Feature Data Export

Owned by Morten Lindequist Køhler
Last updated: Apr 11, 2024 by Zoltan Mikolas
10 min read

In this section we will go into details how to perform feature data export, e.g. how to do it from Perfion and what options one can choose from.

Export Formats

It is possible to export feature definition data from Perfion in several different file formats:

  • Microsoft Excel (.xlsx)

  • XML (.xml)

  • XLIFF (.xliff)

Export Procedure

Export can only be performed from Perfion application via GUI. It allows exporting feature data which is shown in the data grid for selected feature (e.g. from Feature Data section) or from any other custom section. The export procedure:

  1. Select the data in the grid which has to be exported.

  2. In the grid menu press Output button (Ctrl+Shift+O).

  3. A new “Output to file” window will open as shown in Figure 11.

  4. Select the import type:

    1. Captions. Allows exporting feature data from the grid for multiple languages using base feature caption for base feature’s item value identification.

    2. For Re-Import. Allows exporting data from the grid for multiple languages using the key feature and the parent feature for feature item identification. This format is suitable for feature data reimport to Perfion. The values for the key and parent columns are defined using base feature item values.

  5. There are exceptions.

    1. For Re-Import (by Perfion ID). Allows exporting data from the grid for multiple languages using the key feature and the parent feature for feature item identification. This format is suitable for feature data reimport to Perfion. The values for the key and parent columns are defined using base feature item IDs.

  6. There are exceptions.

    1. XLIFF 2.0. Allows exporting feature data from the grid in a special XLIFF format, which is suitable for data translations. The data exported in this format is supported by companies which translate data. The updated XLIFF data file can then be used to reimport data back to Perfion. The translations will be exported only for localizable features which are present in the grid.

    2. Images. Allows exporting Image type binaries from the grid.

    3. Files. Allows exporting File type binaries from the grid.

  7. Select other options if needed. For most of export types one can choose the languages which should be exported. Note that one can export data for multiple languages at the same time.

  8. Press OK button and the exporter will open Windows file browser.

  9. Choose where the data should be saved and press Save button.

Figure 11: “Output to file” window

Exceptions When Exporting Data for Reimport

When exporting data from the grid using Output and using export type for reimport, the same data cannot always be reimported back to Perfion so that it would look exactly the same:

  • Item order and related sort order. The feature data importer does not support exporting of item order or related sort order, so when the data is re-imported back, some data may be imported with different order than it was when the data was exported.

  • Hierarchical base feature data. There are some limitations when exporting data using base feature item values, especially when feature data is hierarchical. In this case the full item hierarchy should be exported, but using base feature values it is not always possible to do this, e.g. if some item values are empty or there are duplicate values. Another limitation when using hierarchical data is that Perfion uses the base value and the base parent value concept when importing new hierarchical data and when exporting such data from Perfion it could be that there are duplicates. It could be that there are data pairs which contains the same base value and base parent values in different hierarchy levels. In such case one should use the export option for reimport with Perfion ID.

  • Binary data. Binary data cannot be exported so that it can be reimported back. The import of binary data requires using original file names and also requires that the import data should have the correct file references to where the binaries are located. Since the data in the grid could be saved using multiple binaries which have the same name, but have different content, then exporting of such data would overwrite the files and there would be no possibility determining which binary belongs to which feature or item. The export procedure will export binary related data anyway, but the columns with binary data will be commented (with # char, which means that they will be skipped during import) and all binary data will be exported as references to predefined relative binary folder with all binaries referenced using their unique binary ID instead of the actual name. Example of the format used when exporting binary data:

Binary data export file name

\Binaries\<BinaryID>.<OriginalFileExtension>

Using such export one could still reimport all binaries back to Perfion by using export for reimport data together with the data exported using Files and Images export options where images and files are selected to be exported in the original format (for images) and using binary ID as a name.

Exporting Files

When exporting files from the grid Perfion will select all File type binaries from the grid using all specified languages and will offer several ways how to save them. Procedure:

  • When exporting of files is confirmed Perfion will ask to select the folder were to save all selected files.

  • When the folder is selected a new window will open with several choices how to save the files. Refer to Figure 12.

  • File name stored in Perfion. The files will be saved using original file names as they are stored in Perfion.

NOTE: It could be that some files may have the same names and thus there could be impossible to save them to the same folder. In this case rename duplicate file names in Perfion, use other file save options or use overwrite option.

  • Perfion binary ID (GUID). The files will be saved using Perfion binary ID and the original file extension. Perfion binary ID is a GUID type identifier.

  • Custom file name (1 of x). The files will be saved using a custom name, a suffix added by Perfion which will define the number of saved file and the original file extension. When this option is chosen the field below will be enabled for entering a custom name of the file which will be common to all saved files.

  • Using some file save options it is possible that there could be some duplicate files or there could also be some existing files in selected folder which will match the names of saved binaries. The option “Overwrite existing files” will force overwriting of existing files with the new files.

  • Press OK button to start the saving process.

Note that Perfion will export only unique files, so if the same file is used multiple times in the grid then it will be saved only once.

Figure 12: Saving files window

The export of the files can be also performed from anywhere in Perfion where the File type binaries are handled, e.g. from the grid, Item Editor, etc. The only difference in how the files are exported will depend on file selection context. For example, one can manually select several File type binaries in the grid and export them using the grid’s context menu and choosing “Save Files As…” option.

Exporting Images

When exporting images from the grid Perfion will select all Image type binaries from the grid using all specified languages and will offer several ways how to save them to disk. Procedure:

  • When exporting of images is confirmed Perfion will ask to select the folder were to save all selected images.

  • When the folder is selected a new window will open with several choices how to save the images. Refer to Figure 13.

  • File name stored in Perfion. The images will be saved using original image names as they are stored in Perfion.

Note that it could be that some images may have the same names and thus there could be impossible to save them to the same folder. In this case rename duplicate image names in Perfion, use other image save options or use overwrite option.

  • Perfion binary ID (GUID). The images will be saved using Perfion binary ID and the original image extension. Perfion binary ID is a GUID type identifier.

  • Custom file name (1 of x). The images will be saved using a custom name, a suffix added by Perfion which will define the number of saved image and the original image extension. When this option is chosen the field below will be enabled for entering a custom name of the image which will be common to all saved images.

  • Using some image save options it is possible that there could be some duplicate files or there could also be some existing images in selected folder which will match the names of saved binaries. The option “Overwrite existing files” will force overwriting of existing image files with the new image files.

  • Select the image file type.

    • Keep original file type. The images will be saved using the same image format as they are stored in Perfion and there will be no image processing done.

    • Image conversion. The images will be saved by converting them to a chosen common image format. The following image formats are supported: BMP, GIF, JPG/JPEG, PNG, TIFF/TIF, EPS, PSD, PDF, SVG, WEBP, AVIF.

  • Press OK button to start the saving process. The further actions will depend on which option is selected in “File type”.

    • If “Keep original file type” is selected, then the image saving will begin.

    • If “Image conversion” is selected, then a new window with advanced image processing options will be opened.

Note that Perfion will export only unique images, so if the same image is used multiple times in the grid then it will be saved only once.

The export of the images can be also performed from anywhere in Perfion where the Image type binaries are handled, e.g. from the grid, Item Editor, Image Previewer, etc. The only difference in how the images are exported will depend on image selection context. For example, one can manually select several Image type binaries in the grid and export them using the grid’s context menu and choosing “Save Images As…” option.

Exporting Images with Processing

Images can be exported from Perfion by converting them to another image format and doing various other image size, color, compression, etc. transformations before the new image is saved.

To export images with processing:

  • Use the same process as described in Exporting Images, choose “Image conversion” and choose the image format. Refer to Figure 14 which shows the Save Images As window with preselected “Image conversion” option and PNG selected as the new common image format.

  • Press OK button and the new window will open with advanced image processing options as shown in Figure 15.

  • Set up various image processing options and press OK button to start the processing.

The advanced image processing offers the following features:

  • Resize Image. Allows changing the size of the saved image using various fit types:

    • Fit. Scales the image to fit within the specified size by keeping the aspect ratio. Refer to Figure 15.

    • Exact. Scale the image to fit the specified size exactly. If the specified size does not have the same proportions as the original image, then the image will be stretched in one or the other dimension.

    • Crop. Scale the image to fit the specified size exactly. If the specified size does not have the same proportions as the original image, then the image will be cropped either at the sides or at the top/bottom thereby leaving the contents of the image undistorted.

    • This resize type has an option to use the Point-of-Interest (POI) if it is defined for the image in Perfion database. If this option is selected, then each image will be cropped using the POI if it is specified and if not, then the default option will be used which is equivalent to POI which is set to the center of the image. By using POI one can slightly change how the cropping will be applied, e.g. in which side the image will be cropped more if image aspect ratio does not match the aspect ratio of the new image size.

    • Smart. Scale the image to fit the specified size exactly. If the specified size does not have the same proportions as the original image, then the image is adjusted via a 50% combination of the above Exact and Crop fitting methods, i.e. the image is cropped a little less and stretched a little less.

The POI can be used if available just like when using the Crop option.

  • Aspect Ratio. Image is resized to the new size by keeping the aspect ratio so that it fits best and then the remaining area (if the new size does not match the original image aspect ratio) is filled using a color which can be specified using “Canvas color” parameter. Refer to Figure 16.

NOTE: In order to keep the image in its original size, the resizing can be disabled by unchecking the “Enable” checkbox.

  • Image options. Allows changing some image options for specific image formats. Some formats may have no options while some may have several options. Refer to Figure 17. The following options are available:

    • Color profile. The color profile of the target image. It is only usable with images which support color profiles. If specified the image colors will be converted to that color profile and the profile itself will be embedded to the image file. Supported color profiles:

      • Original. Keep the original color profile

      • sRGB

      • AdobeRGB1998

      • ProPhoto

  • Background color for transparency. Adds a color to transparent parts of the image. This only works when the target image format does not support transparency and the source image format has transparency. In such case the source image transparency will be replaced with background color.

  • JPG quality. Image compression quality in percent. Supported only for JPG images.

  • TIFF compression. TIFF compression method. Supported only for TIFF images. Refer to Figure 18. Options:

    • None. No compression will be used.

    • LZW. Lempel-Ziv and Welch compression.

    • ZIP. Deflate compression.