Feature Request: Multiple export options

[Victor239]

Summary: Ability to export all data in a choice of several different formats:

• CSV (doesn't maintain relational data well, but is compatible with virtually any tool)
• JSON/XML (structured data means that it's suitable for full backups/archives, but requires being imported into Focalboard to be manipulated)
• SQLite/other database format (maintains relational data well and allows manipulating data in a database editor, but is compatible with fewer tools)

How important this is to me and why:

Before investing my time and data into any tool I want to be sure that there's no lock-in. If at any point I decide Focalboard isn't for me I want to be able to easily export my data so I can at the very least access and manipulate it locally. Only then am I most comfortable continuing to use it, because I don't have to worry "but what if it stops updating/they go closed-source/it becomes incompatible with my platform/etc".

Importance: High

Use cases:

1. Full backups
2. Import/export to similar apps
3. Interoperability with other tools

Additional context / similar features: Any examples of good implementations of this capability.

[chenilim]

Hi @Victor239, thanks for the input! Yes, data sovereignty is one of the major benefits of a self-hosted system, and Focalboard currently supports several ways to export your data:

• JSONL Archive: The JSON lines format is used for perf. This is also the import format.
  • Note that data files (images) aren't part of the export. These are stored in the /files folder, and can be copied separately.
• CSV: Individual boards and tables can be exported to CSV from the options menu
• SQLite: Not necessarily a supported method, but if your DB is SQLite (default), the focalboard.db file can simply be copied and queried directly.
• APIs: In addition, you could write export scripts against the REST API

Please let me know if you run into any issues with any of the above methods.

[Victor239]

Awesome! So glad to see that all the options are available.

After testing now I wasn't initially sure if JSON+CSV exports are working because there's no pop-up that the export was successful, but I can see now they've been saved to ~/Downloads/ directory. For the future a notification that it worked would be handy, but otherwise this feature looks great.

[chenilim]

Thanks @Victor239. I've created a new issue #174 to show a confirmation of export. On Chrome it shows a download at the bottom of the screen, but this might differ by browser. If you have a minute, please add any additional notes to the issue, and what browser / OS you are using. Thanks!