
Websites should offer downloading micromodels instead of CSV dumps - dgudkov
http://bi-review.blogspot.com/2017/04/websites-should-offer-micromodels.html
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jamescostian
I think this would totally alienate a lot of users. I know many who are
capable of downloading a .csv or .xlsx, clicking on it, and looking through MS
Excel. But a lot of them would start reading this and then ask me "What is an
SQLite?" The only real winners here would be programmers and the like.

If you're looking for programmers to win, why not say something like "Websites
should offer nice APIs" or "Programmers should use APIs when the data from a
CSV simply won't cut it"

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dgudkov
One doesn't exclude the other. Websites can keep offering CSV dumps for less
technically savvy users.

>The only real winners here would be programmers and the like.

Not only programmers would benefit from it -- there are many rather advanced
users who would pull data into Tableau or a similar tool rather than into
Excel.

UPDATE: Probably a better title would be "... in addition to CSV dumps".

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jamescostian
It's the word "instead" that I am most strongly against.

Offering more ways to get data always sounds good, however that also means
more work for developers on things that may not really be used. Personally,
when I see something about exporting data to a format my parents (average
technical abilities) would not be able to work with, I usually deprioritize it
quite a bit.

In my opinion, giving users access to a .xlsx file should be perfect for the
99% and having an API allows other devs to fill in gaps. But I suppose if your
website is big enough (e.g. PayPal) then you will run into more of those
people that need more info but can't/won't use an API, and at that point if
you receive enough requests from users, you ought to add some more export
options.

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dgudkov
I agree that "instead" is too strict. Although, I disagree about accessing
everything else besides CSVs through APIs because it usually requires a non-
trivial amount of reading documentation and coding. It's a no-go for advanced
non-technical users that I mentioned earlier. At the same time working with a
multi-table SQLite dump is trivial with many data analysis tools.

