Running the Walk Export to Ramblers

This guide covers the Walk Exports admin page in detail: how to get there, how the two tabs work, how to pick the walks you want to upload, what actually happens when you press "Upload N walks to Ramblers", and how to inspect a previous run from the audit tab.

When This Applies

This page is only useful when your group is on Local Walk Population. If you are on Walks Manager population, walks already live on Ramblers and the upload buttons are hidden.

You also need the Walk Admin role - regular members cannot reach the export page (the route guard sends them back to the walks list).

Prerequisites

The upload signs in to Ramblers Walks Manager on your behalf, so Walks Manager credentials that have the privileges to upload a CSV file for your group must be set correctly before any export will succeed.

Go to Admin > System Settings > External Systems > Ramblers (/admin/system-settings?tab=external-systems&sub-tab=ramblers) and check that the Walks Manager User Name and Walks Manager password fields hold the current login for a Walks Manager user with permission to upload walks for your group.

If valid credentials are not entered and stored correctly, the next export run will fail with a sign-in error, and the run's report will show the Walks Manager login page rather than the upload form. Update both fields here and re-run the export.

Admin > System Settings > External Systems > Ramblers - the Walks Manager User Name and password fields the export uses to sign in.

Where to Find the Walk Export

1. Navigate to Walks > Admin
2. Click the Ramblers Walk Export tile in the top-left

The tile is one of six on the Walks Admin index. Its bullets summarise the page in three lines: "Upload walks directly to Ramblers Walks Manager", "Export walks in CSV format", "Review audits of previous upload sessions".

Above: The Walks Admin landing page. The Ramblers Walk Export tile is the entry point.

Two Ways to Send Your Walks to Ramblers

Once you have chosen which walks to send, there are two different ways to get them onto Ramblers Walks Manager. You pick the route by pressing one of the two buttons at the top of the page.

Option 1: Automated upload

The Upload N walks to Ramblers button does the whole job for you. NGX-Ramblers signs in to Walks Manager on your behalf, uploads the walks, waits while Walks Manager validates them, and records a full report you can review afterwards on the audit tab. You never have to open Walks Manager yourself.

This route handles everything in one run - new walks, updates, and also removals, cancellations and reinstatements (see Walk Export Scenarios below). It is the recommended route for everyday use, and every run is kept in the audit log.

Option 2: CSV export, then import it yourself

The Export N walks file to CSV button saves a CSV file to your own computer. Nothing is sent anywhere. You then sign in to Ramblers Walks Manager yourself and import that file using Walks Manager's own bulk-import feature. This route suits anyone who would rather keep the upload step under their own control, or who likes to open the file and check it before importing.

One important limit: the CSV is publish-only. It contains only the walks being added or updated. It cannot remove, unpublish, cancel or uncancel anything on Ramblers. So if you use the CSV route and a walk needs to be unpublished or taken off Ramblers - for example a walk you published earlier that is no longer going ahead - or needs to be cancelled or reinstated, you have to make that change yourself, by hand, in Walks Manager. The CSV will not do it for you. Only the automated upload route carries those actions out for you.

Both buttons stay disabled until you have selected at least one walk, and both show the running count of selected walks in their label.

The Page Has Two Tabs

Once you land on /walks/admin/export you'll see two tabs:

• Walk upload selection - pick which walks to upload, and run the upload
• Walk upload audit - inspect previous runs and download the full report for any of them

The page starts on the Walk upload selection tab.

Tab 1: Walk Upload Selection

The top of the tab shows three action buttons and a status banner.

The status banner reflects the current selection - when nothing is ticked you get the "No Walks Selected" yellow banner. The action buttons mirror this: their labels include the count of selected walks ("Upload 0 walks to Ramblers", "Export 0 walks file to CSV") and they stay disabled until the count is non-zero.

Below the buttons is a grid of walk cards - one card per actionable walk in the current programme. Each card shows:

• Publish this walk checkbox at the top
• Walk title (clickable - opens the walk in a new tab)
• Date and time
• Distance
• Leader (with an envelope icon linking to the leader's email)
• Publish status - either "Walk is published to Ramblers and details are correct" (green tick) or a yellow caution describing what's still required
• A small Ramblers favicon, linking to the equivalent record on Walks and Events Manager when one exists

Above: Walk Upload Selection tab with nothing selected. Buttons are disabled.

Tick the Walks You Want to Upload

• The system automatically calculates which walks need to be uploaded by comparing the local walk with Ramblers Walks Manager.
• If you want to override the automatic selection for any reason, click the checkbox at the top of any card to select that walk for upload.
• As soon as one is ticked the action banner updates to "N walks were preselected for export" and the two yellow buttons become live, showing the running count.
• You can tick as many walks as you like in a single session. The system pre-selects the walks that have a Publish-to-Ramblers flag set and pass validation - other walks need a manual tick.

Above: Two walks selected. The buttons now read "Upload 2 walks to Ramblers" and "Export 2 walks file to CSV".

Walk Export Scenarios: Upload, Delete, Cancel and Uncancel

The automated upload does more than add new walks. It keeps Ramblers Walks Manager in step with four different things that can happen to a walk. Each one is set on the walk itself - on the walk edit page, on the Related Links tab, in the Ramblers panel - not on this export page. The export then picks each walk up automatically and labels it with the action it is about to carry out.

• Upload to Ramblers - a walk you want published. On the walk, tick Publish to Ramblers. This is already ticked when walk slots are created, and a leader can untick it while preparing their walk.
• Delete from Ramblers - a walk you want taken off Ramblers while it stays on your NGX-Ramblers site. On the walk, untick Publish to Ramblers.
• Cancel - a walk that is no longer going ahead. On the walk, tick Mark this walk as cancelled and fill in a Cancellation Reason.
• Uncancel - a walk that was cancelled but is back on. On the walk, untick Mark this walk as cancelled.

Once a walk has been saved with one of those changes, the export view preselects it automatically and shows which of the four actions it will perform, so a single automated run can handle new walks, removals, cancellations and reinstatements together. The CSV export route does not - it covers the Upload scenario only (see Option 2 above).

Why cancel a walk rather than delete it?

Cancelling and deleting are not the same thing. A deleted walk simply disappears. A cancelled walk stays visible on both your NGX-Ramblers site and Ramblers Walks Manager, but is clearly marked as cancelled, with the reason you gave.

That distinction matters because a walk may have been advertised for weeks, and members may be planning to turn up. Leaving it visible but plainly marked as cancelled, with a reason, tells them what has happened and why. When you run the export, that same cancellation notice is applied to the walk in Walks Manager. Uncancelling reverses it: the next export removes the cancelled marker and the walk is reinstated.

Walk cancellation applies only to sites on Local Walk Population.

The Related Links > Ramblers panel on the walk edit page. The Publish to Ramblers and Mark this walk as cancelled checkboxes are what drive the four export scenarios.

Press "Upload N walks to Ramblers"

This is the action that pushes your selection to Ramblers. Behind the scenes the upload is run by an automation that drives a web browser for you. The flow:

1. NGX-Ramblers builds the import file from all the walks you selected.
2. The automation signs in to Ramblers Walks Manager.
3. It uploads the walks, and Walks Manager runs its own validation.
4. It records a pass or fail for each walk, captures screenshots along the way, and bundles everything into a detailed report.
5. The report is saved, and a new entry is added to the audit log.

While the upload is running the "Upload N walks" button changes to a red "Cancel upload" button - useful if Ramblers is slow or you spotted a mistake.

The other button on the same row, "Export N walks file to CSV", takes the CSV export route instead (see Two Ways to Send Your Walks to Ramblers above): it saves the file to your computer without uploading anything, ready for you to import into Walks Manager yourself.

Tab 2: Walk Upload Audit

Switching tabs takes you to the audit log. The page shows:

• A summary banner ("Showing N of M audit items") describing how many of the total entries are currently displayed
• An Upload Session dropdown - pick any previous session by its timestamp. The list is most-recent-first, with a green tick / red cross icon to show outcome
• A Show details checkbox - toggles inclusion of low-level audit messages (the default view filters down to summary-level events)
• A View Report button - opens the full report for the selected session in a new tab
• A Back To Walks Admin button - shortcut back to the index

Below those controls sits a sortable table with the columns Status / Time / Duration / Audit Message. Each row is one event from the upload, ordered most-recent-first by default.

Above: Walk Upload Audit tab. The most recent session is selected automatically.

Reading an Audit Run

The screenshot below shows the most recent EKWG run - 24 April 2026, 4:37 pm, total duration 2.7 minutes. 169 of 241 audit items pass the default filter.

• Reading top-down (most recent first) tells the story in reverse
• This level of detail is what you click View Report for - the audit row tells you what happened, the report shows the page-by-page trace.

Above: Audit table for a successful run. Each step has a status, timestamp and duration.

Show Details

Tick Show details to expand the list with low-level audit messages: per-walk validation results, the automation's intermediate steps, individual file uploads. The summary banner updates to reflect the new count ("Showing M of M audit items" - every row is shown).

Useful when something has failed and you need to find the exact step that broke.

Above: Show details ticked. Every audit message is shown, including per-walk steps.

What "Success" Means

A run is recorded as successful when:

• All selected walks were accepted by Ramblers Walks Manager, and
• the automation completed without an unhandled error, and
• the run's report was produced

If any walk fails validation at Ramblers, the audit row for that walk gets a red status and a message describing the reason. The upload session itself can still finish with a success status for the walks that did pass.

Common Reasons a Walk Won't Export

If a walk doesn't appear in the selection grid (or its checkbox is disabled), the validation errors should be shown as an error alert when you check the selection checkbox. Typical blockers:

• Walks Manager Contact Name not set (a Ramblers member with a Walks Manager profile)
• Missing distance, title or some other mandatory field.
• Walk status is still "Awaiting walk details from leader" or "Awaiting approval" - only approved walks can be exported

The publish-status text under each card on the selection tab explains exactly why a given walk is held back.

Permissions

The export page requires the Walk Admin role. The route guard is enforced server-side - a regular member following a direct link is redirected to the walks list.

Related Guides

• Add Walk Slots - create the slots you'll later export
• Filling in a Walk: The Walk Editor Tabs - what each tab of the editor does
• Walk Leader Contact Settings - how the leader's contact is exposed to Ramblers and to visitors
• Ramblers Walk Import From CSV - the reverse direction, for bulk imports