SearchKit: have a quick Export task

Currently, users can export from SearchKit using the traditional Export wizard of CiviCRM, which requires users to select a mapping and a few other options.

As a user, I would like to be able to quickly export the data as seen on the screen.

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Yeah - I think this is a fairly high demand request

I looked into this a few weeks ago and ran into some complications, namely the way search displays render their results. As it is, some rendering is done by the API (e.g. replacing pseudoconstants using :label, or transformations like GROUP_CONCAT(...)), some is done by the Angular controller (e.g. calling CRM.formatDate()), and some is done by the Angular template (e.g. combining array data, formatting links).

If it all went through a single point, it would be much easier to pipe into a CSV.

Another complication is that, similar though they look, the table of results on the Admin screen is completely different code to a SearchDisplay of type table. That's starting to be a drag on development, as every new feature affecting table displays (and this would be one such feature) has to be implemented twice in two different ways. That's something I'd like to reconcile, ideally before tacking export. But that job comes with its own complications, as there are slight differences between the two types of tables (e.g. the "Add column" selector).

I've opened https://github.com/civicrm/civicrm-core/pull/21069 to reconcile the 2 types of tables.

added type:request label

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I took a look and the code is actually better after some of the recent refactoring I did.

But here's another consideration - is everyone going to be OK with .csv as the only available format? It's pretty easy to generate a .csv with javascript, but if we wanted anything fancy like .xls I think we'd have to give up on a client-side approach completely and write the exporter in PHP.

I could be wrong, but in my experience the average Ms Excel user tends to struggle with CSV, because the MS Office csv-import UX is pretty bad.

If generating the CSV in JS, there might also be performance issues with large exports?

Although personally, if going the PHP route is a lot of work, a proof of concept in JS might be useful until another solution is found?

mentioned in commit cd32bcc9

CSV Download PR has been merged: https://github.com/civicrm/civicrm-core/pull/21328

Here's a followup for xlsx and ods: https://github.com/civicrm/civicrm-core/pull/21351

changed milestone to %5.42.0

closed