Get a copy of your datalog

Just as you did with the email option in Formhandler, you need to test entering information into your form and seeing if data is put into the indicated datafile. Post several entries and then use FTP in Dreamweaver or your other WS_FTP or Fetch program to get a copy of the datafile from the AgServer and put a copy on your local computer.

You can open your datafile in Dreamweaver and see if the data is there. Each response should be on its own line, unless you have turned on the wrap text feature in Dreamweaver. Make sure your have your data in the correct format, with each record or response on one line, or you will not be able to use it in a database or spreadsheet program.

This is an example of a few records, in the HTML window in Dreamweaver, with word wrap turned on.

When you look at your data, you should see quotes around each field, with a comma between each field.

Importing your data into your program

The specific steps you follow to import your comma delimited datafile into your application will depend on the program. But most current programs support importing an ASCII comma delimited datafile. You need to check your documentation. In most cases it will be referenced under importing data or importing text files.

I have created a video clip illustrating importing data into Excel 2003. Importing Data from Your FormHandler Form runs about 6.5 minutes.

Keep copies of your datalogs in another folder

Depending on how much data you collect, how long your form is available for input, and how often you pull off data, I suggest you keep copies of your datafiles, perhaps by date pulled off, in another folder so you can later retrieve this information. When you no longer need the data, these files can be deleted.

Replace your datalog with an empty file

Formhandler keeps appending data records to your datafile log. If you add the date field in your record, as in my example, you can sort by the date later and delete duplicate records which are imported into your program, but I suggest whenever you pull off a copy of your datafile from the server, you immediately replace it with an empty file. That way you won't get duplicate records.

Once permissions are set on your datafile log on the AgServer, you can replace a file which has records with a file with no records, without having to change permissions again. The filename just needs to remain the same.

This document is part of a set of tutorials related to putting a form on your website. The initial page is found at cals.arizona.edu/ecat/forms/olderforms.html