Note: We will NOT be upgrading to Incremental Data Exports from May 1st, 2024 as communicated in November 2023, and will continue to support Full Data Exports until further notice.

If you are currently exporting large data volumes and would prefer a faster way to get your data exports, we encourage you to try Incremental Data Exports. Please reach out to us at support@freshservice.com and we will enable it for you.

----------------------|The below capability is currently rolled back until further notice| --------------------


Currently, within Freshservice Analytics, you can only schedule full data exports


To provide you a faster, scalable solution to download data, or transfer data into your BI platform or custom applications, we are upgrading to Incremental Data Exports from May 1st, 2024.


How do Incremental Data Exports work?

Incremental Data Exports will include only the information that was created or updated  after the previous export. Here’s an example of how an Incremental Data Export works:


Consider the following scenario:

  • Module on which export is created:  Tickets

  • Schedule creation time: June 1st 2024; 3 pm

  • Schedule time: Daily; 5 pm

  • First export on June 1st 2024; 5 pm

    • Data will include all Tickets created since inception till June 1st 2024; 5 pm.

  • Let’s assume that between 5 pm on June 1st 2024 and 5 pm on June 2nd 2024, the following changes occurred in the Tickets module:

    • 100 new tickets were created

    • 50 older tickets were updated

  • Second export on June 2nd 2024; 5 pm

    • Data will include records of the new 150 (100 created & 50 updated) tickets only which are created and updated since the last export time.

  • The same logic will apply to all subsequent exports.


What will change with this upgrade?

  • New exports created after this upgrade would be incremental. These new exports will have a limit of 70 columns.

  • Existing data exports setup before this upgrade will convert to incremental data exports, however if those exports support more than 70 columns, the column limit will not apply.

  • A maximum of 5 data exports can be set up for each module (currently, only 1 data export is supported per module).

How does this upgrade affect existing and new data exports?

Here is an example explaining the effect of this upgrade on existing and new data exports:

Scenario

Export details

Data in the export file

Existing data export -

Before Incremental Exports 

Module: Tickets 

Created on: April 1st 2024

Schedule: Weekly (Friday at 5 pm)


First export on April 5th 2024:

Contains all ticket records created till 5 pm on Friday Apr 5th 2024.

Second export on April 12th 2024:

Contains all ticket records created till 5 pm on Friday Apr 12th 2024.

Existing data export -

Upgraded to Incremental Exports on 12 am on May 1st 2024

Module: Tickets 

Created on: April 1st 2024

Schedule: Weekly (Friday at 5pm)

First export after upgrade on Friday May 3rd 2024:

Contains only those ticket records that are created or updated between 5 pm on Friday Apr 26th 2024 and 5 pm on Friday May 3rd 2024

Second export on May 10th 2024:

Contains only those ticket records that are created or updated between 5 pm on Friday May 3rd 2024 and 5 pm on Friday May 10th 2024.

All subsequent exports will follow the same incremental approach.

New data export

Module: Tickets 

Created on: June 1st 2024

Schedule: Monthly (Day 2 of month) at 5pm

First export on June 2nd 2024:

Contains all ticket records created till 5 pm on June 2nd 2024.

Second export on July 2nd 2024:

Contains only those ticket records that are created or updated between 5 pm on June 2nd 2024 and 5 pm on July 2nd 2024.

All subsequent exports will follow the same incremental approach.

Export is paused and resumed

Module: Tickets 

Created on: June 1st 2024

Schedule: Weekly (Friday at 5pm)

First export on June 7th 2024:

Contains all ticket records created till 5 pm on Friday June 7th 2024.

Export is paused on June 13th 2024 (i.e before the next scheduled run) and resumed on 20th June 2024.

Second export on June 21st 2024:

Contains only those ticket records that are created or updated between 5 pm on Friday June 7th 2024 and 5 pm on Friday June 21st 2024.



How can I use incremental data exports with BI tools?


  • You need to set up Incremental Data Exports in your BI tool by following the instructions provided by your vendor

  • For some BI tools, incremental data exports may only be available in specific pricing plans, for which you may need to upgrade from your existing plan.

  • Here is how you can consume Incremental Data Exports with BI platforms like PowerBI and Tableau

For further information, please contact your BI vendor or refer to their documentation.


Who will be impacted by this upgrade?

If you are currently using data exports from Freshservice Analytics to build reports using external BI tools, or are consuming data exports in your custom applications, you will be impacted by this upgrade.


What should you do?

  • If you consume data exports in your BI tools, reconfigure your BI tools to receive incremental exports instead of full exports.

  • If you consume data exports in your custom applications, modify your applications to process incremental exports instead of full exports.

If you have questions, reach out to support@freshservice.com.