Displaying a datalist on a web page

[Wayne Moses]

I seem to be banging my head against a brick wall and need some pointers.

I have a client whose website is hosted on a Linux server with working FP
Extensions.

A web form on their website collects simple information (name, address,
years attended, location, etc.) and sends it to both an email address and a
..CSV file in the _private directory.

I want to be able to display some of the columns in the .CSV file on another
web page so that it is viewable by Netscape and MSIE, both of which I am
committed to support. This does not have to be real time but must be qucik
and easy if I am to manually do it, as I don't intend to charge for updating
this display.

I know that I can install an Excel web component and then cut and paste the
data from the .CSV file into it and it works great ... for MSIE only. That
means that this solution is out.

The database is only expected to be small -- up to maybe 300 records.

Can anyone suggest a solution other than switching over to Windows Hosting?

I am even fine with cutting and pasting, however when I open the .CSV file
in Excel and copy and paste into FP, it is not left in table form but as
lines of text. Any ideas on how to paste as a table?

--

Wayne Moses
MS FrontPage 2003
MS Windows XP Home
Apache Server on RedHat Linux

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

Use PHP and MySQL, store the form data in the database then you can display it.

You can not use Access or Excel on Unix/Linux server.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

You also should be able to use a text file as a database with PHP as well.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

 

[Wayne Moses]

Use PHP and MySQL, store the form data in the database then you can

display it.

That's what I thought. Looks like I will have to learn PHP programming to
make this work ...?

For now, I managed to find a bot more laborious method of doing a
copy-and-paste ... open the CSV file, copy the block you need, paste into
Word, save as HTML, open the HTML plage and copy the table, paste into FP
and voila!

I am using Office97. Maybe the newer versions are a little more direct in
document sharing ...?
--

Wayne Moses
MS FrontPage 2003
MS Windows XP Home
Apache Server on RedHat Linux

 

[Cheryl Wise]

You should be able to shorten your steps a bit. Open the CVS file (in
notepad) and paste it directly into FrontPage, then use Table | Convert |
Text to Tables.

That has the added advantage of not adding a bunch of Word HTML code to your
page.

You should be able to easily adapt one of the following to display your csv
file via php without learning both a database and php:
http://codewalkers.com/seecode/275.html
http://fsck.dk/downloads/csvconvert.txt
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum88/2626.htm (reading the thread should
answer most questions)

 

[Wayne Moses]

Thanks for all the tips, Cheryl. I don't have the time tonight but will look
into it tomorrow and let you know how I made out.

Wayne

 

[Wayne Moses]

You should be able to shorten your steps a bit. Open the CVS file (in
notepad) and paste it directly into FrontPage, then use Table | Convert |
Text to Tables.

I knew about this technique but the problem is the wizard is not perfect.
Some of the cells are misaligned, and I am also forced to take the whole
line item, whereas I only want a part of it. Going the intermediate route
through Excel and Word is easier in the long run as I get the columns I need
and in the smaller font that I use (not the default 12 pt Arial that tables
always seem to like to come up in (must be a default somewhere that I can
fix).

That has the added advantage of not adding a bunch of Word HTML code to your
page.

I know what you mean.

I have since bought a Visual Quickstart Guide on "PHP for the World Wide
Web" by Larry Ullman and will be learning some PHP. Then your links below
will make even more sense and I won't have to do this cut and paste manual
editing. The real trick would be to manipulate a mySQL database so that
deletions from the list of line items can be reflected real-time. This is
not possible with a CSV file approach. Thanks again.

You should be able to easily adapt one of the following to display your csv
file via php without learning both a database and php:
http://codewalkers.com/seecode/275.html
http://fsck.dk/downloads/csvconvert.txt
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum88/2626.htm (reading the thread should
answer most questions)

--

Wayne Moses
MS FrontPage 2003
MS Windows XP Home
Apache Server on RedHat Linux

 

[Cheryl Wise]

I knew about this technique but the problem is the wizard is not perfect.
Some of the cells are misaligned, and I am also forced to take the whole
line item, whereas I only want a part of it. Going the intermediate route
through Excel and Word is easier in the long run as I get the columns I
need
and in the smaller font that I use (not the default 12 pt Arial that
always seem to like to come up in tables(must be a default somewhere that
I can
fix).That has the added advantage of not adding a bunch of Word HTML code
to
your page.
I know what you mean.

Unless you are missing a comma I would not have expected any alignment
problems. if you use an external stylesheet you will solve the text size
problem without all the Word code. When you use Word you get inline styles
on every line that. really bloats your code.

 

[Wayne Moses]

Unless you are missing a comma I would not have expected any alignment
problems.

That was my thinking as well, but the form was writing directly from the web
form to the CSV file, and I would think that it would be consistent in
putting the correct number of commas in where there were blanks in the form.
I must admit I have not researched that particular problem very well so
there could be an explanation.

if you use an external stylesheet you will solve the text size
problem without all the Word code.

I guess an embedded style won't do the trick, huh?

When you use Word you get inline styles on every line that. really bloats

your code.

Ain't that the truth. Another reason I want to get away from this manual
editing business.

Wayne

 

[Cheryl Wise]

Maybe the pope filling out the form are using commas in their entries. That
can cause the sort of problems you described. Not much you can do if that is
the case unless you want to write validation code to remove commas before
inserting the text into the database.