[Music] in this video we'll discuss some ways you can manually export data from servicenow users can export data in a variety of formats using several methods these include form export list export url export web services which we described in earlier videos and export sets discussed in an upcoming video let's take a quick look at a form exports first we'll start by opening an incident form as a typical example from the form menu we'll select export and see three options pdf portrait pdf landscape and xml a quick note pdf is available to all users but xml is only available to admins exporting to pdf creates and downloads a pdf file with the fields sections and related lists currently displayed on the screen this is useful if someone wants a printable version of the current record exporting to xml creates and exports an xml file however unlike pdf which only includes the fields currently on the form xml exports all fields and values for the current record exporting xml is handy if you want to extract a record from one servicenow instance and import it exactly the same in another instance for a small number of records done very infrequently this isn't a bad method but if you need it done more often with hundreds or thousands of records there are better ways and another quick note related list information is not exported with xml like it is with pdf that will have to be done manually as well next let's look at exporting data from a list again we'll use the incident list as an example using any column header menu we select export where we find several options for excel csv xml json pdf and export set the process for all of these is pretty much the same the system uses the current list of records and fields displayed to export the data in the desired format when the processing is done we're presented with a modal to download the file if we choose to download the file it's saved to our local hard drive where we can open it and examine it if we filter records on the list say we want the active priority one incidents updated in the last seven days the exported file will reflect that filter pretty easy let's try exporting the same list to a csv and when we open the file we notice that the headers on the csv are the field names whereas the excel export uses the field labels something to be aware of if you plan to import this information somewhere else unlike excel and csv which only exports the fields currently displayed on the list just like the form xml exports every field this can be useful for exporting many records from one servicenow instance and importing them to another instance using import xml preserving the details like sys id creation and update times here's a quick tip we can import any xml export file from any list we don't need to be on the incident list to import incidents because the table name is included in the xml file so it will always get to the right target table and if you import the same xml file multiple times you will not get duplicate records the difference between pdf portrait and landscape is the orientation of the page additionally the detailed options include the list and the details for each record note that this operation can take some time to process so use it sparingly there's also an option to export the list for json this option creates an object with a records array of objects each element in the array contains the details of each record and like xml json includes all the fields and values the final option export set is covered in the next video now there's another method for exporting data that's used less frequently but worth noting exporting directly from a url this can be handy if you have scripts that include curl commands or similar situations where you don't need access to the ui but still want the data the format of the url specifies the instance the table the export format like csv pdf xml json and xlsx it determines any filters and even the sorting order if you plan to export in json use the json v2 url parameter there are several other query parameters to control the output from a direct url export a link to the documentation detailing these is included in the description for this video there are also several system properties that control exports that we should be aware of well we may not need to change any of these it's good to be aware of them for things like limiting the number of records exported the character set used or in the case of reference fields and choice lists whether to use record values or display values as we've seen exporting data is pretty simple from a form list and url there are several other options that get a bit detailed for this video like controlling how to display currency and date time values check out the documentation linked in the description for this video to learn more one final note many of the export methods discussed here are available to all users and exporting data means that information is almost immediately out of date once it leaves the platform so if we find our users frequently exporting data it could be an opportunity for process improvement such as an on-platform report dashboard or perhaps sending them a notification we should talk to our users about why they chose to export data and understand what they are doing with it to prevent our processes from becoming fragmented and multiple copies of stale data being used all over the place