Exporting the Tree to CSV

In the toolbar, you will find the Export button. This feature is designed to export the visual Tree View into a CSV file, which can be used for reporting, offline analysis, or as a backup.

Functionality

  1. Click on the Export button to initiate the download of the current view.

    export-button-tree-example-task-board.png
    Export Tree
  2. The generated CSV file will encapsulate the connections along with the item fields currently active in the view.

The downloaded file can be opened with any spreadsheet software that supports the CSV format like Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers or Google Sheets

Representation of the Tree View in the CSV Export

The CSV file produced by the Export function presents the project's tree structure in a tabular format, where each item node from the tree is translated into a single row within the spreadsheet.

Key Points of the CSV Structure –

  • One Item Node Per Row: Every item node in the tree structure corresponds to one row in the CSV file. This one-to-one mapping ensures a clear and organized representation of each item from the Links Explorer. You can identify the node represented in the row by looking at the Item name column in the CSV.

  • Indent Level: The Indent Level column indicates the hierarchical position of an item within the tree. Items at the top level have a lower indent level, while nested items show a higher indent level, maintaining the parent-child relationships present in the visual tree.

  • Link Column: In the tree, item-nodes are visually connected by the link-nodes to denote board connections/links. In the CSV, this corresponds to the Link column which identifies the parent link-node of the item. This establishes the relationship between the item and its predecessor in the hierarchy.

  • Other Field columns: After the above tree specific columns, you will see the other field values spread out as columns. Each item-node information field is represented as a column and its value for a row will be the corresponding value in that item node. If an information field is irrelevant to or absent in a node, the corresponding cell would be left empty.

Example

For example, let us consider the Tree view of the Tasks board –

csv-example-task-board-tree-view.png
The Tasks Board in Tree View

When we export this tree, we will get the CSV file with the following content –

Let us examine the correspondence between the tree and the exported file –

  1. Each item in the tree has a row for itself.

  2. Each row has an indent value, that corresponds to its depth in the tree.

    1. For example, Username and Password based login , has an indent level 1.

    2. The next level item nodes have an indent level of 2. Similarly, their child item nodes would have an indent level of 3 and so on.

  3. In the Tree View, consider the item nodes Username and Password based login and Validate Username and password based login scenario

    1. Observe that Username and Password based login is connected to Validate Username and password based login scenario by the Validated By board connection.

    2. Now, observe the CSV file. Here, we see that the row corresponding to Validate Username and password based login scenario has the indent value 2, meaning that it is one level deeper than Username and Password based login(having level 1).

    3. But how do we know what the relation between both of these items is? This information lies in the Link column of the Validate Username and password based login scenario row. The value of link column here is Validated By, which corresponds to the connecting link node in the tree.

  4. Alongside the Indent, Item Name and Link columns, you will find data columns of the item card spread out as columns. Looking at the first row, we can see its information fields: Board name, Person and Status.