[TW5] Announcing the XLSX Utilities plugin

[Jeremy Ruston]

I’m pleased to announce the prerelease of a new TiddlyWiki plugin for importing data from Excel spreadsheets (and other apps/services that can generate .XLSX files, like Google Sheets). The approach it takes is heavily influenced by conversations over the years with Steve Schneider.

It’s quite a complex tool, and will take a bit of study to figure out how to use it (see below for an illustration of the main configuration screen). I’ve put more effort than usual into the documentation (popup help!), but it’s still thin, and your questions and comments will help me improve it.

You can try out the prerelease at:

http://tiddlywiki.com/prerelease/editions/xlsx-utils/

Scroll down and follow the instructions under “Presidents Demo”.

A final point about the xlsx-utils plugin is that it was created as a by-product of a piece of work I’ve been doing for a commercial client of Federatial (https://federatial.com/). The ability to import data from spreadsheets is a critical component of the system I’m building for the client, but the client isn’t in the business of making JavaScript plugins, and so they are more than happy for the code to be released under our usual BSD license, and ultimately made better through the feedback and contributions of other users.

Best wishes

Jeremy.

[sini-Kit]

Thank you Jeremy! It is a present  for me. I don't understand  how to export all tiddlers to excel?  Now I use excel macros to convert xlsx to html, but your plugin looks better. 

понедельник, 24 октября 2016 г., 1:29:46 UTC+3 пользователь Jeremy Ruston написал:

[Steven Schneider]

Jeremy: two links to xlsx utils:

http://tiddlywiki.com/editions/xlsx-utils/ - link on prerelease version, doesn't work

http://tiddlywiki.com/prerelease/editions/xlsx-utils/ - link in this thread, works

//steve.

[Tom Bardout]

thanks for this great plugin. I really needed this for the database I was attempting to make :) 

This plugin needs an extra option though: a checkbox to choose whether or not to create a field for the entry if the cell is empty. 

If there is an automated way to delete empty fields in multiple tiddlers I don't know it

[Tom Bardout]

Also, Would it be possible to make it work the other way around as well? Tiddlers with the specified fields would be transformed back into an excel. Some things might be a little displaced and it might take a little while to go through the whole wiki gathering the data and combining it into one file but you can retreive data added directly through tiddlywiki. 

[PMario]

On Sunday, December 25, 2016 at 8:42:20 PM UTC+1, Tom Bardout wrote:

Also, Would it be possible to make it work the other way around as well?

Hi Tom,
Should be possible out of the box.

see: http://tiddlywiki.com/#How%20to%20export%20tiddlers and use the CSV format, which can be easily imported with many different programs.

-m

[Tom Bardout]

You're right, there is already the export function that I didn't consider because I thought it came with all the shadow and system tiddlers but I'm glad you made me check and realise I was wrong. :) It's a bit messy though because there's tons of extra data, a few site navigation and category tiddlers, ... I'll use this method if there is no way to reverse enginneer this plugin since i'm trying to retreive the same data I would input through this plugin. It would allow to add info through the site or the database and syncronize the data in both.

[PMario]

Hi Tom,

I did want to refer to: "Exporting tiddlers matching a criteria (filter)" section, which works out from the AdvancedSearch tiddler.

eg: Filter: [tag[myTag]] ... and so on. So you get a nicely filtered list, without the additional shadow tiddlers. The second advantage is: this mechanism "forces" you to think about useful tags, with will pay back in the future.

have fun!
mario

[Tom Bardout]

Oh, ok thanks :) Had a few minor issues but found the solution. It works nicely, thanks

[Greg Hodgins]

Not looking to make this political, but it looks like you're missing a president. Perhaps it should just be titled presidential for accuracy. ;-) LOL

On Sunday, October 23, 2016 at 6:29:46 PM UTC-4, Jeremy Ruston wrote:

[Tom Bardout]

Hi,

I want to report a bug. spaces are turned in to comas. This is indésirable mainly for the text field.

[Tom Bardout]

Also. I'd like one column to replace the data in the another when it is filled. I set two colomns to the same field and put one above the other, and it works except It replaces the first colomn even if the second is empty. Could there be an option to replace only if second colomn isn't empty?
Tell me if you don't understand