Veteran statscloud users will know that importing data into the app from a public URL was super smooth; you'd just click the "import from URL" button, enter the URL, click 'OK', and boom! All the data stored in the file at that URL would appear in the app as if by magic.

If you've used the new version of the app, you'll see that things are a bit different; when you import data from an external URL, statscloud now asks you to download the file yourself first and then, once that's done, import it into the app manually. So, what on earth is going on?

Well, it's all to do with the process of getting files from a public URL into the app. Your browser (whether it be Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge. etc) won't just let a webpage load up the contents of any file from the internet because that would be a disaster. There are lots of nasty files out there and, if browsers could just open up any file from the internet willy-nilly, they could open up something malicious and lots of bad things could happen.

So, behind the scenes, when you imported a data file from an external URL, the statscloud server would fetch the file for you, give it a quick check over, and, if everything looked OK (the file wasn't corrupt and wouldn't crash the app), loaded up the data in the app safely for you. However, the app doesn't do that now, so why not?

Sustainability

statscloud is becoming very popular now, and, since we now allow users to work with bigger data sets, there's a good chance our servers would come under a lot of pressure if they had to check over thousands of big files at the same time. To prepare for this, we'd have to invest heavily in an army of servers that could cope with this demand, and a free app that costs lots of money to run isn't a particularly good business model.

The key to statscloud's long-term success is making sure the app is scaleable and sustainable. By being responsible with our running costs, we can ensure we can offer you free, unlimited access to a statistics app, and that it will always be available to you on any device whenever you need it.

Still, being able to share a project with a single link is a very important feature, so we've got a few ways to help you open up a project loaded up with a data set:

Importing raw data through a URL

Instead of linking users to a file that has data, why not just give them the data in the link? One of the our more recent developments is revamping the data URL parameter so it can accept a matrix of data and import this into the app straight away when it loads up. You can try opening up the example below by clicking here.

https://statscloud.app/project/temp/?data=[[1,2,3],[a,b,c]]&vars=Numbers,Letters

You'll find the option to include raw data in your URL in the new 'Share' tool. You can also find out more about working with the data URL parameter in the docs here too.

Use one of our datasets

If you head over to https://statscloud.app/home/examples, you'll see a list of data sets we've got hosted on our main website. Because these data files are hosted in the same place as the actual app, browsers are perfectly happy with you opening them up as they know all the content on that site will be safe. So, you can open any of these links and the data in them will load up automatically for you.

We've kept our collection of data sets quite small, but we intend to add more in the future. If you think there's a public data set the community would benefit from having in this collection, just let us know and we'll consider adding it.

Host your own version of statscloud

If you work in education and you want students to open up specific data sets you've created yourself for your teaching materials, you can host an instance of statscloud yourself on your own server, complete with all the data sets you want. Just like the data sets described above, your students can just open the links to them and the app will load up all the data for them automatically.

Hosting your own version of statscloud comes with a whole bunch of other benefits, such as being able to customise the app for your users, add your own PRO users, and integrate your own documentation. For more information, take a look at our Products page.

Go PRO

For PRO users, importing files works like it always used to: You can ask statscloud to open up a data file that's stored somewhere else on the internet and it will do so without asking you to download and import it manually first. As an added bonus, PRO users can also open up other data files (such as .sav files). In the future, we will offer PRO users the opportunity to share their projects through a unique link so your fellow users can view a copy of your project automatically.

Summary

Being able to share a project is an important feature for any modern statistics app, and being able to do this through a single link is a unique feature we're very proud of. With statscloud, you can be sure that you'll always have a way of sharing your projects, and that this feature will be free and accessible to everyone. Always.