[wikka-community] A csv to wiki table converter, and what to do with it?

[Dario Taraborelli]

Hi Will,

and welcome to the list. The idea of a CSV converter for tables sounds  
really nice. It could be bundled in a "Utilities" page or provided as  
a Web service (similar to html2wiki) for Wikka users (or both).

The best way to get feedback from other Wikka contributors is to start  
a new page at wikkawiki.org
Also check out these CSV manipulation libraries posted by Nils: http://wikkawiki.org/HandleCsvData

Do you have a demo available?

Dario

On 1 Oct 2009, at 07:09, Will Woodhull wrote:

> Hi, I'm new to Wikkawiki, to wiki management in general, and to  
> actually contributing code to FOSS, so bear with me please.
>
> I've put together a .csv to wikka v1.2 table conversion action:  
> {{cvsimport}}. The interface consists of a file loader like  
> {{files}} (I borrowed heavily) and a read-only textarea that  
> displays the raw wikka table format.
>
> The intended audience are some volunteers I'm working with who have  
> some spreadsheet skills but no time nor inclination to learn Wikka  
> ways. They do have an interest in maintaining the mailing lists and  
> member rosters of the community group, and believe me, that is  
> priceless. But back to subject at hand...
>
> The intended workflow is that the volunteer would copy/paste a table  
> from a wikka page in "show" mode into their favorite spreadsheet  
> app, do the necessary housekeeping, and save the result locally  
> in .csv format. They would then go to the sole instance of the  
> {{cvsimport}} action which might be cleverly hosted on a page called  
> CvsImport, select the local .csv file, and copy/paste what then  
> shows up in the textarea into the destination page. Embellishments  
> like adding a caption and column or row headers could then be done.
>
> Advantages:
> The main one is that I've got volunteers who are happy to do the  
> work if they can do it in a spreadsheet.
> This approach is also easier when working with large tables than  
> composing directly in the Wikka format. I really think the Wikka  
> format is about as good as it can get, but it is still far behind  
> spreadsheets for ease of composition.
> Since critical steps in the process are not automated, the action  
> does not expose the wiki to any greater risks than already present.
> I'm hoping that the volunteers will begin to explore other ways of  
> using the wiki once they realize that they can in fact write fancy  
> web pages, using mostly skills they already have.
> Okay, so what do I do with this thing now? How do I place it in  
> front of the community where it can get properly critiqued and maybe  
> put to use by others?
>
> -- 
> Will Woodhull
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> community at wikkawiki.org
> http://mail.wikkawiki.org/mailman/listinfo/community_wikkawiki.org

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