Forum Moderators: open
They currently get the data out in an Excel format and with Office XP it want to send all the formating informaiton through css and xml when you copy the cells from Excel and Paste into FP. I want it to spit out a standard HTML table with no formating. I want formating to be done with a class or ID for the table.
Can this be turned off? I don't use FP and not sure if it can be cleaned out in FP or exported to a different file format first.
They currently have to open the Excel file in Office 2000 and then copy and paste, but they are working towards upgrading the older office apps. But it still puts a font tage in the output.
Any suggestions?
Else you could save the table as a CSV...most HTML editors have an option to import tabular data from this format.
I used to do this all the time and even set up keyboard shortcuts in Dreamweaver to handle it. But I'd say I've saved a zillion hours labor by going to a database backend -and it's even easier take the quirky ms office code out of the equation. I wish there was a spreadsheet that had all the features of excel EXCEPT the formatting stuff... like a tool for working with text files.
The client uses FP and is a Non-Profit and gets a discount for MS stuff apparently. I went a different route since there was not a smilple solution to get from Excel to FP(the client is non technical). So I created a DSN and connected through ODBC and pull the data out as if it were a database. The host I found out had ColdFusion capabilities and went that direction rather than .asp because I am donating much of my time and more familiar with CF.
It is a low-volume site so hopefully the data won't crash.
The end result was I dragged the MSCE network admin kicking and screaming through installing mysql and php on IIS - because, you know, like most webmasters I'm really lazy. PHP mysql works pretty well - not as good as on Apache, but...
The downside is that no one else can really go into the guts of it and do anything, but that's always the case. I write a lot of scripts for managing things through a browser. FTP is too advanced a concept for these folks... most of them double click on hyperlinks & store all their files in their e-mail client.
I have a client that doesn't know the difference between a word doc and graphic file.
When I started with them I asked for some logos they sent me a Word doc with the logo in it. It was a low quality image. I eventually had to re-create the logo.
When possible, try to stay within the knowledge pool of the in-house talent. Yeah, you forced the sysadm to install mySQL/PHP. But what happens if he or you leave the project? Who is going to maintain it then? Don't be that guy...
Yes that is what I did with CF. But I am running into the problem that the server connects to the file for a period of time(unknown right now) after the page is viewed.
So I see to other options if I can't get that time reduced to be able to replace the file directly.
1. Create a Database and new DSN and have a script update the database from the uploaded Excel file with the DSN.
2. Write a script to generate static HTML with the data from the Excel file with the DSN.
Both of these solutions would only require the DSN of the Excel file on the ocasions an update is to be perforemed, which is usually weekly. Rather than a connection each time the page is viewed.
