Thanks Steve, what do you use it for, any interesting applications to borrow?
Just to follow up, I tried the edit-text widget method and still couldn't get the field-import-specification text area to match the line breaks or line break characters during import. To get the process working, I created an excel macro which will format the file and save it to a specified location ready to import. Still will save lots of time and only adds one step to building my tiddlywiki database from email reports. A downside to this method is that it isn't easily scalable outside of my personal workstation. -Mike On Wednesday, March 7, 2018 at 2:46:59 PM UTC-5, Steven Schneider wrote: > > I took a look at $:/plugins/tiddlywiki/xlsx-utils/xlsx.js, and it's beyond > me. But I bet someone with js understanding could figure out how to modify > the xlsx plugin so that TW wrote fields into its new tiddlers using column > numbers (auto incremented) as field names, rather than the contents of row > 1 as field names. > > It's interesting to here about your setup. Thanks, //steve. > > On Tuesday, March 6, 2018 at 11:18:09 PM UTC-5, Schulerbot wrote: > Hi Steven, > > > Thanks for responding, true, I can manipulate the spreadsheets easily to > make this work, but i'm trying to fully optimize before resorting to doing > that. A little more about my setup. > > > I have spreadsheet reports emailed as attachments, for several things that > I get for work, and I spend about an hour of the day grabbing data from > these reports, manipulating and putting data into other spreadsheets for > inventories and other action items, would love to automate-ish this work. > > > For this question, I get a specific report, its something sent to > customers, a widget report of what we shipped to them. I want to take this > email with an excel attachment and drag the attachment into my > tiddlydesktop/tiddlywiki (which I keep open most of the day and use as a > knowledgebase/intranet) to create a rolling list of shipped assets as a > database without having to take the step of opening up the spreadsheet > attachment, manipulating the column titles, saving it to an actual location > on the machine/server, then importing it to my tiddlywiki. Because this > spreadsheet is formatted for viewing by customers, it has line breaks in > the column titles. I tried endless combinations of line change characters, > formatting, and even updating the xlsx.js code tiddler before posting. > > > I haven't had a chance to try Jeremy's suggestions yet, but I echo the > usefulness that an updated controls panel would have for other Excel > applications, or even to build an entire tiddlywiki via Excel. For my > application though (importing data repetitively via reports that are > consistently formatted), this plugin seems to match quite well. > > > -Mike > > > > > On Tuesday, March 6, 2018 at 5:07:05 PM UTC-5, Steven Schneider wrote: > I'm sure you could fix this if you edited the file. One edit-the-field > strategies that I've employed: insert a new row at the top of the > spreadsheet, and generate a set of useable field names. leave the cell > containing the title field blank in this row; when setting up xlsx import, > make sure the checkbox "skip if blank" is ticked. I realize this creates an > step requiring edit of the xlsx file, which as you noted is not something > you want to do. But you must need to open it to get the column names, no? > > > If you copy/paste-special-transpose the column names into column1 of > another sheet in the workbook, you could read in the column names as values > in tiddlers (you might set the title of the tiddlers to be =row(), which > would give you a # as a hook. You could then transclude these values to the > import spec tiddlers ..... but this gets messy quickly. > > > > > Jeremy, is there any way to get access to the column number, or is > everything in the plugin running on column names (i.e. the text in row1 of > the column)? > > > I've long wanted the xlsx import plugin to be modified so that there was > an option to name the fields Column1, Column2, etc to avoid these issues. > Similarly, set the title of imported tiddlers as Row1, Row2, etc. An > additional feature might create tiddlers for each Column, and populate the > caption field for these tiddlers with the contents of Row 1. And populate > the caption field of the row tiddlers with the contents of a specified > column. > > > This would save much of the tedium of building xlsx imports, especially > for large spreadsheets. > > > //steve. > > > > > On Tuesday, March 6, 2018 at 4:32:44 AM UTC-5, Jeremy Ruston wrote: > Hi Mike > > > Trying to import excel spreadsheet report repetitively to create database > of tiddlers. > In the primary row of the excel sheet, where the column titles are that > specify the pointers for the field import specification, I have a couple > columns with line breaks (ALT-Enter in Excel)...Not my choice > > > How do i specify the line break character in the "column" field of the > plugin control so that the plugin finds the correct column and > corresponding data to put in the field upon import? > > > Seeing if I have an option here besides manipulating the excel data. I'd > rather just import the existing report as-is that is e-mailed to me. > > > Interesting problem! As you’ll have discovered, attempts to copy the line > break character from Excel and paste it into the editor of the XSLX plugin > don’t work. The reason is that those single line text fields don’t allow > control characters. > > > A possible workaround is to identify the tiddler field(s) that need to > have these control characters pasted, and to edit those fields in a scrap > tiddler via a textarea: > > > <$edit-text tiddler="$:/_importspec/Presidents and > Justices/States/Main/title" field="import-field-column" tag="textarea"/> > > > Then you should be able to paste the required line breaks into the fields. > > > The problem you’ll then likely run into is that control characters are > removed from tiddler fields when you save and reload as a standalone HTML > file. A quick and dirty workaround would be to save the wiki in JSON format > (via the export button). > > > Best wishes > > > Jeremy > > > > Thanks! > > > -Mike > > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TiddlyWiki" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tiddlywiki/376094f7-e825-469f-90ec-7d3bf83b7d27%40googlegroups.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tiddlywiki/376094f7-e825-469f-90ec-7d3bf83b7d27%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TiddlyWiki" group. 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