An export is how records leave CivAll Archive — for a requester, for counsel, for another agency.
What you can export
| Export | Format | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| A case | PDF or ZIP | Producing a records request you assembled |
| An entire archive | ZIP | A full copy of one account's records |
| A selected set of records | ZIP | A quick production without building a case. Imported records are left out |
| The audit log | ZIP | Showing how records were handled |
PDF suits a case meant to be read — a reviewable document. ZIP suits a set meant to be processed or retained, and is the option for whole archives.
Run an export
- Go to what you want to export — the case, the archive's row on the Archives page, your selected records in Search, or the Audit Log.
- On a case, choose Export, then Export PDF or Export ZIP. On an archive, open the row's actions menu and choose Export ZIP. In Search and the Audit Log, choose Export ZIP.
- The export is prepared in the background. Larger sets take longer; you do not have to wait on the screen. Track progress from Exports in the toolbar.
- When it is ready, the download starts on its own, and you are notified in the app and by email. You can also download it from the export's page.
Two expiries to plan around
- The download link lasts about five minutes. It is deliberately short-lived, because a link to an agency's records should not be forwardable indefinitely. If it lapses, request the download again.
- The generated file itself is kept for 30 days, then removed. Exports are work products with a bounded life, not a second archive.
Important
Download the export and store it wherever your agency keeps its produced records. Do not treat the export list as a filing cabinet — after 30 days the file is gone, though the records it was built from remain in the archive and can be exported again.
Re-running the same export later regenerates it from the same records, so nothing is lost by letting a file expire. What you lose is the copy, not the ability to produce it again.
What an export contains
An export carries the captured content and the metadata that makes it evidence rather than a screenshot: authorship, publication and capture timestamps, the record's state, and its version history where the content was edited. That is the difference between producing an archive record and producing a picture of a webpage.
Exports are logged
Every export is recorded in the audit log with who ran it and what it covered. If someone later asks what your agency produced and when, that answer is already written down. See The audit log.