Reporting Data Out of Bubble?

Need help
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I’m not terribly enamored with the Export to CSV functionality, as it’s unformatted, and there seems to be some issues with the data it exports (I’ve seen records split between lines, even when the data separator character isn’t present).

I’m wondering: how have others sent data from Bubble to another service, to create reports (ex. Google Sheets)?
I’ve tried using Blockspring, but that pushes one row at a time, not an entire report’s worth of an export. Bubble doesn’t yet support “walking” a table, so I’m a little stumped.

Thanks!

Rob

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I would be tempted to push Summary data out to a cloud database, and then run reporting on the top of this.

So as a row is created, push it out somewhere easily reportable.

An alternative is to use the Bubble API to access the data. This would be a more “modern” solution, but very much Bubble cutting edge :slightly_smiling:

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Thanks @NigelG. The issue seems to be transactional data vs. first-run.
(ex. pushing record-by-record vs. getting all the initial stuff out there, or a large export of data).

Blockspring doesn’t seem to support a full search-and-push to Google Sheets, so I’m looking into the Bubble Zapier zap. Although, I’m having issues with it finding the workflow I created with the zap webhook/action. One thing at a time, I suppose.

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I know, it is frustrating. There is such amazing potential with Bubble and Cloud Databases and Cloud BI etc … but we are a way off it being “simple”.

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Agreed! Bubble has me very excited for its current functionality, and for future potential. I like designing again!

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Reactivating this thread, in hopes others are feeling the same frustration with getting data out of Bubble:

Trying to get data out of bubble for on-the-fly reporting is proving to be very difficult, and convoluted. I’ve tried some of the suggestions made, and each has its own issue:

  • Pushing each record, every time it’s updated, to a secondary reporting table (or external API) is not efficient, in my opinion, and does not allow for any sort of filtering
  • Manually mapping fields to an external API (ex. Google Sheets via Zapier) is not efficient, because it can’t walk a table.
  • Exporting Data via CSV is not efficient due to normalized data, living in other tables, that has to be re-joined via multiple CSV downloads, and VLOOKUPs. It also exports every single field.
  • A simple copy-paste of a Bubble table into Microsoft Word or Excel doesn’t even work, because it can’t capture the table structure; One row of data ends up in one cell.
  • Trying to piece together an API call to get data out of Bubble is difficult, since I don’t have the API knowledge, and don’t necessarily feel like I should have to go through all that trouble just to get exportable, end-user quality data.

As for partners, AirDev only officially works on complete applications, but I’m thankful to @ahaller07 for offering to spend time to go through my concerns. I’ve only just submitted a request to Bubblewits, to see if they can help.

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I give up.

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Thanks for your thoughts @NigelG. Most data repository solutions don’t require exporting the data to another repository to report on it.

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I get the frustration, however I think it comes down to accessibility for new Bubblers. Each new feature or add on is going to have it’s corresponding increase in complexity of use. The more complex the less likely they are to reach those potential users who are attracted to the marketed ease of use. So I think the Bubble developers have to find that careful balance and that is going to take a little bit of time. Let’s be patient. They are rolling out some great stuff!!

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Oh, absolutely. But I also think that new users will also want a way to get data out of their instances in some usable format.

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Hello there,

Can you help us understand

  1. What are you trying to achieve? In other words, what is the bigger picture you’re using these exports for?
  2. Can you potentially do the reporting in Bubble directly?
  3. What would your ideal data format / export look like?
  4. You might be able to export everything using the new DataBase connector and Bulk actions
    https://bubble.io/reference#Plugins.dbconnector
    https://bubble.io/reference#Interface.DatabaseViewer.BulkAction
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Thanks for your reply, @georgeciobanu, and I appreciate that you’re constantly adding new features. I really like the Bubble Platform for its ease-of-use, and simplicity.

The donor/donation tracking system I’ve designed is filling a gap that exists in the process, prior to the donor entering their donation in an auction-tracking website (501auctions.com). We currently have no way to track prospective donors, anticipate receipt of those donations, etc.

1.) So, I need reports that will be easily exportable to compare what’s been entered in Bubble against what comes from the 501 Auction website (not designed by me, not on the Bubble Platform). This includes: donations entered, donor contact information, etc.

2.) I could build the reports in Bubble, yes, however the result isn’t a true table, or allow an export of the screen results. If I copy/paste the results into Microsoft Word or Excel, the table format is lost, and all the data from one row of the table ends up all jammed together in one cell.

The current CSV exports are problematic, don’t allow for friendly header row naming, don’t allow for filtering, some rows of data get split between rows, and the extra effort to re-join all the normalized data is a big pain.

Example: Below line 13 should be more Assigned To unique identifiers, but instead text from a multi-line field is chopped up into multiple rows, disturbing the data set.

3.) My ideal data format would be in Excel (.xls or .xlsx) format; the result of a search/filter, allowing combination of tables (de-normalization/re-joining of data), with friendly headers.

4.) I’ll take a look at the DB Connector and Bulk Database Action, to see if they help.

Thanks!

Rob

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@georgeciobanu - do you have any details on using the Database Connector plugin? There’s nothing in the documentation about what string, and such to use to connect to a Bubble database using the connector.

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Hi Rob,

  1. How do you obtain the data form the other site? API, CSV?
  2. Sounds like a bug - please shoot and email to support@ and we will look into it. Make sure to include a way for us to generate a sample report - greatly accelerates fixing it.
  3. Once #2 is fixed, building that tool is a lower priority for us since there are so many products out there (Excel is not too bad) at doing this, and so many other features you guys are asking for :slight_smile:
  4. I actually think Blockspring might have more high-level functionality for what you want to do - look at their toolset, one of them is a neat Google Spreadsheet integration - people on this forum used it so there’s quite a bit of info around.
    To answer your question around the DB connector (thank you for asking, I also updated the documentation):
    A connection string takes this form: postgres://user:password@server_address:port/database_name. For MySQL replace ‘postgres’ with ‘mysql’

An example: postgres://rob:secret_password@128.203.134.78:5432/employees

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Rob,

I just added more details you can play with right away - see [New Feature] Database connector

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Hi Nigel,

Can you pls share an example of a POST command that exports data from the database in Bubble to a URL in json.

Thx.

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I am not sure a POST will do it.

You can get the data with a GET.

Or are you trying to do something different ?

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Hey Team Bubble - just digging this old gem out of the dusty closet. Completely get that there are bigger fish to fry in the feature pond, but having the ability to copy a Bubble Table and paste it into an Excel or Google Sheet would seem to be super helpful for teams that want to pull data out of Bubble (and in an admittedly self-serving way…for one large client of mine).

I’ve built them an admin site with reporting functionality they can run themselves to monitor their business. They love everything about the new system, but want to drop the data from the reports into Excel or Sheets for further analysis and internal distribution.

Currently copying one row with four columns of info in Bubble pastes into Sheets as four rows of data.

I know that CSVs and integrations have all been discussed at length, so I’m guessing that means there’s no silver bullet on the “copy & paste” issue…but thought I’d ask just in case I’m simply doing something wrong in the setup of the data. I guess I could also be copying and pasting incorrectly…in which case I’m closing this laptop, having dinner and never opening it again).

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You can already copy things from the data admin panel, but as soon as the db is large this isn’t realistic. Exporting as CSV or, better, using the GET api is the way to go then.

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