Run a CommCare Export

Once you have all the components ready, you can run the commcare-export command. 

Components needed to run the DET:

  1. The DET installed on your computer (link to installation instructions)

  2. A project space with an application that contains data.

  3. A query file for the DET to tell it what data to export.

  4. The Necessary credentials for CommCare HQ (Username and API key)

  5. If exporting to a database, the necessary credentials for the database you choose to use.

Optional commcare-export flags

For a full list of flags, you can run commcare-export --help

argument

possible values

--since

Provide the DATE value in YYYY-MM-DD format. This will export all data after this date.

--until

Provide the DATE value in YYYY-MM-DD format. This will export all data before this date.

--verbose

Includes a more detailed output to the user.

--verbose 2> logs.txt

This flag exports log files to a text file.

--verbose 2>> logs.txt

Append logs to an already existing log file.

--missing-value

Override the default value (null) that is used whenever data is missing from the form/case.

--api-version

Specify the version of the CommCare API to use for exports. Defaults to v0.5.

--start-over

Ignore any checkpoints that may exists and re-export ALL data.

--strict-types

This won’t allow changing column types once they are created when saving to a SQL database.

--version

Output the version of commcare-export that you're using (useful for debugging).

--auth-mode

Use "digest" auth, or "apikey" auth (for two factor enabled domains).

Tips:

  • OUTPUT-FORMAT refers to the format in which you want to export the data. 

  • YOUR_PROJECT refers to the name of your project space, not the entire domain URL.  For instance, the URL would be https://www.commcarehq.org/a/YOUR_PROJECT. For the tool, type in YOUR_PROJECT. 

  • If you are using a domain that isn't stored on www.commcarehq.org, then you will need to use the "--commcare-hq YOUR_URL" flag in the command prompt.

  • YOUR-QUERY_FILE_NAME.xlsx refers to your query file that is saved in the scripts folder of your Python installation.

  • YOUR_OUTPUT_FILE_NAME.xlsx refers to the file that will contain the exported data. This file will also be saved in the scripts folder of your Python installation.

Export using Windows

Run the following commands in your command line interpreter to export data from CommCare HQ:

Markdown
C:\Python39\Scripts>commcare-export --output-format markdown --project YOUR_PROJECT --query YOUR_QUERY_FILE_NAME.xlsx


Excel

C:\Python39\Scripts>commcare-export --output-format xlsx --output YOUR_OUTPUT_FILE_NAME.xlsx --project YOUR_PROJECT --query YOUR_QUERY_FILE_NAME.xlsx --username username@email.com --auth-mode apikey --password ***********YOUR_API_KEY**************

 

Database

C:\Python39\Scripts>commcare-export --output-format sql --output DATABASE_URL --project YOUR_PROJECT --query YOUR_QUERY_FILE_NAME.xlsx

 

Export using MacOS

Run the following commands in your command line interpreter to export data from CommCare HQ:

Markdown

 

Excel

 

Database

 

Export using Linux

Run the following commands in your command line interpreter to export data from CommCare HQ:

Markdown


Excel


Database