Export formats

1. What this page is

Article 26 of the EU Data Act asks a cloud service to keep an online register of the data it can export, its structure and its formats, so that a customer can leave without asking permission and without surprises. This is that register. Everything below can be produced by the customer alone, from the app, at no charge — see section 13 of the terms of service.

2. Your files: ZIP archives

• What is inside. The original files exactly as they were uploaded — bytes untouched, never re-encoded, whatever the format (JPEG, PNG, HEIC, WebP, MP4, MOV, PDF and so on). Where a tape was uploaded as a browser-made preview first and the original followed, the original is what you get; where only the preview was ever uploaded, that is what exists.
• Structure. One archive per folder, per selection or per project section, as requested. File names are the uploaded names; when two files in one archive share a name, the second becomes name-2.ext, the third name-3.ext, so nothing is silently overwritten.
• Format. Standard ZIP with ZIP64 extensions, entries stored uncompressed (photos and video are already compressed), so any operating system opens it and extraction runs at disk speed. An archive holds up to 20 files; larger sets are split by folder.
• Not inside. The thumbnails and preview sizes the gallery displays. They are generated from the originals and can be regenerated by anyone from the files above.

3. Feedback and metadata: CSV, XLSX, JSON

Three formats carry the same information; pick the one your tools read.

CSV — UTF-8, one header row, fields quoted per RFC 4180, CRLF line ends. One row per vote, frame vote, like, note or comment, plus one row per folder without feedback so nothing is missing. Columns, in order:

section, name, ref, status, recommended, type, frame, person, login, audience, decision_maker, vote, first_choice, text, timecode, at followed by the card fields of the project type (address, capacity, availability and so on for locations; age, height, agency and so on for casting).

XLSX — an Office Open XML workbook with one sheet per kind of data: Votes, Notes & comments, Likes, Cards, Submissions, People and Download log. Same rows as the CSV, split by sheet, with a header row each.

JSON — a single UTF-8 document, timestamps in ISO 8601 with time zone, with these top-level keys:

• exported_at, project (id, slug, name, client name, kind, status, dates);
• rounds — the review rounds and their state;
• people — every person who voted or commented: display name, login, audience, decision-maker flag, the email they gave, last seen;
• folders — one object per location or candidate: its card fields, reference code, tally, and the arrays votes, frame_votes, likes, notes, comments (each with person, value, text, timecode where relevant, and time);
• media — one object per file: id, folder, file name, type, size, dimensions or duration, upload time;
• submissions — each time a client sent a round: who, when, message;
• downloads — see the download log below.

4. Reports: PDF

The report is a laid-out document for people, per audience (client-facing or internal): the same folders, votes and notes as above, with images. It is not a data format and not needed to move to another service; the JSON and the ZIP together contain everything the report shows.

5. Download log

Who downloaded what: a JSON list, also in the XLSX, with the time, the person and login, their audience, the scope (folder, selection or project), the status, the number of files and bytes, and anything that was skipped.

6. What is not exported

Data specific to the internal working of the service, which Article 25 of the Data Act lets a provider keep out of an export and which is of no use elsewhere: web server logs, the job queue, derived thumbnails and preview sizes, session tokens and password hashes. Client logins are exported by name and login, never with a password; the people who use them set new ones wherever you go next.

7. How to get them

• In the app: open a project, then Export. CSV, XLSX and JSON download at once; a PDF report and large ZIP archives are prepared as jobs and appear in the same screen with a download link when ready. Folder and selection ZIPs are also available to your clients in the gallery when you allow downloads.
• Through the API, with a staff session or an API key: GET /api/projects/<id>/export.csv, …/export.json, …/export.xlsx, …/report.pdf, …/download-log; POST /api/projects/<id>/exports queues a large export and GET /api/exports/<id>/file fetches it. Details on the Integrate page.
• Whole workspace: write to support@preproselects.com and we prepare every project's archives and data files together, at no charge, within the transition period the terms describe.

Last updated 17 September 2026. See also the terms of service and the legal notice.