Export Console Quickstart

In this tutorial we cover the basics of creating an export or earned media using the Export Console.

Using the Export Console you can create one-time and recurring exports of historical data based upon your Meltwater searches. You can download the results in CSV and JSON format, and can use the results in a BI Tool such as Tableau or Microsoft PowerBI.

Before you start

Take a look at the Platform Overview guide to understand the key concepts of the Meltwater platform.

To run through this tutorial, you will need:

  • Your Meltwater app login credentials
  • A Saved Search in your Meltwater App account

Types of exports

There are two types of exports:

  • One-time exports - these exports are run once, the data will not be refreshed. Use one-time exports when you just want to get an export of data for a specific time period.
  • Recurring exports - these exports give you the ability to setup an export once and get results updated regularly. Use recurring exports when you need to have the latest data for the predefined time span e.g. “last weeks data refreshed every week”.

Accessing the Export Console

You can access the Export Console from the left-hand navigation.

You will be asked to to sign in with your Meltwater application credentials.

Once you’ve logged in you’ll see a list of exports you’ve created in the past.

Understanding common export options

The following options are available for both one-time and recurring exports.

Choosing an output template

The API allows you to choose from a selection of templates for your export. The available templates are documented on the Export & Streaming Output Templates page.

In the Export Console when you create a new export the Format option allows you to choose the file type you’d like for your export (for example CSV). When you select a Format, the Template option allows you to choose a template which supports the chosen file type.

The CSV format is ideal for importing into a spreadsheet or BI Tool. The JSON format can also be imported into a BI Tool which can process JSON data.

Controlling data volumes using sampling

When creating an export, you can provide optional sampling parameters to set a maximum document count and/or percentage sample.

This feature allows you to control the amount of documents you export, and so stay within your export limits, plus also export representative data for high-volume topics. Sampling is supported for both one-time and recurring exports, and returns a random sample across the matching documents that would be in a full export.

There are two parameters that control sampling of results:

  • Max Count - the maximum number of documents you’d like to retrieve. Maximum value is 2 million.
  • Sample % - the percentage of results you’d like to retrieve.

Please note, that the sampling process is approximate in that the number of results will be within ±10% of your parameters.

The following examples show how you can make use of these parameters:

  • To return a 1% sample of matching documents - set Sample % to 1% and Max Count to 2 million.
  • To return up to 50,000 documents - set Sample % to 100% and Max Count to 50,000.
  • To return a 10% sample of documents, but limit the set to 1,000 documents maxmimum - set Sample % to 10% and Max Count to 1,000.

Creating a one-time export

Exports are generated using searches (or tags) you’ve created in the Meltwater application.

To create a new export click the Create Export button on the top right.

This will bring up a new dialog:

Note that you will only see the Companies option if you have access to multiple companies in your account. If this is the case, select the company which owns the searches / tags you’d like to use for your export.

Select the Search and/or Tag you’d like to export matches for. Select ‘One-time’ as the export type.

Next select your desired Format and Template as described earlier in this guide.

For one-time exports you must give a Start date and an End date for the time window of your export. Only documents published within this time will be included in the results.

Select the start and end date for your export. You can also choose a different Timezone for these dates and times if needed.

Click Create to create the export.

Viewing your exports

Once you’ve created your export, you will see it listed at the top of your exports list.

When your export is created, it will have an initial status of PENDING. Depending on the size of the export it could take from a minute to over half an hour to complete.

You can check the status of your exports by clicking the Refresh button at the top of the list.

Once the export is complete you’ll see it’s status will change to FINISHED.

Getting the Data URL for your export

Once an export has finished you can get the URL to access your export data by clicking the link in the Data column at the end of the row.

If you’d like to bring the data into a BI Tool take a look at our importing data guides.

Creating a recurring export

To create a recurring export, follow the same initial steps as when creating a one-time export, but select ‘Recurring’ as the export type.

For recurring exports you’ll need to provide a different set of parameters.

First, you need to specify the Frequency for the export. You can choose from Daily, Weekly and Monthly.

Next you specify the Window for your export, that is what period of data is included each time the export runs. This is a multiple of the Frequency you selected. For example, if you chose Daily and enter 2 for this field the export will run each day and include the last 2 days of data.

Finally you specify the end time of your export window. Your options depend on your selected frequency:

  • time of the day for Daily exports
  • time and day of the week for Weekly exports
  • time and day of the month for Monthly exports

The export will be run 30 minutes after the end of the export window.

For example, if you set up a Weekly export starting Sunday at 09:00, the export will run every Sunday at 09:30 and will contain data from that Sunday at 09:00, to the previous Sunday at 09:00.

When you configure your recurring export you’ll be shown a schedule of the upcoming exports which will help you check your settings.

Each time a recurring export runs the new data overwrites the data of the previous run. Therefore you download new data from the same URL each time the export completes.

You can see the recurring exports you have running by looking at the Exports Overview table. Recurring exports that are active have the status ACTIVE.