Exporting Dashboard Data to Excel

Superset can export every chart on a dashboard to a single Excel workbook, with each chart's underlying data rendered as its own worksheet. The export reflects the dashboard's currently applied filters and runs asynchronously: when it finishes, the requesting user receives an email with a time-limited download link.

Using the export

From a dashboard, open the ... (actions) → Download submenu and choose Export Data to Excel. The action appears for users who have the dashboard can_export permission. You'll see a confirmation that the export is being prepared; the workbook arrives by email when it's ready.

A second option, Export Images to Excel, embeds each non-table chart as a rendered image (tables stay tabular) instead of exporting raw data. Because it renders charts through the headless webdriver, this option only appears when the webdriver screenshot feature flags are enabled (see the prerequisites below); which viz types stay tabular is controlled by EXCEL_EXPORT_TABLE_VIZ_TYPES.

Notes on the generated workbook:

• One worksheet per chart, named {chart_id} - {chart title} (truncated to Excel's 31-character limit; the chart id keeps names unique).
• Charts nested in tabs are included.
• Data reflects the dashboard's active filter state at the time of export.
• A chart with no saved query context is skipped and listed in the email; open the chart in Explore and re-save it to include it next time.
• Row counts per sheet are capped the same way as the chart-level CSV/Excel export (ROW_LIMIT, bounded by SQL_MAX_ROW), and never exceed Excel's per-sheet maximum.

Prerequisites

This feature is disabled by default. It requires:

1. The boto3 dependency. It is not installed by default; install it with pip install apache-superset[excel-export]. Without it, exports fail and the user receives a failure email.
2. An S3 bucket. Set EXCEL_EXPORT_S3_BUCKET. Until it is set, the export endpoint returns 501 and the menu action surfaces a "not configured" message.
3. A running Celery worker. The export runs as a Celery task. If no worker is running, the request is accepted but nothing is produced.
4. A configured SMTP transport. The download link is delivered by email using the same settings as alerts & reports (SMTP_*, EMAIL_REPORTS_SUBJECT_PREFIX).

Export Images to Excel additionally requires a working headless webdriver — the same infrastructure scheduled reports and thumbnails use (WEBDRIVER_*, plus the ENABLE_DASHBOARD_SCREENSHOT_ENDPOINTS and ENABLE_DASHBOARD_DOWNLOAD_WEBDRIVER_SCREENSHOT feature flags). The menu option is hidden when those flags are off; if the webdriver is unreachable, image charts come back empty even though the data export path still works.

Deployments that override CELERY_CONFIG must add "superset.tasks.export_dashboard_excel" to the imports tuple, or the task will not register.

Configuration keys

Key	Default	Description
EXCEL_EXPORT_S3_BUCKET	None	Destination bucket. Required; 501 if unset.
EXCEL_EXPORT_S3_KEY_PREFIX	"dashboard-exports/"	Key prefix: {prefix}{dashboard_id}/{job_id}.xlsx.
EXCEL_EXPORT_LINK_TTL_SECONDS	86400	Lifetime of the pre-signed download URL (24h).
EXCEL_EXPORT_S3_CLIENT_KWARGS	{}	Extra kwargs for boto3.client("s3", ...) — e.g. region_name, or endpoint_url for MinIO/LocalStack.
EXCEL_EXPORT_TABLE_VIZ_TYPES	None	Viz types kept tabular in Export Images to Excel mode; every other type is embedded as an image. None uses the built-in default (table, pivot_table, pivot_table_v2).

Credentials and region resolve through the standard boto3 chain (environment variables, shared config, or instance role) unless overridden via EXCEL_EXPORT_S3_CLIENT_KWARGS. The worker needs s3:PutObject on the bucket.

Security considerations

• The emailed link is a pre-signed S3 URL: anyone who holds it can download the workbook until it expires. Keep the bucket private, enable encryption, and consider a lifecycle rule to delete objects after a few days. Lower EXCEL_EXPORT_LINK_TTL_SECONDS if 24 hours is too long for your data.
• The export runs with the requesting user's permissions; each chart's query is access-checked, so users only ever receive data they are entitled to.

Limitations

• Embedded dashboards / guest tokens are not supported in this version, because guest users have no email address to deliver the link to. Logged-in users viewing an embedded dashboard can still use the export.
• The default Export Data to Excel mode exports data only (no visual styling). Use Export Images to Excel to embed rendered chart images, which requires the webdriver infrastructure described in the prerequisites.
• Scheduled/automated exports are not part of this feature.