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Edit Table Plugin

This plugin allows you to edit TWiki tables using edit fields and drop down boxes. Tables have an [ Edit table ] button if preceeded by an %EDITTABLE{...}% variable. Each column can be a text field, a drop down box, a date field, etc. Multiple tables per topic are editable, but only one at a time can be edited.

Per Table Settings

Add a %EDITTABLE{...}% variable just before an existing table to make it editable, or add the variable anywhere in a topic to start a new table. Parameters:

Parameter Comment Default
header Specify the header format of a new table like "|*Food*|*Drink*|". Useful to start a table with only a button (no header)
format The format of one column when editing the table. A cell can be a text input field, or any of these edit field types:
- Text input field (1 line):
  | text, <size>, <initial value> |
- Textarea input field:
  | textarea, <rows>x<columns>, <initial value> |
- Drop down box:
  | select, <size>, <option 1>, <option 2>, etc |
- Fixed label:
  | label, 0, <label text> |
- Row number:
  | row, <offset> |
- Date:
  | date, <size>, <initial value>, <DHTML date format> | 		"text, 16"
for all cells
changerows Rows can be added and removed if "on";
Rows can be added but not removed if "add" 		CHANGEROWS
Plugin setting
quietsave Quiet Save button is shown if "on", hidden if "off" QUIETSAVE
Plugin setting
include Other topic defining the EDITTABLE parameters. The first %EDITTABLE% in the topic is used. This is useful if you have many topics with the same table format and you want to update the format in one place. (none)
helptopic Topic name containing help text shown below the table when editing a table. The %STARTINCLUDE% and %STOPINCLUDE% variables can be used in the topic to specify what is shown. (no help text)
headerislabel Table header cells are read-only (labels) if "on"; header cells can be edited if "off" or "0" "on"
editbutton Set edit button text, e.g. "Edit this table"; set button image with alt text, e.g. "Edit table, %PUBURL%/%TWIKIWEB%/TWikiDocGraphics/edittopic.gif"; hide edit button at the end of the table with "hide" (Note: Button is automatically hidden if an edit button is present in a cell) EDITBUTTON
Plugin setting

Initial Values

By default, variables in <initial value> (of text input field) and <label text> (of fixed label) get expanded when a new row is added. This can be used for example to add a timestamp to a label. You can escape characters if you do not want that:

Text: To Escape:
$quot Double quote ("). Alternatively write \" to escape it
$percnt Percent sign (%)
$dollar Dollar sign ($)
$nop or $nop() Is a "no operation"

Date Field Type

Edit Table Calendar Example The date field type allows one to choose a date with a popup calendar. Popup calendar works for Netscape 6.0 or better, all other Gecko-based browsers, Internet Explorer 5.0 or better for Windows, Opera 7 and Konqueror 3.1.2. The ... button is inactive if the browser cannot support the popup calendar. It uses the nice Mishoo DHTML calendar, see also TWiki:Codev/JavaScriptDatePickerForForm

Per Cell Settings

An individual edit field type can be defined for each table cell. Place an %EDITCELL{ "type, ..." }% variable at the end of the cell content. This is useful to override the per column %EDITTABLE{ format="..." }% settings, or to create tables with key/value rows. All edit field types of the format="..." parameter are supported. For example, to define a text field, type: | cell content %EDITCELL{ "text, 20" }% |

It is also possible to place the edit button inside a cell instead of default location below the table. Type | %EDITCELL{ "editbutton, 1, Edit this table" }% | to show a button, or | %EDITCELL{ "editbutton, 1, Edit table, Image-URL" }% | to show a button image with alternate text.

Note: The %EDITCELL{ }%=variable cannot be used by itself; place an =%EDITTABLE{ }%=variable at the beginning of a table where you want to use =%EDITCELL{ }% variables.

Table Buttons

  • In page view mode:
    • - turn the table into edit mode
  • In edit mode:
    • - save your changes
    • - save your changes without alerting subscribed WebNotify users
    • - add row to the table (if enabled)
    • - remove last row from the table (if enabled)
    • - cancel without saving and release edit lock

Examples

Line before table: %EDITTABLE{ header="|*Nr*|*Text field sandbox*|*Drop down sandbox*|*Timestamp*|" format="| row, -1 | text, 20, init | select, 1, one, two, three, four | label, 0, %SERVERTIME{"$day $mon $year $hour:$min"}% |" changerows="on" }%

Nr Text field sandbox Drop down sandbox Timestamp
1 hello table one 26 Jun 2002 12:30
2   two 27 Jun 2002 12:40

Note: Please use TWiki:Sandbox.EditTablePluginTesting if you want to try out this Plugin

If this plugin is installed you will see an [ Edit table ] button above; if you were to click on it (please don't, use TWiki:Sandbox.EditTablePluginTesting for testing) you get this form:

Nr Text field sandbox Drop down sandbox Timestamp
1 26 Jun 2002 12:30
2 27 Jun 2002 12:40
(demo only, these buttons do not work)

The following example shows a simple table with key/value rows. The default edit field type for the value column is a text field. This is overloaded by a selector for the Gender, and a date picker for the DOB. This is typically used by TWiki applications where new topics with tables are created based on a template topic.

You type: 
%EDITTABLE{ format="| label | text, 40 |" }%
|*Key*|*Value*|
| Name: | John Smith |
| Gender: | M %EDITCELL{select, 1, , F, M}% |
| DOB: | 1999/12/31 %EDITCELL{date, 10}% |
| City: | New York |
Screenshot: EDITCELL Example in view mode Screenshot in edit mode: EDITCELL Example in edit mode

Plugin Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences variables. To reference a plugin setting write %<plugin>_<setting>%, for example, %EDITTABLEPLUGIN_SHORTDESCRIPTION%

  • One line description, shown in the TextFormattingRules? topic:
    • Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Edit TWiki tables using edit fields, date pickers and drop down boxes

  • Set DEBUG to 1 to get debug messages in data/debug.txt. Default: 0
    • Set DEBUG = 0

  • Default for change rows flag: on, off, add
    • Set CHANGEROWS = on

  • Default flag for quiet save option: on to show the Quiet Save button, off to hide
    • Set QUIETSAVE = on

  • Default edit button: Specify button text, or specify alternate text, image URL
    • #Set EDITBUTTON = Edit table
    • Set EDITBUTTON = Edit this table, edittable.gif

  • Language of DHTML calendar, pointing to attached calendar-<code>.js language file: en, af, br, ca, cs-win, da, de, du, el, es, fr, hr, hr-utf8, hu, it, jp, nl, no, pl, pt, ro, ru, sk, sp, sv, tr, zh
    • Set JSCALENDARLANGUAGE = en

  • Additional options of DHTML calendar:
    • Set JSCALENDAROPTIONS =

Note: The Plugin looks for the JSCALENDAR* settings first in the TWiki Preferences, then in above Plugin settings

Limitations and Known Issues

  • This Plugin does not support TWiki table formatting like Multi-span cells (e.g. | ... ||) and cell justification (e.g. |  centered  |   right |)
  • There is a performance issue when editing a large table, say, with more then 50 rows
  • Variables like %ATTACHURL% get expanded unless they are in a label
  • You cannot put two %EDITTABLE{}% statements on the same line in the source
  • You can include %-vars now in select values, by quoting them with <nop>, as in %<nop>X% for %X%, say for instance:
    select,1,%<nop>X%,%<nop>Y%

Plugin Installation Instructions

Note: You do not need to install anything on the browser to use this Plugin. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the plugin on the server where TWiki is running.

  • Download the ZIP file from the Plugin web (see below)
  • Unzip EditTablePlugin.zip in your twiki installation directory. Content:
    File: Description:
    data/TWiki/EditTablePlugin.txt Plugin topic
    data/TWiki/EditTablePlugin.txt,v Plugin topic repository
    lib/TWiki/Plugins/EditTablePlugin.pm Plugin Perl module
    pub/TWiki/EditTablePlugin/edittable.gif Edit table button image
    pub/TWiki/EditTablePlugin/*.gif Screenshots and Mishoo DHTML calendar images
    pub/TWiki/EditTablePlugin/README Mishoo DHTML calendar README
    pub/TWiki/EditTablePlugin/release-notes.html Mishoo DHTML calendar release notes
    pub/TWiki/EditTablePlugin/*.js Mishoo DHTML calendar JavaScript files
    pub/TWiki/EditTablePlugin/calendar-system.css Mishoo DHTML calendar stylesheet
  • The Plugin depends on the viewauth script to authenticate the user. As described in TWikiAccessControl?, copy the view script to viewauth (or better, create a symbolic link) and add viewauth to the list of authenticated scripts in the .htaccess file.
  • The Mishoo DHTML calendar 0.9.5 is preinstalled and should work without any configuration. If you wish to use another language, specify the in the Plugin settings, or create a new language files, attach it to the Plugin topic, and change the Plugin settings
  • Test if the Plugin is correctly installed:
    • Check above example if there is an [ Edit table ] button below the table in above example
    • Click on [ Edit table ], make changes and save the table

License

  • The Edit Table Plugin is released under the GPL
  • The Mishoo DHTML calendar bundled with this Plugin was created by Mihai Bazon and is released under the LGPL -- thanks Mihai for the great tool smile

Plugin Info

Plugin Author: TWiki:Main/PeterThoeny
Plugin Version: 01 Aug 2004
Change History:  
01 Aug 2004: Fixed bug where edittable did not work if at the end of a topic
07 Apr 2004: Fixed bug where two tables got updated when you edit and save a table included into a topic containing other edit tables
02 Mar 2004: Default for %EDITCELL{editbutton}% is EDITBUTTON preference
27 Feb 2004: Added QUIETSAVE setting and quietsave parameter; image for Edit button
18 Feb 2004: Doc fixes; allow edit button anywhere in a cell not just at the end of a cell
17 Feb 2004: Added per cell definition of edit field types with %EDITCELL{}% variable; added headerislabel and editbutton parameters
20 Dec 2003: Fixed bug where calendar did not work after adding a row (TWiki:Main/PaulineCheung); added all language files of Mishoo DHTML calendar 0.9.5
13 Dec 2003: Added CHANGEROWS, JSCALENDARDATEFORMAT, JSCALENDARLANGUAGE, JSCALENDAROPTIONS settings
16 Oct 2003: small typo fixed (garbled if ---+ header on top)
15 Oct 2003: new date field type with javascript calendar - CN
14 Oct 2003: docfix: the documentation page was an old one - CN
13 Oct 2003: bugfix: %-vars in select were resetted to first on add/del row - CN
18 Sep 2003: incompatibility: changed default of changerows to on; support for %-vars, Quiet save for saving without notification; all other fixes in Dev topic integrated - CN
08 Nov 2002: Prevent variable expansion in label text; added escape characters
27 Jun 2002: New helptopic parameter
26 Jun 2002: Support for variables in included EDITTABLE parameters; fixed problem with HTML in cells
21 May 2002: Added fixed label format; new changerows="add" parameter
27 Apr 2002: Fixed bug where text after a double quote in a cell disappeared
18 Apr 2002: Fixed bug where table was breaking when pasting multiple lines into an edit field using Netscape on Unix
08 Apr 2002: Check for change permission and edit lock of topic
05 Apr 2002: Initial version
CPAN Dependencies: none
Other Dependencies: Mishoo DHTML calendar (version 0.9.5 preinstalled); TWiki version 01 Feb 2003 or later
Perl Version: 5.0
TWiki:Plugins/Benchmark: GoodStyle? 98%, FormattedSearch? 98%, EditTablePlugin 95%
Plugin Home: http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/EditTablePlugin
Feedback: http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/EditTablePluginDev

Related Topics: TWikiPreferences, TWikiPlugins

-- TWiki:Main/PeterThoeny - 01 Aug 2004

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