Table data in textpattern

cruisejente · 2009-07-06 17:06:49

We are a sports league who would like to upload our schedule on a web site and are looking at using textpattern. Is it posssible (and easy!) to upload a .csv file and have textpattern format it for display on our web site? It only needs to be displayed in a simple layout.
Many thanks for your help.

jsoo · 2009-07-06 17:15:14

It is pretty simple to convert csv to a Textile -formatted table, then paste that into a Txp article for display.

It would also be pretty simple for a plugin author to make a plugin that would read the csv file from a directory on the web server and output the table in a Txp article or directly onto a Txp page template.

joebaich · 2009-07-06 18:30:00

Though it is, as jsoo suggests, a simple task to convert a CSV file to a Textile formatted table, it can be tedious and tiresome if the table is large and/or it’s a regular requirement. I follow this procedure, starting with the Excel file source. I do it on a Mac but, apart from Textwrangler, it’s much the same procedure on a PC.

Replace all commas with a tilde (~) or some other unlikely character.
Export or Save as a CSV file.
Open the CSV file in TextWrangler or other suitable Text Editor. The former has a particular advantage in this task.
Replace all commas (,) with a pipe (|).
Prepend and Append a pipe (|) to each row, Textwrangler has this as an automatic option under Text/Prefix Suffix Lines.
Replace all || with |-| twice to get content into empty table cells to stop them collapsing and indicate that there is no data for that cell.
Replace all tilde (~) with commas (,) to restore them in the original text.
Process the header row to add a _. plus a space after each pipe (|) and delete it after the last one if necessary.
Copy and paste the Textile source into the article in the TXP backend et vôila!

I know that it’s possible to use other delimiters than a comma to obviate the need for the tilde comma swaps but it isn’t an option with the Mac version of Excel (as far as I know).

jsoo · 2009-07-06 18:46:37

Joe, may I suggest using tabs as the delimiter for your CSV files? Then you wouldn’t have to do the comma swap. Unless you expect tabs within your data…

jakob · 2009-07-06 18:55:55

Also, check these two threads: yab_csv2table:

# Name: yab_csv2table v0.1 
# Type: Client side plugin
# Generating HTML table from simple csv files

and aks_table:

Insert a table in TxP article is very simple! 
Select in Excel, IE, Mozilla, FireFox, Opera any spreadsheet, 
Ctrl + C (copy) and Ctrl + V (paste) in TxP Edit area. 
Add aks_table tags – that’s all.

joebaich · 2009-07-06 19:11:00

Jeff,

Thanks for the kind thought. I like the visual control that having a comma provides as opposed to a blank tab immersed in a blank sea. Also, to be candid, I haven’t worked out how to search for a tab in Textwrangler. It’s quicker for me to do the swap and get on with it.

Joe

jsoo · 2009-07-06 19:31:15

I understand about the visual cue. At any rate, to find a tab character with TW use \t (backslash-t). Or you can even copy and paste a tab character into the “Search for” field!

Also, “Show invisibles” lets you see the tab characters. You can find this in the little pop-down text menu (not the main Text menu in the menu bar, but the little “T” with a lightswitch menu in the Toolbar).

Last edited by jsoo (2009-07-06 19:35:18)

joebaich · 2009-07-06 21:20:07

Very many thanks!

maverick · 2009-07-07 03:10:14

Slightly tangent –

Perhaps this plugin can be adapted to help admin your league?

cnk_soccer

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2009-07-06 17:06:49

Table data in textpattern

#2 2009-07-06 17:15:14

Re: Table data in textpattern

#3 2009-07-06 18:30:00

Re: Table data in textpattern

#4 2009-07-06 18:46:37

Re: Table data in textpattern

#5 2009-07-06 18:55:55

Re: Table data in textpattern

#6 2009-07-06 19:11:00

Re: Table data in textpattern

#7 2009-07-06 19:31:15

Re: Table data in textpattern

#8 2009-07-06 21:20:07

Re: Table data in textpattern

#9 2009-07-07 03:10:14

Re: Table data in textpattern

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