Top

Backup

To backup your data from your device to your computer you must first make sure that both are connected to the same network. Your device must have a Wi-Fi connection for this to work. Once this condition is met you can proceed.

Start My Stuff on your device and tap the Tools icon. Next tap the "Data Transfer" row. Then tap the "Backup Data" button.

A dialog will appear on your device. If you have a lot of data this will take a moment to appear. Following the instructions on the dialog, go to your computer and bring up your favorite web browser. Enter the URL shown on the dialog on your device into your computer's browser.

A simple page should appear in your computer's browser containing a link to a file named MyStuffBackup.msa. Click on this link to download the file to your computer. Save this file in a safe place. This file can be used if you ever need to restore your data. Once the download is complete you may close your computer's web browser window.

Important - It's possible your computer will try to unzip the MyStuffBackup.msa file instead of just saving the file as-is. In order to later use this file to restore your data you must save the file as-is. If your computer automatically unzips the file then try right-clicking on the file in the browser and select Save Link As.

Tap the Done button on the dialog on your device. Your backup is complete.

If you decide not to backup your data just tap the Cancel button on the dialog on your device.

Important - You can only use your computer's web browser to connect to My Stuff if the Backup dialog is in view on the device. If you tap the Cancel or Done button the connection will fail.

Note - If you are unable to connect to your device from your computer's browser please verify that your device and computer are actually connected to the same network. Your computer's IP address should start with the same three numbers you entered into your browser to connect to your device. If this is OK then double check any firewall you may have in place that could be preventing your computer from reaching your device. Many firewalls only allow connections on port 80. My Stuff uses port 8080.

Suggestions:

• Backup your My Stuff data before you upgrade My Stuff to a new verison, upgrade your device's software, or make a lot of changes to the data. This way, if something goes wrong you have the latest data.
• If you wish to keep multiple backups of your data, rename the downloaded file by adding the date or other helpful word to the filename so you can easily find the correct one in the future.

Top

Restore

To restore your data to your device from your computer you must first make sure that both are connected to the same network. Your device must have a Wi-Fi connection for this to work. Once this condition is met you can proceed.

Start My Stuff on your device and tap the Tools icon. Next tap the "Data Transfer" row. Then tap the "Restore Data" button.

A dialog will appear on your device. Following the instructions on the dialog, go to your computer and bring up your favorite web browser. Enter the URL shown on the dialog on your device into your computer's browser.

A simple page should appear in your computer's browser containing a file field and two buttons. Click on the "Browse" button and navigate to a My Stuff backup file. This will be named MyStuffBackup.msa by default. But keep in mind you may have renamed it. Once you have selected the proper file click on the Restore button. This will begin the upload process from your computer to your device. Depending on the size of the backup file this may take a minute or two.

Once the upload is complete the dialog on your device will change. If the uploaded file was a valid My Stuff backup file you will see a dialog telling you what information was found. This will include the date the backup was made, how many items are in the backup, and the version of My Stuff used to create the backup. If you currently have data in My Stuff, the dialog will tell you how many items are about to be replaced. You may now close your computer's web browser window.

If you decide not to restore this data then tap the Cancel button and your existing data will not be replaced.

If you want to compelete the restoration tap the Restore button. Once complete your screen will change to the Categories screen showing all of your newly restored data.

If the file you uploaded from your computer to your device was not a valid My Stuff backup file you will see a dialog indicating this error. Repeat this entire process again to select the correct file and complete the restoration process.

Important - You can only use your computer's web browser to connect to My Stuff if the Restore dialog is in view on the device. If you tap the Cancel button the connection will fail.

Note - If you are unable to connect to your device from your computer's browser please verify that your device and computer are actually connected to the same network. Your computer's IP address should start with the same three numbers you entered into your browser to connect to your device. If this is OK then double check any firewall you may have in place that could be preventing your computer from reaching your device. Many firewalls only allow connections on port 80. My Stuff uses port 8080.

Top

Export

To export your data from your device to your computer you must first make sure that both are connected to the same network. Your device must have a Wi-Fi connection for this to work. To export your data via email your device must have a working Internet connection. This can be from Wi-Fi or cellular. Once the appropriate condition is met you can proceed.

When you first choose to export your data you are presented with the Export Settings screen. Use this screen to complete the details of the data export.

Export Source

You can only export items from a single category. Select which category you wish to export. You may narrow this down by exporting data from a specific group within the category. Lastly you can choose data from a specific location. Select All Locations if you don't wish to fiter the exported data by location.

Export Destination

You have two choices for the export destination. A local computer on the same Wi-Fi network as your device or via email. If you export a category of items to a local computer you will have the chance to save the items as a CSV text file that can be imported into other software such as a spreadsheet program. If you send the items via email you can attach the items as a CSV file attachment and/or you can include the items as text in the email. Sending the CSV file as part of the email gives the recipient the opportunity to import the data into their own copy of My Stuff.

Email Options

This section is only used if the export destination is set to Email. You must pick at least one option but you may also pick both if desired.

CSV File Format

If you are exporting the items via email and you have selected to include the CSV file, or you have selected to export the items to a local computer you can specify how the CSV file is formatted. The choices made here really depend on the needs of the software the data will be imported into. If you are unsure then just leave the settings at their defaults. But remember the settings. You may be asked these values when you import the file into a spreadsheet program.

Once you are happy with all of the setting values you can tap the Continue button. Tap the Cancel button if you decide not to perform the export. If you have chosen Email as the destination an email dialog will appear. Enter or select recipient email(s) and tap the Send button. If you selected Local Computer as the destination then you must continue with the following instructions.

A dialog will appear on your device. Following the instructions on the dialog, go to your computer and bring up your favorite web browser. Enter the URL shown on the dialog on your device into your computer's browser.

A simple page should appear in your computer's browser containing a link to a file named MyStuffExport.csv. Click on this link to download the file to your computer. As the note shows on the browser page, if the contents of the CSV file appear in your browser then click on your browser's back button and then right-click on the link to save the CSV file to your computer. Once the download is complete you may close your computer's web browser window.

Tap the Done button on the dialog on your device. Your export is complete.

Important - You can only use your computer's web browser to connect to My Stuff if the Export dialog is in view on the device. If you tap the Cancel or Done button the connection will fail.

Note - If you are unable to connect to your device from your computer's browser please verify that your device and computer are actually connected to the same network. Your computer's IP address should start with the same three numbers you entered into your browser to connect to your device. If this is OK then double check any firewall you may have in place that could be preventing your computer from reaching your device. Many firewalls only allow connections on port 80. My Stuff uses port 8080.

Top

Import

Note: Due to the possible varieties of data to be imported and the flexibilty of your categories the import process has several steps to ensure the greatest chance of being able to successfully import your data. It may take a few tries to get the data just as you want it. If you are still having issues after going through these instructions please contact us and we will help as best we can.

To import data from your computer to your device you must first make sure that both are connected to the same network. Your device must have a Wi-Fi connection for this to work. Once this condition is met you can proceed.

Start My Stuff on your device and tap the Tools icon. Next tap the "Data Transfer" row. Then tap the "Import Data" button.

A dialog will appear on your device. Following the instructions on the dialog, go to your computer and bring up your favorite web browser. Enter the URL shown on the dialog on your device into your computer's browser.

A simple page should appear in your computer's browser containing a file field and two buttons. Click on the "Browse" button and navigate to a CSV file on your computer. Once you have selected the proper file click on the Import button.

Once the upload is complete the dialog on your device will be replaced with the "Import Settings" screen. This screen is used to configure how and where the data is imported. It remembers the choices you made the last time you performed an import.

There are three sections to this screen. The Import Destination section allows you to specify which category and location the imported items will be put in. The category selection is very important because the selected category defines which attributes are available. The second section allows you to provide information about the content of the actual CSV file you are importing. My Stuff attempts to determine the proper field and text delimiters from the imported file but you can change the selections if required.

Field Delimiter

CSV files can use one of several possible delimiters to separate each field. The two most common are a comma or a tab. If you aren't sure what to select here just leave it as-is since the selection has most likely been correctly chosen already. Change the value if you know the correct value is different.

Text Delimiter

CSV files will use the text delimiter around fields that have certain characters in them such as spaces or commas. If you aren't sure what to select here just leave it as-is since the selection has most likely been correctly chosen already. Change the value if you know the correct value is different.

Header Row

Many times your data will have the names of each column in the first row of data. If this is the case then turn on the Header Row setting. If your data does not have these column labels then turn off this setting.

Multi-value Delimiter

If a column in your data contains multiple values you must pick the proper delimiter used to seperate the values. The most common delimiters are the comma, space, or vertical bar. Pick the appropriate delimiter for your data. If your data doesn't contain any multiple value columns then just leave the value as-is.

Date Format

Dates can be written in many different formats. Setting this option to System Default will handle dates properly if your CSV file contains dates in the same standard format typically used where you live. But if the dates in your data are formatted differently then you should pick the format that best matches the data. These formats will properly handle punctuation used to separate each part of the date such as slashes, dashes, or periods. If there are no dates in your data then just leave the value as-is.

Duration Format

By default My Stuff expects durations to be in the format HH:MM:SS. But your data may only be hours and minutes or just minutes and seconds. This setting lets you specify how durations are represented in your data. If there are no durations in your data then just leave the value as-is.

The third and last section lets you specify how to handle existing category data and imported items that have the same name as existing items in the selected category. If you want the imported data to completely replace all existing items in the chosen category then turn on Delete Existing Items. If you just want to add the imported items to the chosen category then turn this setting off. If you turn on duplicate item skipping then imported items with the same name as existing items in the category will be ignored. If this option is turned off then the duplicates will be imported. The original data will not be effected. This setting doesn't matter if you turn on Delete Existing Items.

After you have completed the Import Settings screen you can tap the Continue button to proceed with the next step. This is where you match up the columns in your data file with the item attributes. There are four main sections: Built-in Attributes, Category Attributes, Action Attributes, and Import Actions.

When you map a CSV column to an attribute you will be presented with a screen that contains a list of columns found in the CSV file. If you had a header row in your data then you will see the actual column names listed. If there was no header row the columns will be labeled Column A, Column B, etc. If the list of columns doesn't appear to be correct then it is possible the wrong field or text delimiter was selected. You can tap the Redo Import Settings button to return to the Import Settings screen. Try selecting the correct settings.

My Stuff makes an attempt to match CSV columns with the attributes but if the names are different you will need to update the mapping yourself. For each attribute you can tap on the listed column and select which column the data should be imorted from. If you don't want a particular attribute to be imported just select the "Do not import" option.

Built-in Attributes

This sections allows you to map CSV columns to standard item attributes including Item Name, category group, and location. You must map an imported column to the Item Name. This is the only required selection. If you map a CSV column to the group attribute then any imported groups that do not currently exist for the category will be added. If you map a CSV column to the location attribute then this value will override whatever location you selected on the previous screen. Any imported locations that do not already exist will be added to your locations.

Category Attributes

There will be one row for each column in the selected category. You do not need to import data into all attributes. Just map a CSV column to the attributes you wish to import.

Action Attributes

You have the option of importing data into any of the attributes for any of your defined actions. If any imported item has data imported into any attribute of an action it will be as if that action was applied to that item.

Import Actions

It's possible that you may only want to import certain rows from the CSV file and not all rows. These two options let you indicate that you only want to import certain rows or that you want to exclude certain rows. The column you choose must contain the values YES, ON, or 1 (ignoring case) to match. Leave both values as [Do Not Import] to import all rows.

Keep the following in mind. You must map a column to the item name. All other mappings are optional. Make sure the data you are importing is formatted appropriately for the item attributes you map it to. For example don't map a column with dates to a currency attribute. Data that can't be converted properly will be discarded. Any lookup values used as attributes will get updated with all imported values.

Once you are happy with the column mapping you can tap the Done button to proceed with the import. If the Done button isn't enabled then you haven't mapping the item name to any column yet. At this point the data will be processed and you will be shown a dialog with the results. This dialog will tell you how many rows of data were imported and how many were skipped (if any). If any data could not be imported (such as a date in a currency attribute) you will see the list of columns and how many rows of data were invalid.

You will now have the option to cancel the import, review the data, or just complete the import. Selecting "Import" completes the import by adding all of the new items to the category. You will then be taken to that category so you can see the new data. Selecting "Review" brings up an item list with all of the new items. You can view each item as desired to verify the data has been imported correctly. If the data is not correct you can tap the Cancel button to abort the import. Tap the Import button to complete the import by adding all of the new items to the category.

Important - You can only use your computer's web browser to connect to My Stuff if the Import dialog is in view on the device. If you tap the Cancel button the connection will fail.

Note - If you are unable to connect to your device from your computer's browser please verify that your device and computer are actually connected to the same network. Your computer's IP address should start with the same three numbers you entered into your browser to connect to your device. If this is OK then double check any firewall you may have in place that could be preventing your computer from reaching your device. Many firewalls only allow connections on port 80. My Stuff uses port 8080.

Top

HTML Report

To create and download an HTML report of your data from your device to your computer you must first make sure that both are connected to the same network. Your device must have a Wi-Fi connection for this to work. Once this condition is met you can proceed.

Start My Stuff on your device and tap the Tools icon. Next tap the "Data Transfer" row. Then tap the "HTML Report" button. The report will now be generated and packaged. This may take a few minutes depending on how much data you have.

Once ready a dialog will appear on your device. Following the instructions on the dialog, go to your computer and bring up your favorite web browser. Enter the URL shown on the dialog on your device into your computer's browser.

A simple page should appear in your computer's browser containing a link to a file named MyStuffHTMLReport.zip. Click on this link to download the file to your computer. Once the download is complete you may close your computer's web browser window.

Tap the Done button on the dialog on your device. The download is complete.

You must now unzip the downloaded report file. You may do this anywhere on your computer that you choose. Once unzipped, open a web browser window on your computer and choose the File | Open File... menu. Browse to the directory where you unzipped the report file. You should see a directory named 'mystuff'. Inside this directory should be a file named 'index.html'. Select this file. You can now click on any of the links and see a representation of your My Stuff data similar to what you see in the actual My Stuff application.

Important - You can only use your computer's web browser to connect to My Stuff if the HTML Report dialog is in view on the device. If you tap the Cancel or Done button the connection will fail.

Note - If you are unable to connect to your device from your computer's browser please verify that your device and computer are actually connected to the same network. Your computer's IP address should start with the same three numbers you entered into your browser to connect to your device. If this is OK then double check any firewall you may have in place that could be preventing your computer from reaching your device. Many firewalls only allow connections on port 80. My Stuff uses port 8080.