Data export

Measurements can be exported as CSV or JSON files.

Name

Give the data export a meaningful name.

Target

Target

Select where measurements should be exported. The following options are available:

  • Manual File Download: This option is only for testing purposed. Click on the button Export Now to start the data export manually and to download the file in your web browser.

  • Documents: The exported file will be automatically saved in a folder of your choice in the Avelon document management.

  • Windows Share (SMB): The exported file will be automatically saved in a shared Windows directory.

  • FTP / FTPS / SFTP: The exported file will be automatically uploaded to an FTP server.

    Warning

    FTPS servers that enforce SSL session reuse are not supported.

  • POST to External URL: The exported data will be posted as a JSON file to a remote URL. You can either export the measurements of individual data points, or the content of a Table Report widget, depending on your selection in Source.

Target Folder

Only available with target Documents. Select a folder where the exported file should be saved.

URL

Only available with target FTP/FTPS/SFTP or Windows Share (SMB). Enter the full URL where the exported file should be uploaded, including protocol, port and full local folder.

Example: ftp://example.org:2121/home/dataexport

Authentication

Only available with target POST to External URL.

  • None or in URL: The post doesn’t require any authentication, or the authentication key will be appended to the URL.

  • Password: The username and password can be provided below.

Token URL

Only available with target POST to External URL and Authentication set to Password. Contains the URL to fetch the authentication token from the remote server.

User Name

Only available with target FTP/FTPS/SFTP, Windows Share (SMB) or POST to External URL. The user name with which Avelon can authenticate itself.

Password

Only available with target FTP/FTPS/SFTP, Windows Share (SMB) or POST to External URL. The password with which Avelon can authenticate itself.

Client ID and Secret

The client ID and secret that will be used to authenticate on the remote server. If you want to post the data to Avelon Cloud, you can find the client ID and secret in the settings on your Avelon Cloud account.

Implicit FTPS

This option is displayed when the Source it set to FTPS. Implicit FTPS is a method that allows clients to connect to an implicit port (port 990) which already has secure connections baked in, without requesting for there to be one. Implicit FTPS makes use of a dedicated port in order to allow for port 21 to be left open. Implicit FTPS is considered much stricter when it comes to establishing a connection that is secure.

Ignore Certificate Errors

This option is only available when the Source it set to FTPS and can be used to temporarily ignore certificate errors, for example if the certificate has expired. However, it is recommended to renew expired certificates rather than ignoring the resulting issues.

Test Connection

Only available with target FTP/FTPS/SFTP or Windows Share (SMB). Attempts to log on to the server under the specified URL with the credentials provided.

Source

Only available if Target is set to POST to External URL. You can choose whether you want to export all measurements from a list of data points, or values from a Table Report widget. The latter allows you to create a well-defined list of values that will be posted to the external URL.

If you select Data Points, you can drag individual data points from the sidebar on the right to the Data Points table at the bottom of the screen. During the export, all measurements of these data points will be exported for the current time period.

If you select Table Report, you can assign an existing Table Report widget. During the export, only the values from this table will be exported for the current time period.

Schedule

Start Date

The date on which the import should be executed for the first time.

Start Time

The time at which the export should be executed for the first time.

Recurrence

Specifies the frequency at which the import should be carried out automatically, starting from the start time defined above.

Next Execution

Shows when the automatic data export will be executed the next time.

Export Now

Allows you to run the export ahead of time. Please note that this button is for testing purposes only. Existing measurements may be overwritten by the import. If you trigger an export manually, the manually exported data is not exported during the next automatic execution.

Time Zone

This setting determines the time zone in which the values are imported or exported and is only available for specific import or export types.

Format

These settings are only available for target Manual File Download, Documents, Windows Share (SMB) and FTP/FTPS/SFTP.

Columns

Select in which format the measurements should be exported. The following options are available:

  • Date, System Name, Value: Each measurement will be located on a separate line. The system name of the corresponding data point is included on the same line in an separate column.

  • Date, Data Point 1, Data Point 2…: The data points are arranged as separate columns. If several data points have measurements at the same time, the values appear on the same line.

Format Timestamp

Specify the format in which the recording date is to be output.

  • Example 1: yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss ▸ “2001-07-04 12:08:56”

  • Example 2: yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXXX ▸ “2001-07-04T12:08:56.235-07:00”

JSON Configuration

These settings are only available for targets that support JSON, i.e. POST to External URL.

Here you can specify which properties are to be included in the export and how they should be formatted. Create an entry in this list for each property you want to export, enter the property name in the column Property, and select the appropriate type under Type:

Date and Time

Exports date and time information. Use the text field in the column Value Interpretation to specify the format, e.g. dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm:ss.

System Name

Exports the system name (object name) that identifies the data point unambiguously.

Label

Exports the label (description) of the data point.

Unit

Exports the unit symbol of the data point as a string.

Value

Exports the measurement value of the data point for the given date and time.

Status

Exports the status of the measurement value for the given date and time as a string, according to Metering Code Schweiz.

Table Report Mapping

Only available if Source is set to Table Report. Select which column of the table report corresponds to which field in the JSON request.

Note

At least three rows are required in the JSON configuration. Create at least one entry with type Date and Time and one with type Value, and a third entry to identify the data point. You can either use Label or System Name to identify the data point in the export.

Data Points

Drag all data points that should be part of the same export from the data point library in the right sidebar to the bottom area of the screen.

Note that this section is not available when Target is set to POST to External URL and Source is set to Table Report.

What values are exported

Each measurement value can have one of five types based on the Metering Code Schweiz. Only values of type “True value”, “Substitute value” and “Preliminary value” are included in the data export, though. Values of type “Faulty value” and “Missing value”, respectively, will not be exported.