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:

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:

Date Field Type

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

The edit field type can be defined for each table cell by placing an %EDITCELL{ "type, ..." }% variable after 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, e.g. to define a text field, type: | cell content %EDITCELL{ "text, 20" }% |

It is also possible to place the edit button into 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

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" }%

If this plugin is installed you will see an [ Edit table ] button above; when you click on it you get this form:

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.

%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 |

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 text for edit button:
  • Set EDITBUTTON = Edit table

• Date format of Mishoo DHTML calendar:
  • Set JSCALENDARDATEFORMAT = %Y/%m/%d

• 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.
• The Plugin fails if the table is at the very end of the topic (without a new line) Always ensure there is a newline after the table
• 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

• 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

Plugin Info

Related Topics: TWikiPreferences, TWikiPlugins

-- TWiki:Main/PeterThoeny - 17 Feb 2004