was able to do.

I created a very short Screenr video to show you what happens on my system as well as on other computers and using other Google Accounts.

http://www.screenr.com/IJn7

David, did you do this in a different way? Either of you see anything in my method that might create an issue?

Posted 11 years ago on Saturday February 2, 2013 | Permalink
beedle
Member

So I'd thought I'd just try something and removed the quotation marks from the field names only and then save and imported. Works perfectly.

The quotes around the entries themselves seem to give it no trouble.

Are there systems that require double quotes around the field names? Or can you update the plugin to remove those?

Posted 11 years ago on Saturday February 2, 2013 | Permalink
beedle
Member

One last point, interestingly, Google Spreadsheets seems to remove the quote marks from the fields when Tab is selected as the separator character. Of course it still ends up in one column as we are using commas.

I'm wondering, though, if using Tab as the separator would make the export compatible with all systems... assuming there are some that require the quotes.

Posted 11 years ago on Saturday February 2, 2013 | Permalink
Chris Hajer
Key Master

Most programs require text fields with spaces and possible commas to be double quoted. Your experience is unique. The way Gravity Forms is quoting the fields now is the standard way of doing it.

If you want change the field separator, you can do so using the gform_export_separator filter http://www.gravityhelp.com/documentation/page/Gform_export_separator

I don't think that is your problem though. Google should be able to handle tab, semicolon, comma, etc.

Here is a screenshot of me importing the CSV you posted at pastebin.com previously: http://minus.com/lbqUf9sQKCup42

I didn't have to do anything at all except import, then upload the file, and you can see in the preview that the file will be imported into multiple columns.

Posted 11 years ago on Saturday February 2, 2013 | Permalink
beedle
Member

Ok. Interesting. I copied the text from pastbin.com like you guys did, saved, and then imported. Worked perfectly.

It still does not work with the actual original file however. Or any additional files downloaded directly from the plugin.

Here's the actual exported file (with redaction) that still does not work. Can you try it with this one? http://goo.gl/0TMpZ

Thanks for staying with me on this.

Posted 11 years ago on Saturday February 2, 2013 | Permalink
Chris Hajer
Key Master

Ah, it's better to work with the original file. I have the same issue with the file in Google Spreadsheets now that you do. However, opening it in OpenOffice.org work as expected. Looks like there is something in the file that Google does not like. If you skip the header row, it works fine (if you scroll down, you will see that the first data row is going to import correctly.)

I can't see what it is about the first row that Google does not like.

I just exported some entries on my server and I have the same experience as you in Google Spreadsheets. I've never tried to open a Gravity Forms entries CSV in Google Spreadsheets, so this is interesting.

At least now we can recreate the problem. I will look into some other entry exports and see if we can open those in Google Spreadsheets at all. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Posted 11 years ago on Saturday February 2, 2013 | Permalink
beedle
Member

Thanks Chris.

Yes, the entry data has always formatted fine for me as well. It's only ever been the header row.

I couldn't see what it didn't like either. I did an export and a copy paste into Notepad and resaved (replicating the process that we used via pastebin.com that worked for whatever reason) and that works. Even with what appear to be identical files. So my only thought was something with the encoding?? But that's not something I really fully understand so it's just a guess.

Thanks again and let me know if you figure it out.

I wouldn't mind the process of a copy/paste/resave, but I want to be easy for the client who may be exporting multiple times along the way.

Posted 11 years ago on Sunday February 3, 2013 | Permalink