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Exporting Content

You can export your tour's content to either a CSV or XML file. You can do this to serve as a backup for safekeeping or you can edit the file and re-import it as a way to do a global replace.

Another reason you might want to export is if you decide you want to start managing your tour’s content using a spreadsheet or a database, but need to first get all of the tour's content. You can export the data, maintain it externally, and use the techniques in this guide to periodically import it back into the tour.

The Export Hotspot Content feature is included in the Plus and Pro plans.

Exporting to a CSV file

When you export to a CSV file, MapsAlive prompts you to save the file on your computer. You can then open the CSV file in Excel or in a plain text editor and make changes to it. The figure below shows the results of exporting a simple tour having just two hotspots.

Example CSV export file opened in Excel

If the tour used additional properties like categories, actions, and tooltips, those columns are also exported. When exporting tour content to a CSV file, MapsAlive exports any data that is not a default value. For example, if you set the click action for one of your hotspots to something other than the default value of None, MapsAlive will export a clickAction column and a clickActionTarget column in the CSV file and set the values for all the hotspots in the tour.

How to export content to a CSV file
  • Choose Tour > Export from the Tour Builder menu
  • On the Export screen:
    • Click Export Tour Content to CSV
    • Click the OK button on the confirmation dialog

Exporting to an XML file

When you export to an XML file, MapsAlive prompts you to save the file on your computer. You can then open the XML file in a plain text or XML editor and make changes to it. You can import the XML file back into MapsAlive to update your tour’s content. The exported XML will look similar to what is shown below.

<tour>
  <maps>
    <map>
      <mapId>map1</mapId>
      <hotspots>
        <hotspot>
          <hotspotId>s1</hotspotId>
          <title>Chicago, IL</title>
          <text>Chicago is known as the "windy city"</text>
        </hotspot>
        <hotspot>
          <hotspotId>s2</hotspotId>
          <title>New York, NY</title>
          <text>New York is called the "big apple"</text>
        </hotspot>
      </hotspots>
    </map>
  </maps>
</tour>
How to export content to an XML file
  • Choose Tour > Export from the Tour Builder menu
  • On the Export screen:
    • Click Export Tour Content to XML
    • Click the OK button on the confirmation dialog