Element Fusion

Since the launch of the new version of our form builder last Thursday, we've been hammering out a few issues that just weren't quite right. These mostly centered around the CSV download function. So, if you have been downloading entries from your forms via CSV over the past week, you may have noticed some ongoing changes. We've been sending out regular updates about these changes via our twitter feed, but I wanted to provide a recap here of what has been going on, and let you know that we are sorry for any inconvenience these changes have caused.

What went wrong?

The launch of the new form builder included some changes to the formatting of the CSV download file. They included removal of the time stamp field and changing some of the column layouts on fieldsets. For example, the name field lumped first name, last name, title and suffix all into a single column rather than keeping them separate. On the other hand, the date field changed from containing the entire date in a single column to separating it out.

These changes were made in an effort to increase the speed of the CSV download process, but unfortunately, we did not recognize the potential issues with these changes until after we rolled them out and converted our data over to the new format.

How did we fix it?

After the launch, however, we quickly realized these changes could potentially cause problems for those who have been using the CSV downloads previously. Therefore, we created a game plan for restoring CSV output to a state that matched how it was laid out prior to the upgrades. This process took some time as it involved a lot of careful work to ensure that we did not harm any data collected before or after the upgrades. We first established the new CSV layout and implemented it so that it could begin working for all new form entries collected. Then, we went about the process of restoring all existing entries to the fit the layout.

Along the way, we restored the timestamps on form entries. In rare cases, some forms ended up showing the same timestamp on all entries. This issue has now been corrected, but I wanted to mention it in case you had noticed this in your CSV files over the past week.

What's the status now?

All forms are now completely updated to the new CSV layout. The new layout matches the CSV layout from before the upgrade, which should make things much easier for those who were using CSV output before the upgrades. It's important to note that no data was ever lost in this process. It was simply a matter of us getting all of the data converted and formatted so that it would display as desired in the CSV downloads. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience caused to those of you using CSV over the past week.

On a positive note, we have made some nice enhancements to the CSV download process. The file now downloads in "chunks" to increase performance and avoid timing out on larger downloads.