ForumsTips & TricksHow To Export A Copy Of Your Toodledo
How To Export A Copy Of Your Toodledo
| Author | Message |
|---|---|
|
Anders |
I just thought I would make a post for people who are not familiar with export tools like those on Toodledo, or the filetypes they produce. This will be very basic. Obviously Toodledo has our backs covered with multiple means of backup, but it is always a good idea to make a copy of your data because there are just risks that go along with modern computing like viruses, sync errors, and natural disasters.
Exporting a copy of your Toodledo tasks is quite easy. The XML, CSV, and Text Import/Export tools are all under Import/Export/Sync . The three different tools export and import three different file types. XML files contain a fancy computer language that has many uses for people who know how to use it. I am not one of them, and they don't need to read this post anyway. If you are like me, all you need to know about XML is it is the best way to make the most complete backup of your tasks. You can open the file with a web browser or many document apps, but editing is more complicated. CSV export is a good choice as well. If you want to get your completed tasks, they need to be downloaded as a separate file. Comma Separated Values files are a common format that can be opened by many programs including spreadsheet software like excel, etc. They are easy to edit, and save again as a CSV if you are familiar at all with using spreadsheets. Text is another option. I honestly don't know why anyone would use this except perhaps for its simplicity. This exports your tasks (uncompleted only) as a tab-delimeted text file, which another type that can be used with spreadsheet programs. This tool only supports these fields: task, folder, duedate, priority, and length. Notebook can also be exported as a CSV file. Whatever you use just click Download for the file, and if you get a popup click Save. Any of these files can easily be imported back into Toodledo if they are ever needed. For most of us, they probably never will be, but it doesn't hurt to play it safe. If you are a Pro user, one thing to note is that the import/export tools do not currently support Parent/Subtask relationships. ~Anders This message was edited Jun 11, 2009. |
|
Linden |
Awesome crash-course (no pun intended) on available backup methods, Anders!
|
|
Proximo |
An automatic backup option would be nice.
|
|
lite1 |
Posted by Anders:
If you are a Pro user, one thing to note is that the import/export tools do not currently support Parent/Subtask relationships. ~Anders Thanks Anders. I only started TD in early May and almost immediately became Pro sub, but until yesterday had been remiss in not doing a download backup - did CSV. Hope I never need to utilize it as an emergency. I expect that if I have to upload "uncompleted" tasks Ander's comment that the CSV does not retain relationship of Parent/Subtask would make "fixing" the upload a significant chore. I think I will do a little bit of upload experimenting to get a clearer picture. Anders or anyone: Would this be a correct understanding ... If you upload what you will see in a Folder after the upload will appear to be the same as before the upload if you were viewing the before situation with the Filter set to flatten subtasks. The huge difference is that now after uploading the Parents and Subtasks are all at the same level and you have completely lost the option of clicking the Hand icon on the Parent to view things for that Parent with its related subtasks now displayed nested beneath it. That is hard to describe but seems to be implied by Anders' OP. If indeed that is the behavior, personally I will probably have to rethink my TD approach and how much I wish to protect myself from the highly unlikely need to do such an upload due a TD crash that they are unable to recover from. Currently I enter all of my parent tasks with two visual rules, and I consider a parent = a project: +THEY START WITH PLUS SIGN AND ARE ALL CAPS Since I far I rarely use Tags at all I will have to decide (really only for protection) whether I want to go to the extra effort of tagging all entry as Aprj Bprj Cprj Dprj etc. so that I'd be able to recover. Does anyone have any idea whether TD expects that in the future CSV or any other export will retain Parent/subtask relationship? I believe if they were able to do this, they could also offer Users the option that TD itself would automatically display in your view (probably using Tag) a sequence number code that would automatically be showing the relationship: Subject Tag +MY 1ST PARENT 001 subtask 001.1 subtask 001.2 subtask 001.3 +MY 2nd PARENT 002 subtask 002.1 subtask 002.2 subtask 002.3 Of course such an approach has challenges and drawbacks - TD would need to keep track of what the next available Parent seq number is across all Folders and to keep things somewhat readable the above only allows for 999 Parents before recycling needs to occur. Since such an automatic tag entry probably would need to be at the start of the Tag field, the Tag field as a sort criteria would loose some of its usefulness. If the number seq. could be appended to any other entry in the Tag field that might be of greater value. Sorry for the long post and my thinking while writing. Edward |
|
Anders |
Posted by lite1:
Anders or anyone: Would this be a correct understanding ... If you upload what you will see in a Folder after the upload will appear to be the same as before the upload if you were viewing the before situation with the Filter set to flatten subtasks. The huge difference is that now after uploading the Parents and Subtasks are all at the same level and you have completely lost the option of clicking the Hand icon on the Parent to view things for that Parent with its related subtasks now displayed nested beneath it. This is basically correct. Because Toodledo allows you to drag tasks into place as subtasks, rearranging them would not be terribly difficult. Still, if your setup is anything like mine, it could be difficult to remember exactly where each subtask is meant to go. The only component my parent task Projects and their tasks share is Folder, but some of my Folders are pretty broad, so even by using Folder view, it would only narrow my choices a bit. Here are the two best ways I can think of to "backup" your tasks' structure: You could go to your All Tasks view, and display them with Filters off, and subtasks nested and toggled open. Then you could print the page to a file to use as a reference to restructure your tasks if you ever needed to. Alternatively, you could have all subtasks and their associated parent task Project share a unique tag. Then you could easily drag all the subtasks into the appropriate parent either in Tag view or using sort by Tag. ~Anders |
|
Jake Toodledo Founder |
We definitely plan to export the subtask/parent information, and we are stepping up our plans for this in light of our recent server outage.
|
|
lite1 |
Anders and TD thanks for helpful posts. TD as I have commented before, your willingness to give meaningful hints on your priorities and what might appear in an update is very helpful to me as a user in making my own decisions on how I use TD.
Edward |
|
john.heward |
Hey Anders,
I know you have answered this many times now, but I just wanted to say that this is high on my level of importance. The reason being ( earlier I bought the Pro version so that I could use the subtasks) I have a methodology for my work - this translates to a template (which is cloned for each folder that equates to a project/client) then beneath are tasks and subtasks. But is a bit messy to do - not impossible, but irksome. I thought to export my template out in the csv form. which was great and I could easy change the folder to the new folder. I thought I had cracked it. But as you say the subtasks are lost in the import. So, for me two choices: 1) to allow cloning the folder. maintaining the parent/ child relationship and order/structure. one click and its done for me... 2) to have an extra column with which to reference the parent. The sequential order - how they appear, can by the simplest method for order. then import back into Toodledo. Just on the brighter note, - I like it a lot... very impressive. When I'm asked we we are in the process and I show them instantly. cheers John |
|
Anders |
Just FYI, the XML import was updated to support subtasks since I wrote this. I know that doesn't help you with your CSV issues, but I thought I should post that here. It would be great if the CSV had them as well. There are just so many things you can do with a CSV.
|
You cannot reply yet
U Back to topic home
R Post a reply
To participate in these forums, you must be signed in.