Exporting Data

Overview

Squirrelcart supports exporting data from any table in the control panel, in several formats

Requirements

PHP 5.1.0 or newer
XLS and XLSX formats require PHP 5.2.0 or newer

Export File Formats

CSV - Comma Separated Values

This format is recommended. CSV files can be opened by all versions of Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet applications. Performance when exporting to a CSV file is much better especially when exporting a large number of rows.

XLS - Microsoft Excel format, prior to 2007

This format works in all versions of MS Excel and has the most backwards compatibility with older versions of Excel.

XLSX - Microsoft Excel format from 2007 onward

This is the default MS Excel format for Excel 2007 and newer.

How to Export Data

Open the table or view you wish to export data from
Click the Export link in the lower right hand corner below the table:
Choose the format you wish to export to from the menu:
Save the file when prompted

Performance

Squirrelcart will grab records in groups of 1000 by default. The Export Limit setting found in the Control Panel fieldset on the Store Settings page controls this limit. Inceasing this number may make exports faster. However, the larger the number, the more memory it will take to create the export.

The CSV format streams data directly to your browser and is the best format to choose from a performance perspective. The XLS and XLSX formats are generated using a free library called PHPExcel. This library must open the entire spreadsheet in memory before it is sent to your browser. This may result in slower performance for large downloads. For very large downloads, the XLS and XLSX formats may fail to export completely if it requires more memory than your PHP server is configured to allow via it's memory_limit setting.