Report Exports via the GUI

jrobgood · Post by **jrobgood** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:45 pm

So, Exporting reports is no longer available via the GUI. I understand there's a new data conduit tool available for AC7, but I need to voice my opinion here that I think that's a huge step backwards for end users. It should be noted that while having a two-way data condit is huge for developers and implementers, AC7 has taken away a very very important function that is critical to most people who will actually be USING the product on a day to day basis, post install.

Here's my use case example:

1. We sold a project to our client based on the live demo of AC5.
2. This client requires their Accounting team to log in to the UI and download tax collection reports to maintain compliance on their end.
3. This client requires their Shipping team (outsourced to a fulfillment house that cannot do an EDI or XML feed, which does stink) to log in and download an order report to pick and pack from.
4. We require a low-level assistant to be able to log in and download a sales report to actualize against the merchant gateway settlement report.

Now, all of this falls apart because...

- The client won't install an app locally on dozens of employees' desktops to run the data client.
- The fulfillment house can't do anything more complicated than opening an excel from an on-screen download. Running the data tool is a non-starter
- Our front office team run on Macs, so they can't run the data tool

OK, thanks for listening.

Post by **Shopping Cart Admin** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:06 pm

Hello,

Which report are you talking about? None of the 5.5 reports could be downloaded in csv value.

jrobgood · Post by **jrobgood** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:20 pm

MANAGE > ORDERS > (run query) > EXPORT > EXPORT FORMAT > next

...so technically, yes, those are not REPORTS proper, per the UI, but still extremely important ways to get order data from the app.

Will · Post by **Will** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 4:28 pm

I second this request -- move the desktop data tool to the browser. The implementation is pretty much DOA for us as well for the same reasons: distributed locations with different capabilities, multiple people needing different data (eg: accountants, fulfillment, managers, etc.), 50/50 Mac/Windows split.

Volusion has a great system for this you might want to check out as a benchmark. They've got canned reports for things like WorldShip, but also allow you to build reports off of most of the tables in the database -- using the browser.

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 5:02 pm

Hostmaster on the forum here is having the same problems. He needs to be able to get his order info out of AC7 for UPS integration. Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but I couldn't find the function.

Will · Post by **Will** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 5:21 pm

There's a radio button in the download report section of most recent datatool release that says "UPS WorldShip".

I haven't tried it yet, but I can't expect our fulfillment folks to go through that multi-step desktop process every day.

Ideally we would be able to connect WorldShip to the database using their Online Connect feature. It lets you create the necessary mappings and import shipping data directly from your database. WorldShip can also export back to the database after you print the labels -- so the tracking number import could be automated as well.

Barring that, at minimum we should be able to create a one-click download to save a csv file we can import into WorldShip.

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:00 am

Download csv file- that's what I did for a client in 5.5. He tried the export routine and didn't like it, so I just made changes to code we used to do it. I don't know C# well enough.
It would be great if we had an interface where we could select fields from an order and export them. We are probably all not going to want the same fields.

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