EditRowPlugin

Page contents

• Introduction
• Usage
• Per Cell Settings
• Examples
  • Example 1
  • Example 2
  • Example 3
  • Example 4
• Preferences
• Relationships
  • EditTablePlugin
  • TablePlugin
  • EditTablerowPlugin
• Installation Instructions
• Using the REST interface
• Plugin Info

Replacement for some of EditTablePlugin, some of EditTablerowPlugin and some of TablePlugin

Introduction

A replacement for most of EditTablePlugin, some of EditTablerowPlugin and some of TablePlugin. Features:

1. You can edit one row at a time, instead of having to edit the entire table. This solves the problem with the long page rendering times required to show all the HTML for a full table edit on big tables.
2. Row being edited can be presented horizontally, as with EditTablePlugin, or Form-style, like EditTablerowPlugin. Makes it easier to edit very wide tables.
3. Supports footer rows.
4. Supports sorting columns in tables using Javascript, avoiding the round-trip to the server required by TablePlugin. Can fall back to TablePlugin if Javascript isn't available.
5. Simple interface to moving rows around in the table, deleting and adding rows.
6. Gets row numbering right (takes account of headers).
7. It's faster than the individual plugins it replaces.
8. (geeky) Coded using a clean object-oriented architecture, which makes it easily extensible.
9. (geeky) Uses a simple REST interface for saving changes, which allows Javascript table editors to use the same interface to save.

Usage

Works like the EditTablePlugin (it uses exactly the same %EDITTABLE tags) and you can use it to edit the entire table, or just one row at a time.

A %EDITTABLE{...}% in the topic will be associated with the next table in the topic. If there is no existing table, or another %EDITTABLE{...}% is seen before the next table, then a new table will be created.

Parameters:

• format - The format of the cells in a row of the table. The format is defined like a table row, where the cell data specify the type for each cell. For example, format="| text,16 | label |". Cells can be any of the following types:
  • text, <size>, <initial value> Simple text field. Initial value is optional.
  • textarea, <rows>x<columns>, <initial value> Multirow text box. Initial value is optional.
  • select, <size>, <option 1>, <option 2>, etc Select one from a list of choices.
  • radio, <size>, <option 1>, <option 2>, etc. Radio buttons. size indicates the number of buttons per line in edit mode.
  • checkbox, <size>, <option 1>, <option 2>, etc Checkboxes. size indicates the number of buttons per line in edit mode.
  • label, 0, <label text> Fixed label.
  • row The row number, automatically worked out.
  • date, <size>, <initial value>, <DHTML date format> Date. Initial value and date format are both optional.
• changerows - Rows can be added and removed if "on". Rows can be added but not removed if "add". Defaults to the value of the preference CHANGEROWS, or off if it isn't set.
• disable - By default, the plugin shows both full table and individual row editing controls. You can choose to disable one or both of these modes using the disable parameter, by setting it to row or full (or row,full to disable all editing and just leave sorting). If full table editing is disabled, but changerows is on, then the (edit table) button will be replaced with a (add row) button. Defaults to the value of the preference EDITROWPLUGIN_DISABLE, or none if it isn't set.
• quietsave - Quiet Save button is shown if "on". Defaults to the value of the preference QUIETSAVE, or off if it isn't set.
• include - Name of another 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.
• headerrows - Number of rows to treat as headers. Header rows are not editable, and will not be sorted. headerislabel is also supported for EditTablePlugin compatibility (equivalent to headerrows="1") |
• header - Specify the single-row header format of a new table. For example, "|*Food*|*Drink*|". Provided for compatibility with EditTablePlugin, not recommended.
• footerrows - Number of rows to treat as footers. Footer rows are not editable and will not be sorted. |
• orientrowedit - unique to EditRowPlugin, this parameter controls the orientation of a row when it is being edited. It can be set to horizontal (the default) or vertical, which will present the columns of the row as rows in the editor. This makes editing very wide tables much easier. Has no effect in whole table editing mode.
• helptopic Topic name containing help text shown when editing a table. The %STARTINCLUDE% and %STOPINCLUDE% markers can be used in the topic to specify what is shown. Note that newlines are removed from the included text so the that text can be used inside a TWiki table.

Table rows are shown with a row edit button in the first column, and a table edit button after the table. When the table is edited, then a number of buttons may be shown depending on the settings of changerows and quietsave.

• saves the changes
• saves without notification
• adds a new row after the current row, taking for its contents whatever you entered into the current row
• deletes the row
• Move this row up one row in the table
• Move this row down one row in the table
• cancels the open edit

Per Cell Settings

An individual edit field type can be defined for each individual 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" }% |

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.

Examples

Copy the following examples and paste them into a topic in the Sandbox web (or another web where you have write access). The EditRowPlugin is enabled in this TWiki. Click on the buttons to try it out.

Example 1

%EDITTABLE{ format="| row, -1 | text, 20, init | select, 1, not started, starting, ongoing, completed | radio, 3,:-),:-I,:-( | date, 20 |" changerows="on" quietsave="on"}%
| *Nr* | *Project* | *State* | *Progress* | *Timestamp* |
| 1 | Sliced yoghourt | completed | :-) | 26 Jun 2002 |
| 2 | Cubical turkeys | not started | :-( | 27 Oct 2007 |
| 3 | Self-eating burritos | ongoing | :-D | 1 Apr 2008 | 
| 4 | Unified field theory | completed | :-) | 1 Apr 2012 |

Example 2

%EDITTABLE{ format="| label,12 | textarea, 3x30 |" }%
| *Model* | *Description* |
| 345TG66 | Short, with sightly concave upper surface, and devilish nuts |
| 9A-11 | A new model for 2007, but not quite as pretty as the 9A-10 |
| RR717-D | Solid performer, dependable in vacuum grinders |

Example 3

%EDITTABLE{ format="| text,100 | text,100 |" orientrowedit="vertical" headerislabel="on"}%
| *Line* | *Explanation* |
| He took his _vorpal_ sword in hand | A vorpal sword is made from broken bits of Commodore 64 disk-drives |
| Long time the _manxome_ foe he sought | manxome: possibly from 'manky'; or from the Isle of Man |
| So rested he by the _Tumtum_ tree, | Tumtum is a Nilo-Saharan language and people |
| And stood awhile in _thought_ | _thought_ a process not often employed by example writers |

Example 4

%EDITTABLE{ format="| label | text, 40 |" }%
|*Key*|*Value*|
| Name: | John Smith |
| Gender: | M %EDITCELL{select, 1, , F, M}% |
| DOB: | 18 October 2007 %EDITCELL{date, 10}% |
| City: | New York |

Preferences

The plugin interprets a couple of preferences, in common with the EditTablePlugin.

QUIETSAVE	Gives a default value for the quietsave parameter. Default is off.
CHANGEROWS	Gives a default value for the changerows parameter. Default is off.

Also, the plugin can be selectively disabled using

EDITROWPLUGIN_DISABLE

Set to on to disable the plugin. Default is off.

These preferences can be defined in TWikiPreferences, in WebPreferences for an individual web, or in the topic.

Relationships

EditTablePlugin

At this time most features of EditTablePlugin are supported. Known exceptions are:

• the editbutton parameter,
• Plugin preferences (though global preferences are compatible)

TablePlugin

Javascript sorting in EditRowPlugin is much faster than TablePlugin. However TablePlugin has many features this plugin does not support. The two plugins can safely be used together.

EditTablerowPlugin

Provides the vertical row editing interface like EditTablerowPlugin, with the row being edited shown in context in the table.

Installation Instructions

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

Like many other TWiki extensions, this module is shipped with a fully automatic installer script written using the BuildContrib.

• If you have TWiki 4.2 or later, you can install from the configure interface (Go to Plugins->Find More Extensions)
  • See the installation supplement on TWiki.org for more information.
• If you have any problems, then you can still install manually from the command-line:
  1. Download one of the .zip or .tgz archives
  2. Unpack the archive in the root directory of your TWiki installation.
  3. Run the installer script ( perl <module>_installer )
  4. Run configure and enable the module, if it is a plugin.
  5. Repeat for any missing dependencies.
• If you are still having problems, then instead of running the installer script:
  1. Make sure that the file permissions allow the webserver user to access all files.
  2. Check in any installed files that have existing ,v files in your existing install (take care not to lock the files when you check in)
  3. Manually edit LocalSite.cfg to set any configuration variables.

Using the REST interface

The plugin saves changes to tables via a REST handler. Javascript developers may find this interface useful when developing their own tools that manipulate tables.

The REST handler is invoked using the following URI format:

<twiki-bin-path>/rest/EditRowPlugin/save

The handler accepts the following parameters:

• erp_active_topic the web.wikiname of the topic to be changed
• erp_active_table the table to be changed (numbered from 1)
• erp_active_row - the row to be changed (numbered from 1, or -1 for the whole table)
• erp_active_format - the format parameter from the EDITTABLE tag
• erp_save.x - if nonzero, this is a save
• erp_quietSave.x - if nonzero, this is a quietsave
• erp_upRow.x - if nonzero, this is a row move
• erp_downRow.x - if nonzero, this is a row move
• erp_deleteRow.x - if nonzero, this is a row deletion
• erp_cancel.x - if nonzero, this is a cancel
• erp_noredirect - if set, suppresses the redirect and gets a status code instead

The value of each individual cell is stored in a parameter called erp_<table>_<row>_<column>

Plugin Info

Plugin Author:	Crawford Currie http://c-dot.co.uk
Plugin Version:	20282 (2011-01-20)
Copyright:	© 2007 WindRiver Inc. © 2007-2011, TWiki:TWiki.TWikiContributor
License:	GPL (Gnu General Public License)
Change History:
2011-01-20:	TWikibug:Item6641: Fix EditRowPlugin for TWiki-5.0 -- TWiki:Main.ErikJohansen, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
2010-04-30:	TWikibug:Item6433: Doc improvements; changing TWIKIWEB to SYSTEMWEB
15 May 2008:	TWikibug:Item5621: helptopics were getting munged because of use of BR to replace newlines. This was to prevent accidental table concatenation, but breaks other things worse so I removed it. TWikibug:Item5624: handle comments with embedded tables. TWikibug:Item5625: don't count generated tables in the table count. TWikibug:Item5594: typo was causing strange behaviour with row management tools. TWikibug:Item5595: fixed problem with included tables. TWikibug:Item5596: changed default behaviour for empty cells to ignore pre-existing spaces if there is no other content. TWikibug:Item5616: row moving was failing on 4.1.2 due to bad URL construction.
8 Mar 2008	TWikibug:Item5386: fixed problem with editing of tables embedded from an included topic TWikibug:Item5043: added Jeff Crawford's patch to fix multiline textareas
4 Jan 2008	TWikibug:Item5320: fixed destructive save when add row is pressed outside edit mode
13 Dec 2007	TWikibug:Item4970: removed beforeCommonTagsHandler, which was causing problems when interacting with other plugins that use unregistered tag handlers.
23 Nov 2007	TWikibug:Item4853: remove duplicated %EDITCELL
9 Nov 2007	TWikibug:Item4947: added missing _src.js versions to MANIFEST
6 Nov 2007	TWikibug:Item4935: fixed problem with embedded TWiki variables
20 Oct 2007	TWikibug:Item4853: support %EDITCELL TWikibug:Item4861: rework the rules for associating tag with adjacent table TWikibug:Item4862: avoid expanding TWiki variables on edit
18 Oct 2007	TWikibug:Item4834: added automatic save on row add TWikibug:Item4853: added %EDITCELL support TWikibug:Item4651: fixed validation of date change
26 Sep 2007	TWikibug:Item4696 Keep table in full-table edit mode after a row is added TWikibug:Item4651 add JS to handle navigating away with pending changes (requires BehaviourContrib)
10 Sep 2007	TWikibug:Item4552 Can use row buttons to delete the header, even though headerrows is set TWikibug:Item4565 "row" parameter not supported TWikibug:Item4567 header parameter not correctly handled TWikibug:Item4602 Header row gets eaten
13685	TWikibug:Item4040 Support for helptopic and disable, which allows more flexible configuration of the UI, especially when vertical editing
13641	TWikibug:Item4020 Improved the table anchors for a better editing experience. Fixed calendar formats. Fixed table footer sorting. Disabled label edits. Fixed multi-malued checkboxes.
13615	TWikibug:Item3882 added initial values support TWikibug:Item4009 fixed included tables. Also fixed a bug with variable expansion reported in the dev topic.
13609	TWikibug:Item4003: fixed colspan. Also added support for headerrows and footerrows parameters from %TABLE
13560	TWikibug:Item4002 Problems with blank lines, multi-value edits, and line continuations resolved
13596	TWikibug:Item4000 Added orientrowedit, global control options, fixed issue with wikiwords in edited data, added column sorting
13487	TWikibug:Item3925 - fixed infinite loop when included format doesn't exist
13359	TWikibug:Item3875 - can now edit top row of tables. Also now writes row numbers back to the topic, which was needed to support some compatible apps.
13335	Fixed broken date prompt, and problem with radio buttons, improved and documented REST interface for Javascript authors
13291	Added full table editing, including moving rows within the table
13161	Bulletproofed against issues with rows that are shorter or longer than the format.
13159	Fixed issue with short rows, and added perms check. Thanks also to TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum for more fixes and testing. Now works on IE.
13148	TWikibug:Item3770: Bugfixes
Dependencies:	Name Version Description TWiki::Contrib::BehaviourContrib >=0 Javascript module TWiki::Contrib::JSCalendarContrib >=14754 Javascript calendar module
Plugin Home:	http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/EditRowPlugin
Feedback:	http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/EditRowPluginDev
Appraisal:	http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/EditRowPluginAppraisal

Related Topics: EditRowPluginExamples, TWikiPlugins, DeveloperDocumentationCategory, AdminDocumentationCategory, TWikiPreferences