Hi. I'm interested in using Dive Log + Dive Log Manager, but I worry about locking my data into a system. If I start using this software and want to move away from it after a few years am I able to export my logs to UDCF, CSV, etc from either DL or DLM?
Thanks!
Log export?
Re: Log export?
Hi,
That is certainly a fair concern. Right now, Dive Log Manager does not directly support any export formats. We are certainly interested in supporting export formats from Dive Log Manager but the trick is that most open export formats (UDCF for example) will result in significant data loss while exporting. We'd certainly appreciate any input on export formats that you would like to have supported. One open export format that we have been looking at supporting is a forth coming update to UDDF as it has much better data fidelity with Dive Log than UDCF and is starting to be supported by some other desktop logbook applications. Certainly supporting a CSV export is relatively easy although it might be difficult to find any application (short of a spreadsheet application) that can do anything useful with that data.
Our main strategy has been to work directly with various desktop dive log application vendors to directly support synchronizing with Dive Log on iPhone and Dive Log Manager. Today this support is included in Diving Log 5.0 (www.divinglog.de) on the PC (I run it on my Mac under VMWare Fusion/Windows) and supports full data fidelity with Dive Log on iPhone. Diving Log 5.0 does also support a number of export formats. We are also working closely with developers of Mac desktop dive log software to incorporate full bi-directional sync with Dive Log on iPhone. I will leave it up to them to announce any specific plans or product releases when they are ready. We do expect to have some exiting news in this regard soon.
We certainly understand your concern and have no interest in locking people into our data format. Having changed computer logbook applications numerous times myself over the years I know how difficult it can be. So our goal will be to continue to add support for additional desktop applications and appropriate export formats. Also, our file format is a Sqlite3 (www.sqlite.org) database (Sqlite3 is built into MacOS and is available for other OS platforms as it is open source) and we are more than happy to share the database schema to facilitate directly reading our logbook files.
I hope that helps provide some insight on our direction.
Cheers,
Greg
That is certainly a fair concern. Right now, Dive Log Manager does not directly support any export formats. We are certainly interested in supporting export formats from Dive Log Manager but the trick is that most open export formats (UDCF for example) will result in significant data loss while exporting. We'd certainly appreciate any input on export formats that you would like to have supported. One open export format that we have been looking at supporting is a forth coming update to UDDF as it has much better data fidelity with Dive Log than UDCF and is starting to be supported by some other desktop logbook applications. Certainly supporting a CSV export is relatively easy although it might be difficult to find any application (short of a spreadsheet application) that can do anything useful with that data.
Our main strategy has been to work directly with various desktop dive log application vendors to directly support synchronizing with Dive Log on iPhone and Dive Log Manager. Today this support is included in Diving Log 5.0 (www.divinglog.de) on the PC (I run it on my Mac under VMWare Fusion/Windows) and supports full data fidelity with Dive Log on iPhone. Diving Log 5.0 does also support a number of export formats. We are also working closely with developers of Mac desktop dive log software to incorporate full bi-directional sync with Dive Log on iPhone. I will leave it up to them to announce any specific plans or product releases when they are ready. We do expect to have some exiting news in this regard soon.
We certainly understand your concern and have no interest in locking people into our data format. Having changed computer logbook applications numerous times myself over the years I know how difficult it can be. So our goal will be to continue to add support for additional desktop applications and appropriate export formats. Also, our file format is a Sqlite3 (www.sqlite.org) database (Sqlite3 is built into MacOS and is available for other OS platforms as it is open source) and we are more than happy to share the database schema to facilitate directly reading our logbook files.
I hope that helps provide some insight on our direction.
Cheers,
Greg
Re: Log export?
Hi,
I would also love to see a .csv export function for Dive Log or Dive Log Manager. I need to submit my log yearly for work and currently I have to keep two logs, one in the field on my iphone and one at home that I can send in yearly (as a spreadsheet). The exported data does not need to be all of my dive metrics: date, location, depth, time, temp, buddy and comments would be sufficient for me. Exporting directly to a spreadsheet would save me a ton of time! Thanks for such a great product!
I would also love to see a .csv export function for Dive Log or Dive Log Manager. I need to submit my log yearly for work and currently I have to keep two logs, one in the field on my iphone and one at home that I can send in yearly (as a spreadsheet). The exported data does not need to be all of my dive metrics: date, location, depth, time, temp, buddy and comments would be sufficient for me. Exporting directly to a spreadsheet would save me a ton of time! Thanks for such a great product!
Re: Log export?
Thanks! That is certainly a great use case ... I'm sure that we can manage to support your needs in this regard.
Cheers,
Greg
Cheers,
Greg