Scheduled export of sheets

Rob Cook

Hi there.

I'd love to see a feature implemented whereby a scheduled export of sheets could be set up. I'm thinking in particular about project plans but this could apply to any sheets.

We have a team subscription but we don't need to set weekly backups of entire workspaces, but I would love to be able to set certain sheets and request that they be mailed to me as excel files on a periodic basis. It would be really helpful to have a weekly archive of each of my project plans for example to track changes over time.

Richard Rymill SBP

Hi Rob

I presume you realise that you can arrange a weekly backup by individual sheet? which presumably provides exactly what you seek? Accessed via the home tab rather than within the sheet concerned.

Hope that helps?

Richard R

 

Laura

Richard, How is this done automatically? 

Shaine Greenwood

Hi All—

A couple of ways to take care of this. You can schedule backups within Smartsheet, these must still be manually downloaded after you log in. This is easier to set up but more difficult to practice: https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/506499-backing-up-your-data

Use our backup tool to automate the process of backing up. This is a tool designed by our Labs team. My normal disclaimer on Labs apps: they're experimental and we can't troubleshoot them if they don't work. I use the backup tool myself so I haven't had any issues with it personally. This is more difficult to set up (you need someone with entry level Java experience) but easier to practice: https://www.smartsheet.com/apps/smartsheet-org-wide-backup

Rob Cook

Hi Richard, thanks for this - but I can't see any way to schedule this at sheet level, only to create ad-hoc backups. Can you give me any more information on how to achieve this?

Rob

 

Rob Cook

Thanks Shane - but as I understand it the scheduled backups back up an entire workspace? I only want a small number of selected sheets, often only one per workspace! The scheduled backups will work and allow me to extract the specific sheet that I want but it would be helpful to have the option to be a bit more granular about this.

An additional complication is that I only have seven days to download my backup - I guess for space control in the smartsheet cloud. That's fine - but that need would be removed if I could simply configure a weekly scheduled export of individual sheets by email.If I'm out of the office in workshops or on leave I could easily miss that weekly download and be missing a copy of the one sheet that I wanted.

Fussy? Moi?

Rob

J. Craig Williams

Rob / Laura,

Try Send as Attachment instead of backup or export.

The delivery can be scheduled (and repetitive).

It can send as either PDF or Excel.

This might accomplish what you are looking for.

I hope this helps.

Craig

Stephane Messie

Hello Craig,

Send as Attachment schedule works fine, but is not practical at all depending on what you want to do with the file after.

In my case, I need to re-use the Excel file to feed another process, and if I receive it through a mail, I need to ALSO automate the Download Attachement from my mail, which is a mess in our big company (security issue, need to have an Outlook server 24x7 available, ...).

Stephane

J. Craig Williams

Stephane,

You are correct. My backup files are (almost) never opened.

If you have a process that needs data from Smartsheet, then you are better off building that integration. There are several ways to keep an Excel file in sync with data in Smartsheet (or Google Sheets or ...). Some of these are easy to set up but expensive to maintain, some are harder to set up but require less maintenance costs each month.

The first thing I try to do in any such integration is to ensure the two integration points are fixed -- the Excel file should not be recreated. If necessary, all the data can be deleted and refreshed, but having to point the downstream application to new Excel file is a waste of effort and, in my opinion, higher risk of being broken in the future. 

Craig 

Andrée Starå

Hi all,

Smartsheet just released a new add-on called Data Uploader that could be an option for you.

Please see the attached link/screenshot for more information.

https://www.smartsheet.com/datauploader

I hope this helps you!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant @ Get Done Consulting

Kamil Ismail

Hello Stephanie,

Need your help, can you explain to me how you setup and schedule this as an attachment. Are you saying, this as an automatic work schedule.

I do really appreciate if you can assists me on this topic.

Thank you

Andrée Starå

Hi Kamil,

In the sheet you want to send: File > Send as Attachment > Fill in the fields and select if you will send the sheet as a PDF or an Excel file and the Delivery Schedule.

Hope that helps!

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant @ Get Done Consulting

Kamil Ismail

Hi Andree,

 

Yes its work, I follow your method.

 

Thank You & Have A Happy Weekend.

Andrée Starå

Excellent!

Happy to help!

Have a fantastic weekend!