The reports section of the service allows users to download data including:
- application data
- Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data
- status of active applications
We want to use file names that are clear and consistent. This will help users find data they’ve downloaded.
What we did
We created file name templates which include:
- report name
- provider name
- date and time the data was downloaded
Report name
We put the name of the report first. This will help users see what type of report it is, even if their file manager cuts off the end of the file name.
Provider name
We’ve included the provider name because around 20% of users belong to more than one organisation. We need to make sure that users know which organisation the data applies to.
Length of file name
File names should not exceed 255 characters to avoid operating system errors.
From the 1,973 providers in Manage:
- the longest provider name is 77 characters
- the shortest provider name is 3 characters
- the average provider name is 25 characters
How it works
The template for downloads is:
report-name_start-year-to-end-year_provider_date-downloaded_time-downloaded.extension
All characters other than numbers and letters are removed from the report name and provider name. Spaces are replaced with dashes. Only lower case is used.
For example ‘St John’s Teacher Training’ becomes ‘st-johns-teacher-training’.
The content of the ‘provider’ section of the template will be:
- the name of the provider if the data is only for 1 provider
- “multiple-providers” if the data is for 2 or more providers
Application data
An example file name for application data is:
application-data_2020-to-2021_wren-academy_2021-09-16_15-04-59.csv
An example file name for application data covering 2 recruitment cycles is:
application-data_2019-to-2021_wren-academy_2021-09-16_15-04-59.csv
An example file name for more than one provider is:
application-data_2020-to-2021_multiple-providers_2021-09-16_15-04-59.csv
We do not indicate which statuses are included in the data export.
HESA data
The user can only download the data for all providers.
An example file name for HESA data is:
hesa-data_2020-to-2021_wren-academy_2021-09-16_15-04-59.csv
An example file name for more than one provider is:
hesa-data_2020-to-2021_multiple-providers_2021-09-16_15-04-59.csv
Status of active applications
This report can only be downloaded for one provider at a time.
An example file name for the status of active applications report is:
status-of-active-applications_2020-to-2021_wren-academy_2021-09-16_15-04-59.csv