DataDump Overview

What is a datadump and how is it used?
Can I export the data to a spreadsheet?
It seems as if some data is not showing up?
How can I produce an attendee directory?

Datadump definition and usage.
The datadump grabs all of your attendee data and then places (dumps) it into a a single report.  It will include the name, biographical, address, registration type and other attendee data off of a main registration page.  It will also include travel info, advance planning, housing and questionnaire items.  It will include payment status but it will not include specific payment information.  It does not include optional items.  Basically it will include everything that is associated with an individual attendee record.  The dataDump is viewed in the "Attendee Listing".  You change the dropdown to: DataDump.  

The purpose of the dataDump is to give you a listing of your attendee information in a single page format. You can use the report sorting features of the EventCORE table view to select the data you wish to view in the order and format you desire.  You are working with live data so upon a refresh everything is current as of that instant.  This is light years ahead of the legacy platform where you were dealing with static data based on a sometimes very old refresh.

For the most part, the column names that appear on line one of the data dump are determined by the table names or in the case of an extrapolated column it may be assigned.  For questionnaires that you've created, it pulls the column name from the question you are asking (or a truncated version in the case of long names.).

NOTE: Even though you have always used spreadsheets to organize your event, please consider staying within EventCORE. You may be tempted to export to a spreadsheet to stay within your comfort zone, you will be working with data that could quickly be outdated. Read the next paragraph to better understand why exports are a bad word in EventCORE.
 
Exporting the Datadump
When people used to ask me about doing a datadump, my first question used to be "why?"  What is it that you're going to gain by working with an external spreadsheet that you can't do on line?  But then heightened security regulations were issued in May of 2018, and now there is a very legitimate reason for doing a complete datadump. And that is to save your information.

Generally we are a strong advocate of only using an export of the data as a backup for safety or as a permanent record of your data post conference.  We do not recommend saving to spreadsheets for the purpose of circulating attendee lists, to manipulate and sort data or perform administrative actions.  

Still not convinced?  Read about "Spreadsheets are so last century..."

But if you do want to work with static data (and there are a few legitmate reasons), the process is as follows.

  1. Be logged in as an administrator.
  2. In the Admin Bar at the top, choose the "Attendees" Option
  3. Go to the drop down menu for "Choose View" (look for the binoculars icon)
  4. Select the view option labeled "DataDump"
  5. On the var right side, just under the validation date, there are a number of export options. Choose the one that you prefer.
  6. Based on your selection, the picked option will be performed. You may need to choose a save location or past to another document. Simply follow the on-screen directions.

All Data Export
If your main purposes of using the datadump is to do an export of all of your records, you can use a feature that exports all of your data directly into a .csv file. It is accessed by going to Admin: Other and then doing a search on the word "Export."

Making a Directory or Printing Name Tags
One of the true legitimate reasons for doing an export is to produce a directory or nametags.  The proceedure is the same as just highlighted.  You simply need to keep in mind the the process that your desired tool will need.  Most nametag generating software or directory publishing will use a mailmerge process and will access the data from a saved spreadsheet.  Check your supplier for additional instructions.  For additional assistance in merging data, consult your software or go to a search engine (Google, Yahoo, etc.) and type in key words like "Excel to Word" and it will bring up multiple suggestions for how to do this.  In most cases you are using the mail merge feature to import spreadsheet data into a document file.

Missing Data
If some expected columns are not showing up it could be that there is no unique data in that field. When the data for a column is the same in every row, for most rows the data will be surpressed.  For example, if you have a conference and you have people list country but everybody is coming from the same country, that country field will not be displayed in the datadump. In the case of a large conference, this typically is not an issue because you will most likely have at least two records that are different from each other. But if you're doing a test in the early stages and only have a few records in the database yet, many columns may be hidden from view if all of those records have the same data.  

Restricted View Export
One of the limitations of the "purchased" export software is that it always exports the entire table in it's raw, uploaded form instead of the onscreen view you've created with filters and searches.  This limitation can be overcome with a creative way to grab on-screen data.  It is explained in this training video, "Export Workaround for Limited View".

Loss of Leading Zeros
When you export the data, and import into Excel, it will often "strip" the leading zeros. This is a feature of the spreadsheet that is difficult to control on the server side. This typically happens to fields like zip codes, ID numbers, passport numbers and so forth that can begin with a zero. There is no easy solution other than to do a manual update of these numbers in your Excel file. You would do your export and then go back to EventCORE and pull up the columns in question and do a sort on that column. Highlight and manually change your Excel file for any that begin with a zero.

Timeout Error
If you have a large event with complex data collection, you may encounter a timeout error that prevents you from getting a datadump result. The reason and workaround are explained in the answer "Datadump Timeout Error."