Sometimes it's easier just to work with data in a spreadsheet instead of within any sort of interactive visualization. Because data is stored in a Cognitive City as a network, not as a table, exporting it to a table format is done first by creating a network view of the data you want to export, including any connected elements you want exported as well. For example, let's say we have a Cognitive City filled with data about TED Talks and we want to export the Talks and their associated Tags. First we create a view of talks and their tags using a query like shown below:
This results in a network like this:
Use the legend to select all of talks by clicking on the "Talk" legend entry. This will display a list of the selected elements on the right along with an "Export" button at the top of the list. If you don't see the "Export" button, make sure you are an administrator, and toggle the view into "Edit" mode by sliding the slider in the upper right corner to the pencil icon.
When you click the "Export" button an excel spreadsheet will be downloaded to your computer:
This excel file will have a column that corresponds to all the visible fields for the element type you selected. If one of those fields is a connection to another element type, a comma-delimited list will be put in that column for all of the connected elements. Connected elements will only be exported if they are also in the view. Therefore, if you are not seeing all the fields you expected to see in your export, check the following:
1. Make sure that your view contains all connected elements of interest. If you want to export everything related to a given element type, create a view of just that element type, then use the legend to select everything, click "Expand" and add all connected element types. Keep in mind that this might be too much data to export at once for very large data models.
2. Go to your model and open the definition for the element type your are exporting. Make sure that the fields you want are set to be visible. You may need to temporarily make fields visible for export and then return them to hidden.
The above method is the preferred way to export data, as it preserves the connections between element types through the creation of comma-delimited lists to represent one-to-many relationships. However, it isn't recommended for very large exports. If you want to export all the data for a particular element type in a more efficient manner, use the "Planner - Export" tool under the "Admin" menu in the left admin sidebar. Select the element type of interest and you can download the entire table of data related to that element, including UUIDs that will allow you to map its connections to other element types if you also download the full table of those element types as well. This option should be reserved for those comfortable with working with database tables and the concepts of primary and foreign keys.