SmartDingo Form Tracker can export two very different things: your captured leads as a
spreadsheet-friendly CSV, and your plugin settings as a JSON file for backup or moving to
another site. This page explains what each export contains, how filters affect it, and the caveats
to watch for before you rely on either.

Note Both exports require a paid plan. On the free plan the buttons described here are not
available (there is no Leads page, and the Tools export/import block is disabled).

Export leads to CSV (Starter)

The Export CSV button lives on the SmartDingo Form Tracker → Leads page, just above the
leads table.

It respects the current filters and search

The single most important thing to know: CSV export honours whatever filters and search you
currently have applied to the leads table. Whatever set of rows the table is showing (across all
pages, not just the page you’re looking at) is exactly what lands in the file.

1. On the Leads page, apply any filters you want — UTM source, medium, campaign, referrer
   category, device type, form name, and a date-from / date-to range.
2. Optionally type a term into Search Leads to narrow further.
3. Click Export CSV.

The current filter and search values are carried straight through to the export, so:

• No filters, empty search → every stored lead is exported.
• A narrow filter (e.g. form name = Contact + date range = last month) → only those matching
  leads are exported.

Note The export always covers all matching rows, ignoring table pagination. You do not
need to page through the table first — filter, then export.

What’s in the file

The download is named smartdingo-leads-<date>.csv (for example
smartdingo-leads-2026-07-15.csv) and is UTF-8 with a byte-order mark so Excel opens accented
characters correctly. One header row, then one row per lead, with these columns:

The last two columns (Tracking Data and Contact Data) contain the complete raw payloads, so nothing
that was captured is lost even if it isn’t broken out into its own column.

Note Values that begin with =, +, -, or @ are prefixed with a single quote in the
export. This is a deliberate safeguard against spreadsheet formula injection — it’s not corruption,
and the leading quote is easy to strip if you process the file programmatically.

GDPR A leads CSV is a file of personal data (names, emails, phone numbers, behavioural
data). Store it somewhere access-controlled, don’t email it around casually, and delete copies you
no longer need. See GDPR & consent.

Export & import settings (JSON) (Starter)

On the SmartDingo Form Tracker → Tools page, the Export / Import section lets you save your
configuration to a JSON file and restore it later — ideal for backups, or for copying a working
setup from a staging site to production.

Export settings

Click Export Settings to download smartdingo-settings.json. It contains:

• Tracking fields — which fields you’ve enabled.
• Form configurations — your configurations and their CSS-selector field mappings.
• Storage type — sessionStorage vs localStorage.
• Debug overlay on/off, and the visited-pages limit.
• Consent settings — consent mode plus the manual-mode cookie name and value.
• Chart colours — only on (Pro). On Starter this is written out empty.

Import settings

1. Click Choose File and pick a previously exported smartdingo-settings.json.
2. Click Import Settings and confirm the warning.

The plugin validates that the file is a genuine SmartDingo settings export before applying anything,
and each value is re-sanitised on import — so a hand-edited or corrupted file is rejected rather than
saved blindly.

Warning Import overwrites your current settings — it is a full replace of the settings
above, not a merge. Export your existing settings first if you might want to roll back.

What is not in the settings export

Two things people expect to travel with settings do not:

• Lead tracking on/off is not exported or imported. After importing on a new site, go to the
  Privacy page and switch lead tracking on yourself if you want it.
• Lead retention / auto-delete (the retention-months value) is likewise not included. Set it
  again on the destination site.

This is intentional: enabling capture and choosing a deletion schedule are decisions you should make
deliberately per site, not inherit silently from an imported file.

Note Chart colours are Pro-only in both directions. Exporting from a non-Pro site writes no
colours, and importing a file that contains colours applies them only if the destination site is on
Pro. If colours don’t appear after an import, check the plan first.

Note The settings JSON contains configuration only — never your leads. To move captured
leads, use the CSV export above; the two files serve different purposes.

Next steps

• Managing leads
• Capturing leads
• Settings reference
• GDPR & consent