Export Formats
The Archiver supports 12 export formats out of the box. The full list is on Settings → Exports → Formats — you can toggle individual formats on or off for your organisation, and customise the mapping between your data model fields and each format's elements.
Available formats
| Format | Standard | Tier | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| CSV | — | Free | Spreadsheet review, simple data extracts |
| JSON | — | Free | Programmatic consumption, custom workflows |
| Markdown | — | Free | Quick human-readable export, GitHub Pages publishing |
| PDF Report | — | Paid | Finding aid for researchers, donor reports |
| EAD3 XML | EAD3 | Paid | National archival aggregators, archives-to-archives transfer |
| Dublin Core XML | Dublin Core | Paid | Libraries, repositories, Europeana |
| AtoM CSV | AtoM | Paid | AtoM (Access to Memory) installations |
| ArchivesSpace CSV | ArchivesSpace | Paid | ArchivesSpace import |
| Archivematica CSV | Archivematica | Paid | Preservation workflows feeding Archivematica |
| Spectrum CSV | Spectrum 5.1 | Paid | UK museum collections management systems |
| BagIt | BagIt | Paid | Digital preservation transfers, OAIS submission |
| PREMIS XML | PREMIS | Paid | Preservation event metadata |
Free formats are available on every plan. Paid formats require Professional or above.
Where to export from
| From | What's exported |
|---|---|
| An accession — bottom panel of the accession page | The accession plus all its items |
| A fond — Export button on the fond detail page | The fond and all its descendants |
| A dossier — Export button on the dossier detail page | The dossier's items, with analysis if present |
| Settings → Exports | The entire archive in the chosen format |
| Search results — Select + Export | Just the selected items |
Each export runs in the background. Small exports complete in seconds; whole-archive BagIt packages of large collections can take several minutes. You'll get a notification when ready and the file appears in Settings → Exports → History.
Mappings — customising the field map
Every format has a default mapping from your Data Model fields to the format's elements. You can override these per-organisation.
- Settings → Exports → Formats.
- Click Mappings next to a format.
- Drag fields from the Source column to the Target column.
- For repeating fields (e.g. subjects), choose the delimiter and whether to flatten or expand into multiple elements.
- Save.
The mapping applies to every subsequent export in that format. You can also create multiple named mappings per format — useful when you export the same data into different downstream systems with different conventions.
Round-tripping
Most formats round-trip cleanly back into The Archiver via Import Profiles:
- EAD3 XML — full fond structure round-trips
- Dublin Core XML — item-level metadata round-trips
- AtoM CSV / ArchivesSpace CSV — structure plus item metadata round-trips
- CSV / JSON — full content round-trips
- BagIt — full content + file integrity (manifests)
PREMIS, PDF Report, and Markdown are export-only — they're presentation formats, not ingestion formats.
Toggle formats on or off
Not every organisation needs every format. The ON toggle next to each format in Settings → Exports controls whether it appears as an option on accession / fond / dossier export menus. Turning a format off doesn't delete past exports; it just removes it from the picker.
What's next?
- What each format is for — choosing the right format for your destination
- Importing a structure — importing existing data via the same Import Profiles tab