Document Export & Export templates
Being able to export data, is a crucial feature of business software. Most applications offer export formats like XLS, XML or HTML with a fixed set of data-fields and a static internal markup. We also tried to take this road, but realized its drawbacks very soon.
We felt the need for a new approach, driven by the fact that we don’t know how our users want their data. Paired with our reach for freedom, we implement an outstanding flexible export system. It is based on export-templates which define:
- exportable data-fields (through placeholders)
- arbitrary text-based output: HTML, XML, CSV, Plain text, … whatever you want!
To aid with HTML/XML generation one can further choose between HAML or Textile markup.
Export template creating a HTML table. Uses HAML Markup.
An export template is bound to a specific data type(invoices, estimates, clients) and will show up in the export dialog. To create a new export activate the batch control and choose the green arrow. Finished exports are saved to the export log, from where the file can be downloaded.
Create a new export
Of course, we have not yet reached all of our goals, so our roadmap contains:
- email an export
- export attachments (archived PDF)
- export all records by a given filter