Posting buildsheets in a table format.
- Ritterview
- Posts: 557
- Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:28 am
- Location: Northern California
The image below is a build sheet for a bicycle in Excel. I can save it as a MS Word table, and save the Word file as a web page. I can bring the webfile up on Firefox. There I can convert it into HTML code (by selecting the table and right clicking to "View Selection Source"), and then copy and paste this HTML onto an HTML board.
So, it works for HTML, but with WW's BBCode I cannot post it here retaining its table format and hyperlinks.
Anybody have a solution? It would be a boon to WW to have people be able to create their buildsheets on Excel, and post the results in a table format, as buildsheets want to be in a table.
Excel Spreadsheet
Copy and past spreadsheet into MS Word. Save as a Web Page.
Bring up the file in Firefox, highlight the table, and right click to "View Selection Source".
The HTML comes up, this can be copied and pasted into an HTML screen. How do we convert this HTML into something that can be posted in WW's BBCode?
So, it works for HTML, but with WW's BBCode I cannot post it here retaining its table format and hyperlinks.
Anybody have a solution? It would be a boon to WW to have people be able to create their buildsheets on Excel, and post the results in a table format, as buildsheets want to be in a table.
Excel Spreadsheet
Copy and past spreadsheet into MS Word. Save as a Web Page.
Bring up the file in Firefox, highlight the table, and right click to "View Selection Source".
The HTML comes up, this can be copied and pasted into an HTML screen. How do we convert this HTML into something that can be posted in WW's BBCode?
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- mitre_tester
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Oh the horror! Never, ever, use Word to create HTML; people will just laugh at you.
- Ritterview
- Posts: 557
- Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:28 am
- Location: Northern California
mitre_tester wrote:Oh the horror! Never, ever, use Word to create HTML; people will just laugh at you.
Thanks for your helpful advice. I downloaded SnapFiles...
AscToTab converts plain or tab-delimited text tables into HTML or RTF tables.
...saved an Excel file as Text, and then converted it to HTML using the program. No Word is involved. How do I get the HTML below into BBCode have it appear as a table at WW?
<table>
<col>
<col>
<tbody><tr>
<td></td>
<td>Miles</td>
<td>Elevation</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>North</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>South</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>East<span> </span></td>
<td>5</td>
<td>6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>West</td>
<td>7</td>
<td>8</td>
</tr>
<if>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<endif>
</tbody></table>
- mitre_tester
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- Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:21 pm
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That's much tidier. Unfortunately, tables in a phpbb forum depend on implementation of one or more mods to the core phpbb scripts, so that they either parse the html tags into html output (instead of rendering them as text, which is the default) or enable table-like BBcode tags.
While we wait for that, best bet is probably to upload a screen grab as image for people to read, and attach a copy of the table in csv form if you think somebody else might want to play with it.
While we wait for that, best bet is probably to upload a screen grab as image for people to read, and attach a copy of the table in csv form if you think somebody else might want to play with it.
- Ritterview
- Posts: 557
- Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:28 am
- Location: Northern California
mitre_tester wrote:Unfortunately, tables in a phpbb forum depend on implementation of one or more mods to the core phpbb scripts, so that they either parse the html tags into html output (instead of rendering them as text, which is the default) or enable table-like BBcode tags.
Geez, I wouldn't have thought that making a table in phpbb was such a big deal. There is no way to post a table without delving deep into the bowels of the core phpbb scripts?
mitre_tester wrote:Best bet is to... attach a copy of the table in csv form if you think somebody else might want to play with it.
Is .csv an allowed extension? It would help if WW allowed .doc and .xls as allowed extensions, and we could easily share Excel buildsheets and templates.
Allowed Extensions and Sizes
gtar gz tar tgz z zip
gif ief jpe jpeg jpg pbm pgm png pnm ppm ras rgb tif tiff xbm xpm xwd
- mitre_tester
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Ritterview wrote:mitre_tester wrote:Unfortunately, tables in a phpbb forum depend on implementation of one or more mods to the core phpbb scripts...
Geez, I wouldn't have thought that making a table in phpbb was such a big deal. There is no way to post a table without delving deep into the bowels of the core phpbb scripts?
If you're going to be pedantic, a module, not a core, but still involves a degree of hacking by the BB admin.
Ritterview wrote:mitre_tester wrote:Best bet is to... attach a copy of the table in csv form if you think somebody else might want to play with it.
Is .csv an allowed extension? It would help if WW allowed .doc and .xls as allowed extensions, and we could easily share Excel buildsheets and templates.Allowed Extensions and Sizes
gtar gz tar tgz z zip
I suggested csv because it's universally importable into any spreadsheet app, not everybody uses Excel. You can also just include csv as inline text without breaking it. Whether you attach a csv or an xls file, I'd expect you to put it in a zip or similar wrapper anyway as a matter of politeness to our hosts, as both will compress a lot and so zipping them up will save server bandwidth.
- Ritterview
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The phpbb code apparently exists to post tables, as evidenced here.
Weight Weenies is about building a light bike. A light bike consists of light components in a buildsheet. A buildsheet is a table. Weight Weenies needs to have a capability of posting tables.
Making Tables
What do the [table] and [/table] tags do?
You use [table] and [/table] to start and end the table
Use [table] at the very beginning of the table,
and [/table] at the very end....
Weight Weenies is about building a light bike. A light bike consists of light components in a buildsheet. A buildsheet is a table. Weight Weenies needs to have a capability of posting tables.
- mitre_tester
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You and I both know that it can be done, and that it should be done, but chatting amongst ourselves isn't going to get it done. You need to make your case to the board admin
- Ritterview
- Posts: 557
- Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:28 am
- Location: Northern California
mitre_tester wrote:You and I both know that it can be done, and that it should be done, but chatting amongst ourselves isn't going to get it done. You need to make your case to the board admin
I've appreciated your help, MT. I've written an email to WW HQ. What I wrote had links, but I don't want to have to re-do the links (lack of a way to post URL's is another topic).
Dear WW:
I've posted a thread on the WW forum regarding the pressing need for WW to have a means of posting tables. I bring it to your attention, as it appears that we would need changes at the highest levels of WW to do this.
If you look at posts of buildsheets, you'll see users composing work-arounds to post what should be a table. Like here. Or posting incomplete information (in this example, no weights for each component), or lacking components that would be obvious if a default table were available.
I've attached an Excel spreadsheet of a build I am doing. Using a spreadsheet is easy, and it adds up the weights. I've got the links to the websites that confirm the weight, part #, etc. There is a lot of information in such a format, but there is no way at WW for users to transmit such information.
* A way to build a table from scratch on WW.
* A way to post a table using HTML (which could be generated from standard programs such as Excel, Word, etc.
* A way to upload files containing spreadsheets and tables, so that other users could download them.
Sincerely,
Ritterview
- Ritterview
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- Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:28 am
- Location: Northern California
A bike build created on any spreadsheet or table can be uploaded at Google Documents, and published as a webpage. The link can be posted here.
For example, the spreadsheet to my BMC SLC01.
It would be much better, of course, to post the table in WW, rather than having people have to leave WW to see the details of a build, or in this case have to post a screenshot (which not everyone knows how to, or is willing to do).
For example, the spreadsheet to my BMC SLC01.
It would be much better, of course, to post the table in WW, rather than having people have to leave WW to see the details of a build, or in this case have to post a screenshot (which not everyone knows how to, or is willing to do).
Embedding Google docs in BBCode requires a code extension which will generate the appropriate iframe, from what I can tell.
There's no way an average user can get the required HTML into a post, at least AFAIK.
There's no way an average user can get the required HTML into a post, at least AFAIK.
- strobbekoen
- Posts: 4426
- Joined: Wed May 18, 2005 6:24 pm
- Location: BELGIUM
A build list is not that long. Why go through all the trouble to convert..
Resize the Excel window to show just the contents you need, then Press Alt + Prt screen in windows and copy the contents and save as a GIF.
Resize the Excel window to show just the contents you need, then Press Alt + Prt screen in windows and copy the contents and save as a GIF.
What I did was the following:
1. Grab the spreadsheet data
2. paste it into a text file "text.txt". Columns are separated by tabs.
3. Pipe through sed, converting spaces into underscores.
4. Pipe into a script, which aligns columns
Very fast.
The "colalign" script isn't so pretty, as I did it before I knew Perl, and so it's in awk. It's confused by the multi-byte characters (Unicode), so a few columns aren't right. But it would be fast to rewrite in Perl -- just a few lines.
1. Grab the spreadsheet data
2. paste it into a text file "text.txt". Columns are separated by tabs.
3. Pipe through sed, converting spaces into underscores.
4. Pipe into a script, which aligns columns
Code: Select all
% cat /tmp/text.txt | sed -e 's/ /_/g' | colalign
Frame BMC 2008 Pro_Machine_SLC01 55 White/Blk 1070
R/D Campagnolo 2006 Record_Med_Cage_Rear_Derailleur Med_Cage N/A 193
F/D Campagnolo 2008 RECORD_Front_Derailleur Triple N/A 75
Shifter/Lever Campagnolo 2008 ERGOPOWER_Record N/A N/A 324
Cassette Campagnolo 2008 Record_Ultra-Drive_10-Speed 29-13 N/A 232
Chain Campagnolo 2008 Record_Ultra_Narrow_Chain 10_speed N/A 250
Tires Continental 2009 Grand_Prix_4000_S_Clincher 700_x_25 Blk 458
Front_Wheel Campagnolo 2006 Eurus_Clincher Blk 661
Rear_Wheel Campagnolo 2006 Eurus_Clincher Blk 868
Seatpost Easton 2006 EC90_Seatpost 31.8 Blk 180
Tube Continental 2009 Unitube_Race_28_Light Blk 160
Handlebar ITM 2007 K-Sword 44_cm Blk 260
Stem ITM 2008 Volo_carbon-tech 31.8/120 Blk 116
Fork Easton 2008 Easton_EC90_SLX N/A White/Blk 325
Brake_Calipers Campagnolo 2006 Record N/A Blk 315
Headset FSA 2006 Integrated 1-1/8" Blk 80
Saddle Fizik 2006 Aliante_Carbon_TwinFlex_Braided_Carbon N/A Blk 215
Grips/Tape Fizik 2009 Microtex_Handlebar_Tape x2 Red 63
Crank Campagnolo 2007 RECORD™_ULTRA-TORQUE™_CT 50-34 Blk 646
Pedals Look 2006 Keo_Carbon_Titanium N/A Blk 270
Derailleur_Cable Campagnolo 2008 Record_Complete_10-Speed_Cable_Kit N/A Blk 240
Bottom_Bracket Campagnolo 2007 Ultra-Torque™_bottom_bracket N/A Silver 54
QR_Skewers Tune 2007 Titanium_QR_Skewers 100/130 Red 55
Water_bottle_cage Elite 2006 Custom_Macia x2 Blk 66
Very fast.
The "colalign" script isn't so pretty, as I did it before I knew Perl, and so it's in awk. It's confused by the multi-byte characters (Unicode), so a few columns aren't right. But it would be fast to rewrite in Perl -- just a few lines.
Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓ Broad Selection ✓ Worldwide Delivery ✓
www.starbike.com
- mitre_tester
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- Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:21 pm
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Were you expecting the model year of any of the parts to be BC?