With Export groups, you can create ad-hoc exports of asset properties of multiple assets into Microsoft Excel.

Context

Export groups are a special type of Group assets. You can assign any asset to Export groups, and export the desired asset features.

Introduction

Export groups are node assets, to which you can assign any assets of the same or different type. In addition, you can select the asset properties (aka export features) which you wish to export to a Microsoft Excel file.

If you run an export, the Export group retrieves the selected asset properties from the assigned assets and writes them into an export file. Currently, Export groups support Microsoft Excel. The export file is downloaded to your local computer and stored as an asset in censhare. The files are automatically assigned to the Export group and display in the Export files widget.

The ad-hoc export with Export groups creates spreadsheet files that contain asset data of the selected assets. It does not download any asset files (for example, images, XML files, PDF files).

Create an Export group

To create and configure an Export group:

  1. Create a Group / Export Group asset.

  2. In the Create asset dialog, enter a name, an optional description, and click OK to save.

  3. In the Overview tab, in the Properties widget, click  to configure the export.

  4. To download the export file directly to your computer when you execute an export, enable the Direct download field. Otherwise, the export creates and stores an export file in censhare only. 

  5. In the Keywords area, enter free text keywords, or select keywords in the Hierarchy or Reference fields. For more information, see Working with keywords.

  6. To save the configuration and close the dialog, click OK.

Add assets to an Export group

Add assets to the Export group from which you want to download the selected asset features. You can add different asset types:

  1. On the Export group asset page, move the cursor over the Assigned export assets widget and click .

  2. In the Add top-level asset dialog, search and select the desired assets.

  3. To close the dialog, click OK.

Note: The export does not include any child or parent assets from asset structures. To download asset features from asset structures, for example from an article and the associated text assets, you must add all assets from the structure individually.

Select features to be exported

To select the features (aka asset properties) that you want to export, proceed as follows:

  1. Move the cursor over the  (plus).

  2. In the Asset picker, select a feature from the list, or click Open asset chooser to open the Asset chooser dialog. 

  3. To sort the selected export features in the desired order, move the cursor over the entries in the Export features widget and click  or .

The export file contains a column for each feature. If a feature is not defined in an asset, or has no value, the respective table cell is empty.

Start an export and access the export files

To execute an export, click EXPORT PROPERTIES in the Properties widget. If the direct download is enabled, the file is downloaded to your computer automatically. To access it, open the default download folder and open the file.

The export file is stored in censhare with a time stamp. All export files that are created from an Export group, are automatically assigned to the Export group asset and display in the Export files widget on the asset page.

The Export files widget shows a chronological list (oldest first) of files that are created from the current Export group. The list is grouped by the users that executed the export.

To access an export file, double-click the desired entry. The export file opens in a new Spreadsheet asset page. The Preview shows a simple view of the data. To download the Microsoft Excel file, go to the Files widget, move the cursor over the Master file, and click . The file is downloaded to your computer. To access it, open the default download folder and open the file.

Result

The Asset data are exported into a Microsoft Excel file. The export files are stored in censhare, displayed in the Export files widget, and downloaded to your computer.