Data Export

Data exports allow information to be extracted from one system in order that it can be imported to another system or manipulated externally, for example, by using Excel.

Systems should provide a data export function to allow a user to change provider in the future.

The function of exporting data can be delivered in a number of ways by a system and different approaches will match different use cases.

A simple data export will output the contents of the data tables from a systems database in to flat files (e.g. comma or tab separated files (.csv or .tab) or spreadsheet formats). By doing this the structure of the data is preserved meaning it is a pure representation of the data held in the system.

Alternative approaches may take the form of a specific type of report that can be run within the system. Typically, this type of report will capture of particular view of the data tables (rather than their entirety) and convert it to the desired format. This option may mean that some data is not exported from a system although this is may not mean that the meaning of the data is degraded.