How do you recommend getting users to input table-based data?

Hi Everyone,
I’ve got a general question about getting users to input large amounts of table based information into MODx.

This is an example of what I’m talking about: http://www.kensingtonprep.org.uk/index.php?id=233

Everything on the white part of that page underneath the top ’This Term’ heading is [*content*]. All of the formatting is done in the CSS - all that needs to be in the page content is just that - the plain HTML content. There are other pages like this on that site - both more and less complex but the workflow is always about the same:

• Site maintainer (not-very IT literate client person) gets info from other client people in Word, Excel, etc
• Client attempts to copy paste into MODx, tries to massage into shape. Sort of succeeds.
• Client emails us, we fix, result as shown above.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on ways to improve this workflow - are there better ways to get this data into MODx? Are there better ways to display it once it’s in? Have you experienced this kind of situation? If so, what do you do about it?

I’m not sure that there’s anything we can do about the first item, but I’m open to any reasonable suggestions.

Thanks very much,
Dunc

I’ve done similar input with a module for the client to upload a csv file, then the file gets parsed and the data loaded into the database. Works great.

I wrote an article on how it is done http://www.sottwell.com/database-module-3.html

That was quick - thanks Sue!

I’ve considered solutions like that but the drawback is that the client would be required to produce valid, reasonably well formatted CSV files in Excel - unfortunately I think this might be beyond their abilities. It might well work better overall that the current situation though - definitely worth thinking about! Another drawback is the development time - something I’m not sure we can get the client to pay for.

Thanks for the input - anyone else got any other ideas?

Thanks Ganesh - another similarly good idea!

I guess the module would have forms for inserting/updating/deleting rows and whatnot. I guess it could be generalized to work with most table structures - which would probably be different from page to page on the site.

Hmm, but like you say, complex to setup initially. Anyone got any other ideas?

Oh yes, I like that phpMyEdit thing - this looks like a fairly good solution to my problem

Also, thanks for writing your excellent tutorial on using it with MODx - it looks really helpful.

Thanks again ganesh!