Export – major issue – Please help!

As a follow-up, I read on another post that this is a bug in v1.19 and the suggestion was to downgrade to v1.18.x.

I am currently using v1.20, but I tried to downgrade to v1.18.2, but I could not load the plugin, because it says, you are trying to load an expired package or something.

So what is the next option. Please don’t suggest that I have to uninstall v1.20 and install the old one. That will completely delete our online form that is active for an upcoming registration. Please suggest an option to help us download the Submissions without collapsing the empty fields!! This is URGENT. Thank you.

Hi @rpalex,

I am currently using v1.20, but I tried to downgrade to v1.18.2, but I could not load the plugin, because it says, you are trying to load an expired package or something.

You meant the plugin couldn’t be activated? I gave a quick test in my system and I was able to install the v 1.18.2 without any issues.

Unfortunately due to the bug as you have stated the quick workaround for now is to revert to v 1.18.2.

You tried downloading version 1.18.2 from here, right?
https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/forminator/advanced/

Could you please give it one more try and see whether it helps?

I’m checking with our developer to see if there is any patch that could be shared regarding this or not.

Will keep you posted once we get further feedback asap. Sorry for any inconvenience due to this.

Kind Regards,
Nithin

Yes, I just tried it again. Tried to install v1.18.2, but I get the error “The link you followed has expired”. And it won’t give any other options. I used the Upload Plugin and Browse to the downloaded file to install.

Should I try v1.18.1. I don’t want something else that is missing from the older version to break the form either.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by rpalex.

HI @rpalex

I admit I’m a bit surprised with this downgrade issue. Usually, if you attempt to downgrade by using “Plugins -> Add new -> upload” option and use zip package there, i should go fine and you should be asked if you want to replace current files with uploaded ones. If you confirm, the process would continue and downgrade would happen.

If it’s not possible there must be something preventing it and most likely it would be some sort of security tool (either some security plugin monitoring plugin version or some host-level solution) but that’s more of a guess than diagnosis.

An alternative way to downgrade which would work just the same would be to use FTP instead:

– since you have a zip file with 1.18.2 version, do extract (unzip) it to your local drive and you’ll find “forminator” folder inside

– while not being logged-in to wp-admin (don’t access it during the process), use FTP to access your site’s WP installation and go to the “/wp-content/plugins” folder
– delete the “forminator” folder from there
– and upload the “forminator” folder from inside the zip file on your local drive in that place

That’s it. Once you login back to the site you’d have the plugin downgraded to 1.18.2. Worse case scenario is that you may need to enable the plugin again (if you or somebody else accessed “wp-admin” during the process) but it will replace the file without data loss.

Kind regards,
Adam

PS. Regardless of no risk of data loss, I’d still recommend taking full backup of the site first, just to stay on the safe side.

Is there a way to backup the online form and the current submissions before I do any of this?

Also, if I were to backup the current Forminator folder, I am assuming that would help to restore to the current state, should something fail when I replace it with v1.18.2?

Are you suggesting that I log-off as Admin and only access via FTP or through cPanel-File Manager of the Webhost to replace the folder?

Hi @rpalex,

As the database tables are intact, the forms and submission data will not be lost when you downgrade the plugin using FTP. However, please make sure you have a complete backup of the website before further proceed. You may please use a backup plugin for creating backups or please check if your hosting provider has the option to create a backup of the website.

Backing up the Forminator directory is a good idea, but it would be better to create a complete backup so that it will be easy to revert back.

Yes, to be on the safer side, please log off as admin and downgrade the plugin using FTP/cPanel.

Please feel free to get back to us if you need any further clarification.

Kind Regards,
Nebu John

Well I tired what you suggested. I logged off, used FTP to access the wp-content/plugins folder. Changed the name of the existing forminator to “forminator 1.20” and then FTP’d over the forminator folder from v.1.18.2.

Then I logged back in and exported the CSV. But unfortunately the problem is still there. The downloaded CSV file still collapsed all the empty fields moving the other fields to the left.

So that, for whatever reason, it did not fix the issue.

This is a SERIOUS BUG. I hope your programmers would release a patch to address this issue soon!!!

Hi @rpalex,

I checked this on a test website and confirmed the issue is not showing up at our end using version 1.18.2. Can you please take a screenshot of the plugin list from WP Dashboard >> Plugins and share it with us so we can take a closer look?

A fix for this bug is ready and is expected to be released with version 1.22. But unfortunately, an ETA on this cannot be provided at the moment.

Kind Regards,
Nebu John

Hi @rpalex,

This has already been fixed in the latest update v 1.22.1. I’ll mark this thread as resolved for now.

Please feel free to re-open the thread if you need further assistance regarding this.

Best Regards
Nithin

Is this BROKEN AGAIN!

I have v1.23.3 and the problem appears again.

We downloaded Submissions as CSV and sure enough the empty cells have been ignored and the values from the following cells were shifted to the left to fill the blank cells corrupting the whole export.

Can you please have a look at this again. This is a serious bug! Not sure why this keeps reappearing.

Hi @rpalex

I just tested it with recent Forminator:

– I have exported the submission data (with various field left empty – to get a “random” empty columns) to CSV file
– I looked into CSV file in a raw text editor – the empty fields are correctly separated by commas as they should be (e.g. ‘value1,,,value2’ – in case of two empty fields between value1 and value2)
– then I opened it with Libre Office – this asked me out of the box which character to use as separator – and it imported it fine

– so I then used Excel (online version as I don’t have a desktop one) and initially it imported everything to the single left-most column.

However, after selecting that column and suing the “Text to Columns” tool (selecting only comma as separator) it converted all the data correctly to columns, exactly as expected – with blank columns where they should be.

This part – need to use “Text to Columns” option – wouldn’t be Forminator issue actually but how Excel works. For some reason it doesn’t automatically assume there’s a need for conversion. However, important part is to make sure that only “comma” is selected in “Text to Columns” tool – otherwise it can give unexpected/weird results.

—–

If this is not the case here and it doesn’t work like this for you, could you please share some example CSV export with us for testing?

To do it safely:

– do a few example submissions to the form, leaving some empty fields and only using meaningless data to fill in form fields
– then apply a filter to submissions in Forminator to only show those submissions
– and when exporting to CSV make sure that the “apply filters” option is checked
– then share the file as a “zip” file (in order to avoid any automatic conversion) via your Google Drive, Dropbox or similar account (note: in your response here post a link that’s public).

We could then check that export.

Kind regards,
Adam