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How to load data from GitHub to Excel File

How to Export GitHub Issues to Excel: Step-by-Step Guide

Learn how to use Airbyte to synchronize your GitHub data into Excel File within minutes.

TL;DR

This can be done by building a data pipeline manually, usually a Python script (you can leverage a tool as Apache Airflow for this). This process can take more than a full week of development. Or it can be done in minutes on Airbyte in three easy steps:

  1. set up GitHub as a source connector (using Auth, or usually an API key)
  2. set up Excel File as a destination connector
  3. define which data you want to transfer and how frequently

You can choose to self-host the pipeline using Airbyte Open Source or have it managed for you with Airbyte Cloud.

This tutorial’s purpose is to show you how.

What is GitHub

GitHub is a renowned and respected development platform that provides code hosting services to developers for building software for both open source and private projects. It is a heavily trafficked platform where users can store and share code repositories and obtain support, advice, and help from known and unknown contributors. Three features in particular—pull request, fork, and merge—have made GitHub a powerful ally for developers and earned it a place as a (developers’) household name.

What is Excel File

Excel File is a software application developed by Microsoft that allows users to create, edit, and analyze spreadsheets. It is widely used in businesses, schools, and personal finance to organize and manipulate data. Excel File offers a range of features including formulas, charts, graphs, and pivot tables that enable users to perform complex calculations and data analysis. It also allows users to collaborate on spreadsheets in real-time and share them with others. Excel File is available on multiple platforms including Windows, Mac, and mobile devices, making it a versatile tool for data management and analysis.

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Prerequisites

  1. A GitHub account to transfer your customer data automatically from.
  2. A Excel File account.
  3. An active Airbyte Cloud account, or you can also choose to use Airbyte Open Source locally. You can follow the instructions to set up Airbyte on your system using docker-compose.

Airbyte is an open-source data integration platform that consolidates and streamlines the process of extracting and loading data from multiple data sources to data warehouses. It offers pre-built connectors, including GitHub and Excel File, for seamless data migration.

When using Airbyte to move data from GitHub to Excel File, it extracts data from GitHub using the source connector, converts it into a format Excel File can ingest using the provided schema, and then loads it into Excel File via the destination connector. This allows businesses to leverage their GitHub data for advanced analytics and insights within Excel File, simplifying the ETL process and saving significant time and resources.

Step 1: Set up GitHub as a source connector

1. Open the Airbyte platform and navigate to the "Sources" tab on the left-hand side of the screen.

2. Click on the "GitHub" source connector and select "Create a new connection."

3. Enter a name for the connection and click "Next."

4. Enter your GitHub credentials, including your username and personal access token. If you do not have a personal access token, you can create one by following the instructions provided in the Airbyte documentation.

5. Select the repositories you want to connect to Airbyte and click "Test Connection" to ensure that the connection is successful.

6. Once the connection is successful, click "Create Connection" to save the connection.

7. You can now use the GitHub source connector to extract data from your selected repositories and integrate it with other data sources in Airbyte.

Step 2: Set up Excel File as a destination connector

1. Open the Airbyte platform and navigate to the "Sources" tab on the left-hand side of the screen.
2. Click on the "Excel File" source connector and select "Create new connection."
3. In the "Connection Configuration" page, enter a name for your connection and select the version of Excel you are using.
4. Click on "Add Credential" and enter the path to your Excel file in the "File Path" field.
5. If your Excel file is password-protected, enter the password in the "Password" field.
6. Click on "Test" to ensure that the connection is successful.
7. Once the connection is successful, click on "Create Connection" to save your settings.
8. You can now use this connection to extract data from your Excel file and integrate it with other data sources on Airbyte.

Step 3: Set up a connection to sync your GitHub data to Excel File

Once you've successfully connected GitHub as a data source and Excel File as a destination in Airbyte, you can set up a data pipeline between them with the following steps:

  1. Create a new connection: On the Airbyte dashboard, navigate to the 'Connections' tab and click the '+ New Connection' button.
  2. Choose your source: Select GitHub from the dropdown list of your configured sources.
  3. Select your destination: Choose Excel File from the dropdown list of your configured destinations.
  4. Configure your sync: Define the frequency of your data syncs based on your business needs. Airbyte allows both manual and automatic scheduling for your data refreshes.
  5. Select the data to sync: Choose the specific GitHub objects you want to import data from towards Excel File. You can sync all data or select specific tables and fields.
  6. Select the sync mode for your streams: Choose between full refreshes or incremental syncs (with deduplication if you want), and this for all streams or at the stream level. Incremental is only available for streams that have a primary cursor.
  7. Test your connection: Click the 'Test Connection' button to make sure that your setup works. If the connection test is successful, save your configuration.
  8. Start the sync: If the test passes, click 'Set Up Connection'. Airbyte will start moving data from GitHub to Excel File according to your settings.

Remember, Airbyte keeps your data in sync at the frequency you determine, ensuring your Excel File data warehouse is always up-to-date with your GitHub data.

Use Cases to transfer your GitHub data to Excel File

Integrating data from GitHub to Excel File provides several benefits. Here are a few use cases:

  1. Advanced Analytics: Excel File’s powerful data processing capabilities enable you to perform complex queries and data analysis on your GitHub data, extracting insights that wouldn't be possible within GitHub alone.
  2. Data Consolidation: If you're using multiple other sources along with GitHub, syncing to Excel File allows you to centralize your data for a holistic view of your operations, and to set up a change data capture process so you never have any discrepancies in your data again.
  3. Historical Data Analysis: GitHub has limits on historical data. Syncing data to Excel File allows for long-term data retention and analysis of historical trends over time.
  4. Data Security and Compliance: Excel File provides robust data security features. Syncing GitHub data to Excel File ensures your data is secured and allows for advanced data governance and compliance management.
  5. Scalability: Excel File can handle large volumes of data without affecting performance, providing an ideal solution for growing businesses with expanding GitHub data.
  6. Data Science and Machine Learning: By having GitHub data in Excel File, you can apply machine learning models to your data for predictive analytics, customer segmentation, and more.
  7. Reporting and Visualization: While GitHub provides reporting tools, data visualization tools like Tableau, PowerBI, Looker (Google Data Studio) can connect to Excel File, providing more advanced business intelligence options. If you have a GitHub table that needs to be converted to a Excel File table, Airbyte can do that automatically.

Wrapping Up

To summarize, this tutorial has shown you how to:

  1. Configure a GitHub account as an Airbyte data source connector.
  2. Configure Excel File as a data destination connector.
  3. Create an Airbyte data pipeline that will automatically be moving data directly from GitHub to Excel File after you set a schedule

With Airbyte, creating data pipelines take minutes, and the data integration possibilities are endless. Airbyte supports the largest catalog of API tools, databases, and files, among other sources. Airbyte's connectors are open-source, so you can add any custom objects to the connector, or even build a new connector from scratch without any local dev environment or any data engineer within 10 minutes with the no-code connector builder.

We look forward to seeing you make use of it! We invite you to join the conversation on our community Slack Channel, or sign up for our newsletter. You should also check out other Airbyte tutorials, and Airbyte’s content hub!

What should you do next?

Hope you enjoyed the reading. Here are the 3 ways we can help you in your data journey:

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Integrating diverse data sources is crucial for organizations aiming to maximize their data potential. This article explores the process of exporting data from GitHub issues to Excel, offering insights into configuration, benefits, and best practices.

By leveraging this GitHub issues to Excel integration, organizations can streamline data transfer, enhance data management capabilities, and facilitate informed decision-making through access to accurate, up-to-date information.

We'll explore two methods: manual data export, which typically requires significant time and effort, and an automated approach of connecting GitHub issues with Excel using Airbyte that can be set up in minutes. This guide aims to walk you through both processes effectively, helping you choose the method that best suits your needs.

About GitHub

GitHub is a web-based platform for version control and collaboration using Git. It allows developers to store, manage, track and control changes to their code repositories.

About Excel

Excel, a versatile spreadsheet tool within the Microsoft Office suite, has become an indispensable asset for data engineers and analysts worldwide. Its user-friendly interface, combined with powerful data manipulation and visualization capabilities, makes it a go-to solution for various data-related tasks. Excel's popularity stems from its ability to handle large datasets, perform complex calculations, and create insightful charts and pivot tables. For data engineers, Excel often serves as a familiar starting point for data exploration and preliminary analysis before moving to more specialized tools.

How to export GitHub issues data to Excel?

Let's explore two methods to export your GitHub issues data to Excel:

  • An automated solution of connecting GitHub issues to Excel using Airbyte
  • A manual approach of connecting GitHub issues to Excel

Method 1: Automate or Schedule the export of GitHub issues data to Excel using Airbyte

Airbyte offers a more efficient and reliable way to export your GitHub issues data for use in Excel, with the added benefit of automation and scheduling. This means you can set up your data exports to run at specified intervals - be it hourly, daily, weekly, or any custom frequency you need - eliminating the need for manual effort and ensuring your Excel data is always up-to-date. While Airbyte doesn't directly support Excel as a destination, we can use alternative methods that allow for easy Excel integration.

1. Set up GitHub as a source connector in Airbyte

  • Log in to your Airbyte account or set up Airbyte Open Source locally.
  • Navigate to the 'Sources' tab and click 'New Source'.
  • Select 'GitHub' from the list of available connectors.
  • Follow the prompts to enter your GitHub credentials and configure the connection.
  • Test the connection to ensure it's working correctly.

2. Set up a destination connector in Airbyte

Local CSV Destination (for direct Excel compatibility)

  • In the 'Destinations' tab, click 'New Destination'.
  • Select 'Local CSV' as your destination.
  • Configure the local path where you want to save the CSV files.
  • These CSV files can be directly opened in Excel.

3. Create a connection in Airbyte

  • Navigate to the 'Connections' tab and click 'New Connection'.
  • Select GitHub as the source and your chosen destination (Local CSV).
  • In the 'Streams' section, choose which data you want to export from GitHub.
  • Set your sync frequency based on how often you need updated data.
  • Configure any necessary transformations or mappings.
  • Save and run your connection to start the initial sync.

4. Accessing your data in Excel

  • Navigate to the local directory you specified.
  • Open the CSV files directly in Excel.

Airbyte keeps your GitHub issues data in sync at the frequency you specify in step #3, ensuring your Excel data warehouse is always up-to-date with your GitHub issues data. ‍This method eliminates manual export processes from GitHub issues, reduces the risk of human error, and saves considerable time, especially when dealing with large datasets or frequent updates.

Remember, while this method of exporting GitHub issues data to Excel requires initial setup, it provides long-term benefits in terms of efficiency and data accuracy. You'll spend less time on data preparation and more time on valuable analysis and decision-making.

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Method 2: Manually exporting GitHub issues data to Excel

1. Set up authentication

Generate a personal access token in GitHub:

  • Go to GitHub Settings > Developer settings > Personal access tokens
  • Create a new token with 'repo' scope

2. Use the GitHub API to fetch issues

  • Use a programming language like Python to make API requests
  • Install the 'requests' library if using Python: `pip install requests`

3. Write a script to fetch issues

  • Import necessary libraries (requests, json, csv)
  • Set up authentication headers with your personal access token
  • Define the API endpoint URL for your repository's issues
  • Make a GET request to the API endpoint
  • Parse the JSON response

4. Extract relevant issue data

  • Iterate through the JSON response
  • Extract desired fields (e.g., title, state, created_at, etc.)
  • Store the extracted data in a list or dictionary

5. Handle pagination

  • Check if there are more pages of issues
  • If so, update the URL to fetch the next page
  • Repeat steps 3-4 until all issues are fetched

6. Prepare data for Excel

  • Determine the columns you want in your Excel file
  • Create a list of lists or a list of dictionaries with the extracted data

7. Write data to a CSV file

  • Use Python's csv module to write the data to a CSV file
  • CSV files can be easily opened in Excel

8. Open the CSV file in Excel

  • Launch Excel
  • Open the CSV file you created
  • Excel will automatically format the data into columns

Here's a basic Python script to accomplish this:

```python

import requests

import json

import csv

# Authentication

token = 'YOUR_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN'

headers = {'Authorization': f'token {token}'}

# API endpoint

repo_owner = 'OWNER'

repo_name = 'REPO'

url = f'https://api.github.com/repos/{repo_owner}/{repo_name}/issues'

issues = []

page = 1

while True:

    # Make API request

    response = requests.get(f'{url}?page={page}&per_page=100', headers=headers)

    data = json.loads(response.text)  

    if not data:

        break 

    # Extract relevant data

    for issue in data:

        issues.append({

            'number': issue['number'],

            'title': issue['title'],

            'state': issue['state'],

            'created_at': issue['created_at'],

            'updated_at': issue['updated_at']

        })   

    page += 1

# Write to CSV

with open('github_issues.csv', 'w', newline='', encoding='utf-8') as file:

    writer = csv.DictWriter(file, fieldnames=['number', 'title', 'state', 'created_at', 'updated_at'])

    writer.writeheader()

    for issue in issues:

        writer.writerow(issue)

print(f"Exported {len(issues)} issues to github_issues.csv")

```

Remember to replace 'YOUR_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN', 'OWNER', and 'REPO' with your actual values.

This process allows you to export GitHub issues to a CSV file, which can then be opened in Excel without relying on third-party data integration tools. You can modify the script to include additional fields or apply filters as needed.

Use cases for exporting GitHub issues data to Excel

1. Project Management and Reporting

  • Managers can export issues data to Excel to create custom reports and visualizations.
  • This allows for easier tracking of project progress, team performance, and workload distribution.
  • Excel's features can be used to generate charts, pivot tables, and dashboards for stakeholder presentations.
  • It enables better analysis of issue trends, resolution times, and overall project health.

2. Data Analysis and Metrics

  • Researchers or data analysts can use the exported data for in-depth analysis.
  • Excel's statistical tools can be applied to identify patterns in issue creation, resolution times, or frequency of certain types of issues.
  • This data can be used to calculate key performance indicators (KPIs) such as average time to resolution, bug density, or feature completion rate.
  • The analysis can help in making data-driven decisions for process improvements or resource allocation.

3. Integration with Other Tools or Systems

Exporting to Excel allows for easy integration with other tools or systems that may not directly connect to GitHub.

  • The data can be imported into project management tools, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, or custom internal databases.
  • It facilitates sharing issue data with team members or stakeholders who may not have direct access to GitHub.
  • The Excel format allows for easy manipulation and reformatting of data to meet specific needs of other systems or reporting requirements.

Why choose Airbyte for connecting GitHub issues to Excel?

Airbyte offers several advantages for your data integration needs:

1. Easy setup: Airbyte's user-friendly interface makes it simple to create connections between GitHub issues  and Excel.

2. Automation: Schedule your data syncs to run automatically, saving time and ensuring data consistency.

3. Customization: Choose exactly which data to export and how often to update it.

4. Scalability: Airbyte can handle large datasets, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes.

5. Open-source: Benefit from community-driven development and the ability to customize connectors if needed.

Conclusion

Exporting data from GitHub issues to Excel is crucial for many businesses to leverage their data effectively. While manual export is possible, using a tool like Airbyte can significantly streamline this process, saving time and reducing errors. By automating your data exports with Airbyte, you can ensure that your Excel files are always up-to-date, allowing you to focus on analyzing and deriving insights from your data rather than managing exports.

Ready to simplify your GitHub issues  to Excel exports? Try Airbyte for free.

What should you do next?

Hope you enjoyed the reading. Here are the 3 ways we can help you in your data journey:

flag icon
Easily address your data movement needs with Airbyte Cloud
Take the first step towards extensible data movement infrastructure that will give a ton of time back to your data team. 
Get started with Airbyte for free
high five icon
Talk to a data infrastructure expert
Get a free consultation with an Airbyte expert to significantly improve your data movement infrastructure. 
Talk to sales
stars sparkling
Improve your data infrastructure knowledge
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and get the community’s new enlightening content along with Airbyte’s progress in their mission to solve data integration once and for all.
Subscribe to newsletter

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Frequently Asked Questions

What data can you extract from GitHub?

GitHub's API provides access to a wide range of data related to repositories, users, organizations, and more. Some of the categories of data that can be accessed through the API include:  

- Repositories: Information about repositories, including their name, description, owner, collaborators, issues, pull requests, and more.

- Users: Information about users, including their username, email address, name, location, followers, following, organizations, and more.

- Organizations: Information about organizations, including their name, description, members, repositories, teams, and more.

- Commits: Information about commits, including their SHA, author, committer, message, date, and more.

- Issues: Information about issues, including their title, description, labels, assignees, comments, and more.

- Pull requests: Information about pull requests, including their title, description, status, reviewers, comments, and more.

- Events: Information about events, including their type, actor, repository, date, and more.  

Overall, the GitHub API provides a wealth of data that can be used to build powerful applications and tools for developers, businesses, and individuals.

What data can you transfer to Excel File?

You can transfer a wide variety of data to Excel File. This usually includes structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data like transaction records, log files, JSON data, CSV files, and more, allowing robust, scalable data integration and analysis.

What are top ETL tools to transfer data from GitHub to Excel File?

The most prominent ETL tools to transfer data from GitHub to Excel File include:

  • Airbyte
  • Fivetran
  • Stitch
  • Matillion
  • Talend Data Integration

These tools help in extracting data from GitHub and various sources (APIs, databases, and more), transforming it efficiently, and loading it into Excel File and other databases, data warehouses and data lakes, enhancing data management capabilities.