Is there a way to do a CSV export of the data?

I hate to say it, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

This is a way to make it difficult for you to move to a new service when this one falls behind in features. No iPhone client with offline data entry, and no real records keeping of other events has left M3 trailing behind. I have started typing data into an excel sheet for the time being, as I don't really like the idea of being stuck here with too much data to make it worth leaving.

Outputting data from a database and emailing it, for example, is not difficult.

I agree, I'm seeing so many web apps try to use this cop out, and I'm just sick of it.

A Hosted web app needs to have 3 things before I"ll use it:
1) a way to import data
2) a safe comprehensive privacy policy in plain english
3) data export

You might be able to skimp on the import in a case like this one.

I've got the same complaint here about 37 signals' highrise product
http://getsatisfaction.com/37signals/...

I'm with evbart on this one... based on the non answer for data export, I won't be putting any more data into this app. Oh well... keep looking I guess.

I had the same complaint about Highrise from 37signals, and they finally did end up building a full export! Hopefully we'll get the same here...

We are in no way attempting to lock you into our app. Data export is not a priority right now but that does not mean it is not on the todo list. How about instead of voicing complaints, we change this thread into ideas for what you would want in an export feature. XML? CSV? Do other services offer import/export? That would give us better definition of the problem which would help us prioritize.

While having an export option would be nice (in whatever format - CSV, XML, however you choose... though I'm holding out for MIDI to see if it sounds like my car's engine ;), I'd like some way to embed selected information from the last few (1 to 5, perhaps) fillups in my website, perhaps via javascript or a flash or Wordpress widget of some sort, because my website The Glenn Fitzpatrick Times could use a proper "Automotive" section. :)

I would think it would be best to start out with a basic CSV import and/or export. Nothing too fancy, just assure us that this is being worked on. Then we can debate about XML, other formats, etc.

First off, there is an iPhone app, it is just not native. If you visit mymilemarker.com/m on your iPhone, you get a sexy version of mobile M3. I use that from my iPhone and it gets the job done.

Second, we actually have an xml API for M3, but we just haven't announced it. It could change down the road, but I'd rather give you something that is functional now than make you wait for something perfect down the road.

I wrote up a really simple Ruby wrapper http://gist.github.com/83431 that you can checkout which shows you how to:

* List all your vehicles
* Get info for an individual vehicle
* Get all histories for a vehicle
* Get fuel_economy and mileage reports (these are the weakest as they are just tailored to power the graphs you see in M3 right now)

I'm going to assume that if you care this much about export you are probably a programmer of some sort and that you should be able to figure out what I'm doing and convert it to your programming language of choice. If I'm making too big of an assumption, let me know.

At some point down the road, we'll evaluate what, if any, changes need to be done to the API and it could mutate. We'll be sure to say something beforehand, but just know that you've been warned.

So, in conclusion, we've had an API from the beginning, but didn't announce it because we wanted to document and "officially" support it. Since we haven't had time to do either of those, I've blown the whistle on what we have, but it could change at any point (though we'll most likely warn first).

Thanks John. At least having the undocumented API should put to rest my uneasy feelings that someday I'll wake up and find M3 has been disabled because of financial hardship or something.

I'll start putting something together to get an export to XML thing going for me, just as a precaution.

CSV is fine for me. Just dump all the data I've been giving you. I'll only spend the time an effort putting data in if I know I can get it back out....

That should be the first thing you build for any web based app to get serious users to try it...