# Transaction Groups

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/transaction-groups/3596>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [November 14, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/transaction-groups/3596 "2011-11-14T15:19:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Joseph\_Mendonca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@Joseph\_Mendonca](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Joseph_Mendonca)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/transaction-groups/3596/1 "2011-11-14T15:19:15Z")

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I’m curious as to why the transaction groups export to xml and not csv or have a csv export option.

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**Author:** ![Colby.Clegg](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/colby.clegg/32/3282_2.png) [@Colby.Clegg](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Colby.Clegg)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/transaction-groups/3596/2 "2011-11-15T17:28:12Z")

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Hi,

Roughly, the short answer is “because it was easier and fit the data better”. Unfortunately, I know it’s not as user friendly. From the very first release of Ignition we had intended to put CSV format back in for groups, but never got around to it. We were never all that happy with the CSV format of FactorySQL, but I guess it was at least functional, so we probably should have just ported that over for backwards compatibility at least.

I’m not sure what the timeline would be on this, but we definitely know it’s something that people want.

Regards,

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**Author:** ![Joseph\_Mendonca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@Joseph\_Mendonca](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Joseph_Mendonca)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/transaction-groups/3596/3 "2011-11-15T17:40:46Z")

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We have approximately 400 expressions to input. Although a little cross eyed, it’s not as bad as initially anticipated. In any case, a csv would be quicker to edit and less prone to the possibility of errors. Did consider a gateway script but opted for the transaction group.

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**Author:** ![Colby.Clegg](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/colby.clegg/32/3282_2.png) [@Colby.Clegg](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Colby.Clegg)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/transaction-groups/3596/4 "2011-11-15T18:05:18Z")

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At one point, I had made some python scripts that helped automate the creation of xml files, but I don’t know where they’re at… if I look around I might be able to find them. Using something like that, or macros in your text editor of choice, could help a lot. If you just had an expression per line, you could have a macro run through them and wrap them in item xml or something.

Regards,