[solved] Can AjaxSearch generate results from an excel or csv file?

Hello,

I am hoping to use Modx Evo for an intranet site.

Can AjaxSearch generate search results from either an excel or csv file for a company contacts directory?

The company has about 200 or so employees and currently keeps their address list as an excel file. It would be most convenient to stick with excel or csv format if at all possible.

The current headings - and the various ways I would like the search to work - are: name, position, department, extension, mobile extension, mobile number.

If AjaxSearch can do it, are there any instructions floating around on how to do it?

If not, do you know of another way to generate results from a excel or csv file? Maybe with Ditto?

Thank you kindly.

Hi,
Not really. I recently had a project in which I had to examine Ajaxsearch carefully. It will search page content or TV’s without much trouble. It can, as I understand it, be configured to search other tables, but it is pretty difficult to set up unless you’re a hardcore database geek. The documentation is around, but is pretty funky - I couldn’t follow it. I finally just made sure all the data in my planning scheme was in Content or TV’s.

If you converted your data into a regular MySQL table and can wade through the documentation and figure out what it means, you could do it. But if you’re looking for something where an office person can just upload an Excel file to something and get it to work, no.

Hi Samba,

Thanks for your help.

I am a million miles off being a hardcore database geek so AjaxSearch might be out of the question for this.

But if you’re looking for something where an office person can just upload an Excel file to something and get it to work, no.

That’s exactly the equation - I wonder then if Ditto could do the trick? More investigation for me.

Many thanks.

Hi,
Ditto is extremely flexible in how it displays data. It also works with document content and TV’s. I’m sure you’re sensing a theme here.

Somebody had asked once here if he could use a CSV to create MODx documents. Bob Ray, one of the coolest and smartest people here, figured out this whole scenario where you would upload your CSV to a folder, then you’d write a snippet (basically a smal php program) that would read it, and create documents from it on-the-fly, making categories, subfolders, and so on. It was absolutely impressive, but I can’t remember how to find it, and also it did require some good coding skills. Maybe a Google search would find that sucker.

I wonder if this thing might be of any use to you:
http://modxcms.com/extras/package/?package=595

or this. http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,15347.0.html

btw, when I need quick-and-dirty database add/delete/change/display stuff, I would be more likely to use this than MODx:
http://www.phpmyedit.org/

Dave

Thanks Samba, Ditto is a great theme - if I could get this working with different ditto menus rather than a search I think that would suffice - and I could use filters to display staff by departments or alphabetically by name etc. I would love to use ditto for it.

Bob Ray, one of the coolest and smartest people here, figured out this whole scenario where you would upload your CSV to a folder, then you’d write a snippet (basically a small php program) that would read it, and create documents from it on-the-fly, making categories, subfolders, and so on.

Wow that sounds exactly like what I’m after - I searched but couldn’t find anything - I might contact Bob Ray through the forums.


I had a test of csv2html - that displays the csv data on the page - I am not sure how I’d go about sorting say by Department, and then by Name - and limiting to say only Marketing department.



I have also had a quick install of "fast_content_csv" and can acccess the run module but the tutorials are in German and I don’t want to stuff anything up - it looks a little complex for what I need and I am scared it might eat some data somewhere! Plus I am not sure how to get the csv data onto a page.


Thanks Samba - I am much closer than I was this morning.

I ended up running fast_content_csv - that imports all the docs into MODx and then AjaxSearch can search those pages...

Nick,
Super... maybe I’ll try that myself when it comes up again!
Dave