Export properties

The screen shows only the export properties applicable to the chosen Delivery method, and Export format.

Name

(required) Name of the Export specification. Use a short, descriptive name that follows the naming convention for your Company. Avoid special characters such as "&".

Description

Internal comments about this item. Best practice is to enter a description of the item, include the date it was added, who added it, and its intended use.

Order or Priority

(required) Order in which this specification appears in the lists; lower numbers towards the top, higher towards the bottom.

Export via

Exports can be sent to external systems or people, and they can be downloaded from reports via one of the delivery methods. See Delivery methods, below, for details about these options.

Data type

The types of data to export:

• Record-level (Surveys) — Data from individual survey records.
• Aggregate (analytics report) — Data generated from an Analytics Report.

Lifetime of Feed Files

Count of days to retain imported files and processing reports. After this many calendar days, the files are purged from the data centers.

Survey exports only create feed files when there is an export-import process, for information about this type of processes see Export to Auto Importer.

The Company settings screen specifies the default limit for the company. This setting overrides the global company setting for this feed.

This setting does NOT affect files retained on company-hosted or Medallia-hosted FTP/SFTP hosts.

Important: To comply with GDPR policies, files are deleted after 30 days.

Export format

Format of the exported data. The format of the exported data. to use depends on the chosen Delivery method (Export via property).

• For download exports the user chooses the format to use from the list selected in the export specification.
• For push reports there is only one format.

For descriptions of the formats, see Export formats, below, for details.

File Name

(required) Name of the exported file.

The export process automatically appends the appropriate extension for Excel, CSV, and SPSS formats only. For other formats, include the extension. When using compression, the compression extension will be appended after the format, like this: optout_export.txt.zip.

Warning: The filename should use alpha-numeric characters, and underscores only. Do not use spaces, punctuation (including colons ':' ), and other special characters because the target file system might not support them in the filename. Especially be aware that the default format for $DATETIME$ includes a colon separator, and the default for $FN_DATETIME$ includes a space character. When using either, be sure to use one of the safe formatting options.

Use dynamic variables to customize the name, such as: "optout_export_$DATETIME$.txt".

Variable	Description
$COMPANY_NAME$	Company name as defined in Company settings.
$COMPANY_URL$	Company URL as defined in Company settings.
$DATE$	Date export completed. The Date format property defines the format.
$DATETIME$	Date/time export completed. The Datetime format property defines the format.
$FN_DATETIME$	Filename date/time. Either the end of the timeperiod when using timeperiods, or the time of the export (Time period is None). The Filename datetime format property defines the format.
$NUM_ROWS$	The count of data rows in the export file (does not include the header row in the count). This variable is only applicable for files exported and uploaded to SFTP, FTP, and FTPS servers.
$NUM_ROWS_INCLUDING_HEADER$	The count of all rows in the export file, including one for the header row). This variable is only applicable for files exported and uploaded to SFTP, FTP, and FTPS servers.

For example: $COMPANY_NAME$_responses_export_$FN_DATETIME$ will return a file named bp_responses_export_2022-08-09_144114, for:

• $COMPANY_NAME$ — bp
• $FN_DATETIME$ — yyyy-MM-dd_HHmmss for October 9, 2022 at 2:41 PM.

Note: These dynamic variables are only used to customize the name and do not impact DateTime fields included in the export.

Tip: Except where noted, these variables can also be used in the Email options, such as Email subject and Email from name.

Success email report to

Email addresses (comma separated) to receive notification the export completed.

Failure email report to

Email addresses (comma separated) to receive notification the export failed. This can happen when, for example, there is bad authentication, the server is down, or some problem creating the file.

Important: Note that no data is lost in the event of a failed export, as it will be included in the next run.

When the scheduled export file is empty (contains no records), it is considered a "failure" and the failure email report is sent, regardless of the settings of the Do not send empty exports option.

Important: For email exports, the reporting system only confirms the email was sent from Medallia. It does not detect or report failures occurring on the recipient's side. For example, if an email export bounced due to an erroneous email address, the system sends a success report.

Download as myself

Allows Internal Administrators to locally download unencrypted survey data in the format chosen by the user without adhering to the Export Since option (see Filtering options and Data access context below). This is a useful tool for testing exports.

The formats available to download the data are the formats selected as export formats. For more information, see Export format options.

Warning: Verify the filters are set correctly before using this option; downloading a huge set of records can create a significant impact on system performance.

Export survey data now as myself

Allows Internal Administrators to trigger an export with the current configuration without adhering to the Export Since option (see Filtering options and Data access context below). This is a useful tool for testing exports.

Responses / Invitations filter options

This section is visible for Responses, Invitations and AskNow filters, and also manual downloads (specified in Export via). It also applies when no delivery method is selected (None). See Manual and Responses, Invitations, and AskNow filter downloads for more details.

Formatting options

Formatting option properties vary depending on the selected Export format. This is the complete list.

Encoding

Character set of the exported text-based content. The most common set is UTF. Choosing None defaults to UTF.

Enumerated alternative sets format

How to export Alternative field values.

A field based on an Alternative value is an enumeration where the field's value is one of a set of elements predefined by the field's alternative set (Alt Set). Each element has a Sequence Number, an In report label or "name", and an optional Numeric value. For example, a "Contact Type" field might have three alternative values, like this:

Seq  NumVal  In report
---- ------- -----------
0    100     In person
1    140     Phone call
2    165     Web site

When a field is assigned one of these elements, all three properties are available for export. Additionally:

• Sequence number never changes and is the safest value to export. This value is useful for profile questions. However, this option requires the export recipient know what the values mean.

• Numeric value is optional, can be any number, and can change. This value is useful for ratings questions and for performing statistical calculations.

• In report must have a value, and it can be changed. This value is useful for presentation.

Note: When a survey question is based on an Alt Set and the customer does not make a selection, or if the customer chooses "N/A", the field value is empty.

When the field is a system field (A-Field) this option determines how to export values as follows:

Option	Export
Sequence number	(safest) Use Sequence number.
Numeric	Use Numeric Value. If the field is empty, export as as null. Note: Using null is hard to distinguish between skipped questions and those where "N/A" was chosen.
Name	Use In report.
Numeric or name	(recommended) Use Numeric value. If the field is empty, use In report instead.
Numeric or sequence number	Use Numeric Value. If the field is empty, use Sequence Number instead.
Export value	Use Numeric Value if the datatype can be exported as a numeric value (Alt Set, Export value is numeric is true); otherwise, export as text.

Field name format

The value to export for field names (column headings). This option identifies the Fields property that contains the value to use.

Field name format	Fields property to use
Name	(default) Name
Name in survey	Feedback fields: Short name (question prompt) All others: Name Note: SPSS export format truncates the output to 120 characters (UTF bytes).
Client identifier	Client identifier; if empty, use Keyname instead.
Export label	Export label; if empty, use Keyname.

Note: The custom String-template Export-format, can override this setting to use either the Name or Keyname properties.

Date format

Java date formatting pattern for the $DATE$ variable. Common patterns include:

yyyy-MM-dd (default)
MM/dd/yyyy
yyyMMdd

See Date and time formatting for details about the patterns.

Datetime format

Java date formatting pattern for the $DATETIME$ variable. Common patterns include:

yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss (default)
yyyy_MM_dd_HH_mm_ss
yyyy.MM.dd HH:mm:ss Z
MM/dd/yyyy HHmmss

See Date and time formatting for details about the patterns.

Filename datetime format

Java date format pattern to use for the $FN_DATETIME$ variable. Common patterns include:

yyyy-MM-dd HH-mm-ss (default: note space separator)
yyyy-MM-dd_HH-mm-ss (‘_’ separator)

yyyy_MM_dd_HH_mm_ss

Note: Avoid characters that are reserved in filenames, especially colons (:).

Warning: When using $DATETIME$ in a filename, the pattern should use alpha-numeric characters, and underscores only. Do not use spaces, punctuation (including colons : ), and other special characters because the target file system might not support them in the filename. Especially be aware that the default format for $DATETIME$ includes a colon separator, and the default for $FN_DATETIME$ includes a space character. When using either, be sure to use one of the safe formatting options.

The value of the $FN_DATETIME$ variable depends on other properties and where the variable is used. Specifically, for

• Aggregate reports the value is the time when the export is processed.
• Surveys the current time in the U.S. Pacific timezone unless the Export time field property is Survey date, then the value is the time when the survey was created and the invitation sent out (e_creationdate).

See Date and time formatting for details about the patterns.

Excel template

Template to use when the Export format is Excel 2007. Omit this option to use the default template. See Excel template for details.

This export is normalized

Data is displayed in a normalized form. Instead of having a single row per survey record, each survey field will be exported on a separate row identified by user-selected key fields.

Restriction: This option is only available for CSV (Excel compatible) and Excel 2007 export formats.

Multi-valued field format

How to export multi-valued fields for normalized exports.

Consider field Text Analytics topics a_text_analytics_topics). It stores a list of topics for text analyzed as part of a survey: ["Topic 1","Topic2", "Topic 3"].

Survey ID	Field	Data type	Value	Label
1234	a_text_analytics_topics	MULTI-VALUED(TEXT)	["Topic 1","Topic 2","Topic 3"]	["Topic 1","Topic 2","Topic 3"]
1234	a_text_analytics_topics	MULTI-VALUED(TEXT)	Topic 1	Topic 1
1234	a_text_analytics_topics	MULTI-VALUED(TEXT)	Topic 2	Topic 2
1234	a_text_analytics_topics	MULTI-VALUED(TEXT)	Topic 3	Topic 3

The list can be exported as a single row:

Survey ID	Field name	Field type	Value	Label
1234	Text Analytics topics	MULTI-VALUED(TEXT)	["Topic 1","Topic 2","Topic 3"]	["Topic 1","Topic 2","Topic 3"]

Or it can be split with each value within the list as a separate line item:

Survey ID	Field name	Field type	Value	Label
1234	Text Analytics topics	MULTI-VALUED(TEXT)	Topic 1	Topic 1
1234	Text Analytics topics	MULTI-VALUED(TEXT)	Topic 2	Topic 2
1234	Text Analytics topics	MULTI-VALUED(TEXT)	Topic 3	Topic 3

Data to export

Data set to export based on a list of fields for survey records, or an AA2 report for aggregate exports.

Fields to export

Fields to include in the export, listed in the order they appear in the survey record.

Tip: To export translated (localized) fields:

1. In Company A-fields, choose the fields to be translated in the Translated Fields box. This creates three new fields on the A-fields screen for every chosen field.
2. In Exports, include the field whose name begins with "Translation to English for…”.

For normalized exports, select the fields that will be exported as rows. For each field, the exported file will show the following data:

• Field name

• Field type

• Value

Key Fields

This multiple field selector appears after you select This export is normalized and click Save. Select key fields to uniquely identify surveys, although extra fields with non-unique values can also be added. The selected fields are repeated in all the rows of the survey that is exported. Multi-valued fields can be exported as a single row or each value can be exported as a separate row. For more details about normalized exports see Formatting options.

The field a_surveyid is selected by default and cannot be unselected.

Analytics Report

Analytics report (AA2) that defines the data to export.

Schedule options

Available for push exports (email and file transfer).

Schedule

Specifies when and how often an export will automatically be produced and delivered using an Import schedule. See Schedules for details about schedule properties.

Important: Export Timeperiods are always in the Pacific Standard Time (PST). However, schedules can run based on other time zones. This can cause confusion and unexpected results. For example, a Timeperiod of “Yesterday” shows the previous day’s results. If the export is scheduled to run at 0100 EST (Eastern Time) on May 5th, the export results will be from May 3rd because the Timeperiod is evaluated at 2200 PST.

To reduce the confusion, ensure that schedules are set up with the time difference to PST in mind (in the example above, do not run the schedule before midnight PST).

Filtering options

Available for survey record exports only.

Do not send empty exports

Whether or not to deliver the export when it has no survey records or the aggregate report is empty. When an empty export happens, an email is sent to the Failure email report to address, regardless of the state of this property.

Survey Condition

Identifies survey records to export based on a simple comparison.

Note: This filter is very slow because it is applied after the other Exporter constraints have retrieved a set of records to export. Whenever possible, use the Episode Condition instead, because they are applied in the database before retrieving records.

Use a ‘<field><operator><value>’ syntax, like:

e_mail = "ry.cooder@example.com"

See  Conditional expressions for details about the syntax and options for the survey condition expression.

Episode Conditions match any

How to combine episode filter results.

• Unchecked — Default. Records must match ALL filters (AND condition).
• Checked — Records must match ONE filter (OR condition)

See Episode Condition below for details about this property.

Use Export Since

Only include survey records added since the last time this export specification was run (as shown in the Export since property). Otherwise, include all records that meet the filter conditions.

Tip: When exporting survey records, it is best to use Initial finish date (e_initialfinishdate) for the Export time field.

This option has no effect when a Timeperiod is selected (not None) because that option has priority over this one.

Restriction: An export must have either Use Export Since or a Timeperiod (that is not None). When there is no Timeperiod value, the Use Export Since option is automatically turned on when saving the specification.

Export Since

(read only) Timestamp that will be used for the starting time of the next export. Usually this is the time when the last scheduled export started. Change this value with Override Export Since.

Important: Export Since only updates upon a successful export. For example: if the connection to an external SFTP server fails on a schedule at 1PM, the Export Since date is not updated for this failure. Thus, the 2PM schedule will include 2 hours of data.

Override Export Since

Timestamp to use as the starting timeperiod of records to export when not using the Timeperiod property. Format is yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.

Timeperiod

Export only records within this time range. Options include:

• None, all records available based on Filter options and Use Export Since properties.
• A defined Timeperiod, such as Yesterday or Last Week.

The timeperiod is based on the field selected in the Export time field option.

Tip: Schedule exports to run several hours after the timeperiod ends to ensure completeness. 10 hours is usually a good delay.

Restriction: An export must have either Use Export Since or a Timeperiod (that is not None). When there is no Timeperiod value, the Use Export Since option is automatically turned on when saving the specification.

Export time field

Field used to identify the time range to apply to survey records during export as follows:

• When a Timeperiod is selected, this is the field the Timeperiod uses. Only records whose value for this field are within the range are exported.
• Otherwise this option has no effect.

Here are the most commonly used fields:

Date/time field	Description
Initial finish date	When the survey was first accepted for reporting; usually happens after testing for Alerts (e_initialfinishdate). Once set, this value never changes, unlike Accepted date (e_accepteddate) which can change. Tip: For survey records, use this field when Use Export Since is enabled. The only timefields that are safe to use when you select Export since are Last change date, Initial finish date, and Text analytics completed date. This field is not useful for exporting invitation records, nor for catching records that have changed due to Alert activity. To export based on Alert activity, use one of the a_alert_* timestamp fields.
Survey creation date	When the survey has been fully processed and is now ready for sampling (e_record_creationdate). Note: For companies that send their own invitations, use Survey available date (e_survey_available_date) instead, especially if the invitation needs to include a URL to the survey.
Survey date	When the survey was created, but import processing may not be complete (e_creationdate). Tip: Generally, this is not a good timestamp to use for export because the record has not been fully processed. Record creation date (e_record_creationdate) is a better field to use.
Response date	When the survey was completed (e_responsedate). Do not use this field when Use Export Since is enabled. This field value is set before the survey record is processed, and as such, the record might not be ready for export. But the next time export runs, such a record would be missed.
Last change date	When any externally visible field in the survey was last updated (e_lastupdated), including when a User makes a change to the record on the Responses report. Internal (system-only) field changes do not update this field. Use this field when the company is willing to accept multiple (updated) instances of the same record. Tip: The only timefields that are safe to use when you select Export since are Last change date, Initial finish date, and Text analytics completed date. Other fields are set before the record is available to the application so, if you use any of those instead, records that are completed right before the export goes out might not be included.
Accepted date	When the completed survey was processed and results made available to reports and alerts (e_accepteddate). Do not use this field when Use Export Since is enabled. This field value changes over time, such after an opt-out or after some Alert activity.
Text analytics completed date	When Medallia Text Analytics completed work on the survey (e_ta_completed_date). This is when the survey became COMPLETED and the ACCEPTED_DATE was set. Further, this date is Set even if text analytics is disabled for the company or does not affect the survey. Not set for surveys that are imported straight into COMPLETED status. Not updated when text analytics changes, for example during reparsing, translation updates or when topics are re-published. Tip: The only timefields that are safe to use when you select Export since are Last change date, Initial finish date, and Text analytics completed date. Other fields are set before the record is available to the application so, if you use any of those instead, records that are completed right before the export goes out might not be included.

For a detailed illustration of the milestones in the life of a survey record, see Feedback record events.

Export end time field

Field used to check the upper bound of the selected time period. Use None (default) to use the Time field selection for both bounds of the time period.

Exclude partially completed invite (personalized) surveys

Select this option to excludes partially completed feed-based surveys.

Exclude partially complete anonymous surveys

Select this option to exclude partially completed anonymous surveys.

Data access context

When you select Download as myself or Export survey data now as myself, the export filters the data according to the member permission contexts assigned to the role of the user.

By contrast, for scheduled exports, Experience Cloud uses the member permission context of the role whose role type is COMPANY to filter the data.

For information about role types and member permission contexts, see Roles.

Text Analytics Filtering options

Encryption / Compression

How to encrypt or compress the exported file.

Encryption Key

Public encryption key provided by the company for encrypting the data. A key is a long string of text in Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) format. This fields accepts only one key. The export will always be encrypted when there is text in this field. For more information, see PGP keys.

Important: This is not the same as a password, and is different from the SSH key pairs required by the SFTP delivery method.

Add encryption extension to filename

Adds the Encryption extension to the filename, after the file format extension (such as ".csv.pgp"). Otherwise, the filename ends with just the file format extension.

Compression

Select compression to use. Encryption already includes compression; do not use both. The appropriate extension will be added to the filename automatically.

Episode Condition

Identifies survey records to export based on the value of a field. Filters have a name to easily identify them, and a condition that compares a field to a value based on a conditional operator.

Episode filters are faster than the Survey Condition property filter; however, for the best performance, the field should be configured for indexing (per the Used for … Episode Conditions … Fields option). Non-indexed fields are allowed, and when chosen, the screen will show a performance warning message below the chosen field.

This example returns only those survey records that are part of the Documentation Feedback survey program:

An export specification can have multiple episode conditions. When there are more than one, and also when a Survey Condition exists, the Episode Conditions match any property specifies whether to AND the results (all must be true), or OR them (one must be true). By default, all results must be true (AND).

When using the Between operator with timestamps:

• Put the start date on the first line of the Value field, and the end date on the second line.
• The values must be in YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss format.
• The range is inclusive ( >= start and <= end).
• The field must be an Event field; System fields are not allowed.

Tips and best practices

• To test the export and see the results without delivering the data, choose one of these options at the top of the Exports editor:
  • Download Excel 2007 creates a CSV file named by the Filename property.
  • Open in browser shows the same CSV data in a browser window.

  Additionally:

  • Both of these methods ignore encryption and show all data in the clear.

  • These options recognize the Export timeperiod settings, but do not change the Last export run on timestamp.

  • Consider using the Filters to limit the results to a small set. Very large sets can have performance impacts.

• See Monitoring survey exports for information about reporting on the export processes.

• Use Episode Conditions instead of Survey Conditions. Episode Conditions are much faster than Survey Conditions. Episode Condition filtering is done by the database itself, taking advantage of indices on the survey tables. Survey Conditions, on the other hand, load the entire data then perform filtering.

  • If you want to use an Event or Feedback in the Episode Condition but it does not show up in the Episode Condition Field dropdown, you have to apply an index to that field by selecting a checkbox on the Fields setup page for that field, and running a backfill.

  • If your condition requires multiple fields, and some cannot be used in an Episode Condition, create a combination of Episode and Survey Conditions. This will speed up processing by limiting the set the Survey Condition must evaluate.

• Almost all survey exports should have an Episode Condition based on Survey status (e_status). This is mandatory for exports where an external system is used to send the invitations.

• When using fields with Date, Time, or Date/Time data type to export survey records:

  • Use Record creation date (e_record_creation_date) to identify new records that have been fully created and are ready for exporting.

  • When using Export time field, select Initial finish date (e_initialfinishdate).

  • Avoid using Last updated (e_lastupdated) because it gets updated every time the record changes, such as adding comments in a Response. This means that the same record will appear in many exports over time.

• When handling exports for single time zones, use Timeperiod instead of Export Since.
  • Export Since is very difficult to service because past exports are not saved anywhere and it is difficult to recreate exports to troubleshoot any incidents.
  • By using Timeperiod, you can add a buffer period after the end of the timeperiod to schedule the export to run. This will allow time for any field updates to be available in the application. The recommendation is 10 hours after the timeperiod ends.
  • You can more safely use other Export Time Fields.

• When handling multiple time zones, it is easier to use export since and reference a time-shifted K-Field as the export time field. Note that Experience Cloud still operates on Pacific time when picking the timeperiod.

• When you select Export Since, use only fields Last change date, Initial finish date, and Text analytics completed date. The rest of the fields are set before the record is available to the application so, if you use those instead, some records might not be included in the export.

• For exports using a timeperiod, we recommend configuring the export to go out some time (about 10 hours) after the timeperiod ends.

• When using K-fields, mark them Export Only.

• When making delimited exports that include Text or comment data types, make sure to use RegEx replace to escape the characters that you are using for the delimiter so that if those characters are in in the text/comment fields, they will not be recognized as a delimiter.

• Educate the company that text-file exports will be LF-only (linefeed terminated), not CRLF. Most import application can accept either LF or CRLF. If the company insists, consider using CSV (Excel compatible) or a String Template Export formats.

Troubleshooting

• For filter exports, the Control panel Timeperiod field is not the same as the Survey Export timeperiod field; the latter is used for $FN_DATETIME$ formatting but is hidden for aggregate exports.
• Verify there are no special characters in the filename.
• If there seems to be something wrong with the export:
  • Try using the Download button to see if it is an error with the actual export process. The download result is unencrypted.
  • Check the Email Failed message for an explanation of problems. For example, this export failed because it was using a chart instead of a report:

********************************
* Medallia export results report
* Status   :  FAILED (NonFatalErrorException - Charts cannot be exported - query: ...
* Client   :  Example (https://...medallia.com/example)
* Source   :  Test export of analytics
* Type     :  Email
* Scheduled:  2015-07-22 10:27:41
* Started  :  2015-07-22 10:27:41
********************************