FAQs

What if I purchased DataGrab a long time ago?

If you purchased a license of DataGrab from Devot:ee or brandnewbox.co.uk directly, then we have imported all of those purchases.

If you already had an account on boldminded.com, then those purchases are now attached to that account. If you originally ordered from brandnewbox.co.uk we created a license number for you and attached it to your account (brandnewbox.co.uk purchases did not have license numbers, so we created one when importing them).

If you did not have an account on boldminded.com, now you do. You will need to use the email address you purchased the license with and do a password reset on boldminded.com. Once logged in you should see your previous purchases. If you do not remember the email address you purchased DataGrab with and do not have a license number, then unfortunately you will need to purchase a new license.

Regardless of where you purchased it from, if the original purchase was more than 1 year ago, you will need to upgrade the license, which you can do from your license page.

An example of what you should see in your account.

Can I transfer a license to a different account?

Yes, you can. If you purchased DataGrab from an account you no longer use you can transfer it to a new account on boldminded.com. You will need to login to boldminded.com with the old account/email address using the password reset option above, go to your Licenses page, and from there you can re-assign the license to another account. If you do not have access to the old email address to perform a password reset, you will need to purchase a new license.

Why does DataGrab 4 only work in ExpressionEngine 6?

In order to make advancements on DataGrab, supporting legacy versions is not viable. If you need a version of DataGrab that works in ExpressionEngine 4 or 5, then you should continue using DataGrab version 3.x, then when you upgrade to ExpressionEngine 6 you can switch to DataGrab 4. The upgrade process is seemless.

Is DataGrab 4 is slower than previous versions?

This is not entirely true. ExpressionEngine 3.0 introduced a new underlying Model/ORM system which handles saving all datatypes within ExpressionEngine. The models ensure that all entity types are created and managed consistently, especially with future versions of ExpressionEngine. When a model is called to save an entity type, in DataGrab's case an entry, it also calls sub-routines that trigger other events that ExpressionEngine uses internally, and 3rd party developers can subscribe to. For this reason, it is a little slower than inserting data directly into the database the old way. DataGrab 3 also used the models to save entries. If you used DataGrab in ExpressionEngine 2, then you may notice it was faster, because DataGrab was using the old Entry API, which inherently did direct database SQL writes.

Can DataGrab import Members/Users into ExpressionEngine?

No, DataGrab can not import members into ExpressionEngine. As of version 6.0 it only imports entries into channels, or files into the File Manager.

Can I import thousands of entries with DataGrab?

Yes, you can! However, we highly recommend running the imports using the available producer and consumer commands with ExpressionEngine's CLI too, and setup a crontab. Running imports through the control panel for a limited number of entries is generally acceptable, but if you need to import hundreds or thousands of entries, the control panel will likely timeout and not complete the import. You can also try to use the Import URL option, available through the dropdown menu in the Manage column on the DataGrab dashboard. This will open a new window and attempt to cycle through the large batch of entries in your browser by making a new http request once the import limit per request is reached. If at any time you encounter issues with an import not completing or timing out, the first step to take is to lower the imports limit setting. We recommend starting at 5, and then increasing the limit until you start timing out again, then dialing it back. The next step is to leverage the producer and consumer commands through the CLI.