Once your intranet has been in use and user information has been added to it over time, there may be situations where you need to get an overview of what has been filled out in fields across user profiles.
An export of data from People to a CSV can be performed to assist with this, and it is the fastest way to answer questions about user information.
An export can be needed for various reasons, but common use cases are:
- To highlight which users have empty fields so these can be targeted for update (either by asking the user to fill these out themselves or a bulk import by a People administrator)
- To create the correct CSV template for use in a bulk import
- To check the data that has been entered by users into the fields is appropriate
- To create a CSV of user data for company records or to store elsewhere
- To assist with support issues or investigations (account state, which Roles or Groups all users are in, etc)
This guide will cover the steps to create an export.
Creating an export
An application administrator of the People application can perform exports of user data at any time.
1. Head to Admin > People > Export Users
2. Decide if you want to export all users or just those in a specific extranet, Role or Group.
If you want to export all users, leave the filters as they are because they are 'all' by default.
Please note: Blocked users will appear in exports regardless of the options chosen here, and that is expected.
3. Select the fields you wish to include in the export
You only need to select the fields you are interested in here; selecting all fields or a lot at once can cause the export to fail.
We strongly recommend leaving username, first name and last name selected (as they are by default) so that it's easy to identify which user is on each row in the CSV and avoid any misidentification of the data.
Any custom-created fields added to People by administrators will also appear here for selection.
4. Click the 'Filter' button
A preview of the information that will be created in a CSV will be shown at the bottom of the screen.
5. If you are happy with your selection, click 'CSV' to download the information to your device.
5a. If you want to change the included fields, you can click 'edit list' to do so, or 'reset' to start from scratch before choosing to download this again.
6. Open the downloaded CSV locally to view the contents and assist your use case
💡 Tip: Use the 'find' function in your chosen program to locate information or users easily
If you will be using the CSV to perform a bulk import, make sure to follow the advice outlined in our guide to adequately prepare this to be successful.
7. Repeat the steps to perform other exports and fulfil different use cases.
The fields exported and how the CSV is used offline will be different depending on what you are trying to achieve.
