Working with Backed Up Data

After you have created a backup, you can access all its backed up data via the Snapshots tab. This tab displays the list of all backup snapshots and allows browsing, viewing, and restoring backed up data.

Period for Which Snapshots Are Displayed

By default, the Snapshots tab displays all the snapshots made by this backup — just scroll the list down to see older snapshots. Whenever necessary, you can select one of the predefined periods or a custom period in the list above the snapshots. If you select Custom range, you can specify any period you want. You can either enter start and end dates manually in the box or click the start date and then the end date in the calendar.

To specify a period of several months, navigate to the start date of the period you want to select by using the arrows at the top of the calendar to scroll through the months and click it. Then, in the same way, navigate to the end date of the necessary period and click the end date.

Viewing and Exporting Data

To view or export data simply click the required snapshot in the list to open its details.

Snapshot Details and Data Export

Skyvia displays such snapshot details as the start and end date and time of the backup run, the total number of backed up records and the number of records, modified since the previous snapshot, and the number of cd errors if any. It also displays the list of backed up objects and the number of their backed up records and allows exporting their records from the snapshot to a CSV file.

To export data from a backed up object, simply click the Export button to the right of the exported object.

The list of snapshots moves to the left, and allows you to easily navigate between snapshots. To return to the full snapshot list, click the left arrow near the DETAILS header.

Viewing Records

To view your backed up data, simply click an object in the list, and its data will be displayed. The list of snapshot objects is moved to the left, to the list of snapshots, and you can use these lists to conveniently switch between objects and snapshots.

Data are displayed in a convenient sortable grid. By default, the data are displayed unsorted, in the same order the data source returned them when creating the snapshot. To sort the data by a column, simply click the header of this column in a grid. Click it again to change the sorting direction. Sorting direction indicator can be seen in the column header on the right, while the column data type indicator is displayed in the column header on the left.

You can filter the data by a text fragment by entering it into the Type to search… box above the grid and pressing Enter. This shows only the records, containing the entered text fragment in any of their fields.

Skyvia displays records in pages, by default — 10 records per page. You can switch between pages and change the number of records on the page below the grid.

For any record, you can click the Details link in the Action column to view its details.

Record Details

The Record Details view displays all the fields of a record and all the records, referencing the current record (child records). It allows you to quickly navigate relations and select related data in order to restore them.

By default, only first 10 fields of the record are displayed. You can display all the fields by clicking the Show More link. Click Show Less in order to display only 10 fields again.

If there are records in the current snapshots that reference the current record, they are displayed in the grids below, grouped by the objects. The grids with related records are titled with the name of object and the name of the corresponding foreign key field that references the current record.

You can quickly navigate to the details of the related records by clicking their Details links in the Action column of the corresponding grid. Moreover, in the list of fields, if a field is a foreign key that references other backed up record, the value of this field is displayed as a link that allows you to navigate to the details of this record. Thus, you can easily browse the relations up and down and quickly select all the necessary related records for restoring.

Polymorphic relations (when the same foreign key can reference different objects) are not supported.

For example, suppose we have backed up Salesforce Account, Contact, Case, and User objects. Contact and Case objects reference Account by the AccountId foreign key field, and the three tables, Account, Contact, and Case, have multiple foreign keys to the User table (by the OwnerId, CreatedById, and LastModifiedById fields). In this case, when viewing record details for an Account record, the Record Details page displays all the Cases and Contacts that reference this account, if there are some.

The grids with related records are titled with the name of object and the name of the corresponding foreign key field.

In the list of the Account fields above the grids with related records, the OwnerId, CreatedById, and LastModifiedById foreign key field values are links to the details of the corresponding User record.

Comparing Snapshots

Skyvia allows comparing different snapshots and viewing data differences between them. In order to compare a snapshot with the previous one, click the Changed tab when viewing the snapshot details or object data. After this, you can also compare the current snapshot with an even older one, view field changes between snapshots in a single record, etc. For more details, read Comparing Snapshots and Viewing Data Differences.

Data Search

Skyvia offers powerful data search functionality for your backups. You can search your backed up data by a fragment of one of its fields. For example, if you want to find a specific account in your backups, you can find it by a part of its name, address, phone, etc.

You can search for data in a specific snapshot or in multiple snapshots, from more recent down to older ones.

To search for a record in a specific snapshot, open it, and then open an object you want to search the record in. Then enter the search into the Type to search… box above the grid and pressing Enter. This displays the records, containing the searched string in any of their fields. After this, you may use arrow buttons near this box to continue search in older or newer backups in order to find the record version that you need.

Alternatively, you can select a period to search within in the list of snapshots. After this, select the object to search data in the Select object list above the list of snapshots, enter the search text in the Type to search… box, and click the search icon or press Enter. Skyvia will search for records, containing the searched string in any of their fields, starting from the most recent displayed snapshot to older one. It will open the object data of the most recent snapshot, in which the matching records are found, filtered by the search string. You may then continue search in older backups using arrow buttons near the Type to search… box.

Restoring Data

You can restore data simply by selecting records or whole objects, and then clicking the Restore button. Skyvia then provides you a choice of operations you can do with the selected data — insert to data source, update the corresponding records in the data source to the values from the snapshots, or delete them from the data source (NOT from the Skyvia’s snapshot). You can restore separate records, whole cloud objects, or all the data.

Skyvia Backup is able to restore records with their relations. You just need to select all the necessary related records and restore them together in one restore operation. As described above, you can easily browse record relations using the Record Details view. For more details, please read Restoring Data.

Deleting Snapshots

Skyvia allows you to free up storage space by deleting snapshots in several ways. See Managing Storage Space and Deleting Old Snapshots for more information.

Note that you can delete the whole snapshots only. You cannot delete a part of data within a snapshot.