How to get your data manually
Background Note Most Landel customers get their data using an automated process that runs every few minutes. But you can also get your data manually, using just a web browser, and import it directly into excel. From there, you can sort it, manipulate it, or convert it into other formats. This is a brief how‐to on the simple steps necessary to get your data securely and easily, into a local spreadsheet. Important Note About Timing If you get your data manually, BE SURE to get it quickly. Landel systems are a transfer point, not a data store. Most customers use automated processes every few minutes to get data, so it doesn't stay there for more than just a few minutes. If you get data by hand, do it promptly. Landel systems only keep data, retrieved or not, for several business days.
Getting your Data Use IE or Firefox to retrieve your data securely from the Landel server. It will look like the sample at left. The process is getdata, delete it, getmoredata, delete it, etc. Be sure caching is turned OFF on your browser. Accept any certificates and ignore warnings (the site is self‐signed). The two URLs you need are: Get data:
https://dbug.mailbug.net:444/dbpull.cgi?getxml=index&client= companyname&pass=pw
Delete data:
https://dbug.mailbug.net:444/dbpull.cgi?deletexml=index&client= companyname&pass=pw
Remember that you will get a maximum of 1,000 records at a time. Your browser will show GETXML at the top, indicating the beginning of each set of data, and at the bottom you will see /GETXML, indicating the end of each set of data. Use SAVE AS to save each set as an XML file on your desktop or other location where you can find it later. Don't discard the original XML file after importing into excel, as it's a useful way to archive raw data and recover from any mistakes or system crashes that might be made when using excel. If you have more than 1000 records to retrieve, repeat the getxml‐deletexml process and save each file until the Landel system tells you "410 no new files". Contact Landel with questions or for more information about the data retrieval process.
Getting your Data Once you have all your data, you can combine the files and do one massive import into excel, which helps ensure that you end up with only one table. To do that, combine the separate files using a text editor like Wordpad (but be sure to turn off line wrapping). Remove the GETXML and /GETXML start and stop indicators in the middle so that there is only one GETXML at the top of all the combined data, and only one /GETXML at the bottom of all the combined data. Or, if you prefer, you can work individually with each file you have created. But I don't have any data yet to retrieve? Can I still see how this works? Sure. Visit http://landel.com/databugsamplefile.xml Download the sample file onto your desktop and use it to try out the XML‐excel conversion process to see how simple it can be. This sample file is the one used in this brief tutorial.
Converting the XML into a spreadsheet with just a few clicks
On a new sheet, select the DATA tab. Within data, select FROM OTHER SOURCES. Within from other sources, select FROM XML DATA IMPORT. In the dialogue box, select your file. IE will typically refer to the file as an XML document, Firefox may refer to it as a CGI file. Either way, if you recently saved it, excel will likely highlight it as the file you want.
Once you select your file, excel will ask what cell you want to start your data table in, and also gives options under the "properties" button. Check the properties when appending new data to an old sheet.
The result will be a data table, with each record filling up a row, where the individual items in each record are placed in the corresponding column. If a record contained nothing for a given column, the cell for that column in the row for that record will be blank. From here, sorting and manipulation of data is easy, but is in DATA TABLE format. Be careful, some operations, like sorting data, apply only to the rows in a given table and not necessarily to the entire sheet if you have other tables or other data in the same sheet.
TABLES are easy to work with, and offer a great deal of useful operations, such as the quick and easy elimination of duplicate rows, exporting the data table into other formats and for other programs, etc. But if desired, the TABLE can also be easily converted into a normal range of rows and columns. To do this, click any cell in the table, then select TABLE TOOLS and then CONVERT TO RANGE. This function will remove the table formatting, and leave the column headers in place, leaving you with a familiar sheet of rows and columns that exactly match your original XML data file.
Validating your practice run
If you used the Landel sample xml file to do an import, here are some things you can look for to see if all went according to plan. Assuming you told excel to start your table in cell A1, then look in column BK, which shows the pet breed. All of the rows should show "collie" in this column, except for a few. •Record ID 20080222110224.27503‐4.72dac20f006b22de5f2129f3589b7c93 is the 5th record, in row 6, and has "beagle" in place of "collie" •20080222111530.27503‐139.4a411c7d6a3004e68276ca0d5c80822a is the 140th record, in row 141, and has "lab" in place of "collie" •20080222112134.27503‐203.fb4d55fea5a92dcb29c2773193dd5dbc is the 204th record, in row 205, and has "shephard" in place of "collie" •20080222112449.27503‐238.3bf04bd36153b1f24009b39469bbe5ad is the 239th record, in row 240, and has no data except an email address •In all, there are 479 rows, 1 header row and 478 rows of data