Is there a way to use Table Manager to display outide tables?

Yeah you can do that, here's how I just knocked it up in a test table:

Created table with 4 columns - Book (text), Rarity (numeric or perhaps barchart?), Price (numeric) and Read (text)

I only did one entry to test and entered it like this:

Book - 1002 Spells for You
Rarity - 86
Price - 20000
Read -

I marked the input filter as 'full html' and yep it renders a checkbox. If on the page you display the table on you have a submit button then you can 'pick up' the checkboxes in the php code.

Hope this helps!

Pobster

Hmmm forgot this strips html code...

Read - <input type='checkbox' name='1'>

Obviously this does mean you'd have to re-input all the code... Else you could just display the source and use notepad to tidy it up into csv and then use the csv import function?

Pobster

Erm, nope ;o) Afraid by reinput the code I actually meant, reinput the table data... There's no way I can incorporate every single way a table can be created into how tablemanager displays it's tables... You'd need to write a custom function to do that, else you'd need to import the table db into tablemangers db. Is it imperitive to keep the tables in the db they are currently in? Does something else need them to be there?

...If not... Meh, I could whip you up a tablemanager csv file pretty easy enough I guess? Not tonight though as I've got stuff to do before I go to bed, but I could certainly do it tomorrow afternoon?

Pobster

Hmmmm... I'm of the opinion "if it's not broke, don't fix it..." but then I guess it would be nice to allow tablemanager to take control of the static table (the one that never changes unless you add a book) - that would mean you'd have to alter the code though to cope with how tablemanger stores information in its database for the other custom functions you have. It would be nice to do... But so not worth the trouble... It'd only be specific for your use, I couldn't implement it in the module for general public usage and it'd *completely* alter your code as you'd have to deal with serialized arrays and whatnot :o(

It's a shame, but I can't see that it's worth your while doing it tbh... If you want to give it a go, then I'm more than happy to recreate your table as a tablemanager db and email it to you? Let me know (although I'm going to bed now - early start tomorrow)

Pobster

Hmmmm yeah didn't think of that... Of course, 1500 entries is rather a lot... Still it should have worked though? Did you format the csv correctly? Each entry separated by a comma and each row separated by a newline?

Anyways, the code for displaying the table and then updating the 'linked' db should be pretty simple, something like...:

  If ($_POST['op'] == 'Submit') {
    print $_POST['op']; // obviously this isn't what you want to do, but this is just to show where to stick the db update code!
  return;
  }

  $output = tablemanager_display(1);
  $form['op'] = array(
    '#type' => 'submit',
    '#value' => t('Submit'),
  );
  $output .= drupal_get_form('table_books', $form);
  print $output;

In the checkbox field you should enter the table entry id so that it matches that entry against your other table. eg. tid = 105 so, <input type='checkbox' name='105'>

I was wondering whether you'd changed your mind about doing this as I noticed that I can no longer go to the page where the table is...?

Pobster

Okay I've got a plan... How about I create a new content type of 'invisible'? I can incorporate this into the main module as it might be useful to other people as well. You can then call the table by;

print tablemanager_display(1, NULL, TRUE, array('column' => 5, 'start' => 'TRUE'));

And column 5 (the one with the TRUEs and FALSEs in it) wouldn't be displayed to a non-admin user? Maybe I could grey it out or something? This would mean that you could restrict whats display to just the TRUE columns and you wouldn't need a separate table to store the read books any more as you'd be able to keep them within tablemanager itself? Unless your other table did something else as well? If this is helpful, let me know and I'll write it...?

Pobster

Aha! Yes you're quite right, whilst I read what you wanted to do I didn't really pay all that much attention to the code itself (it's hard following someone elses code!) Yeah I see what you want to do now and it's not something which can be done in a 'general' way for any users of tablemanager - it will need to be a custom function...

It's however no big deal ;o) A simple matter of copying the main display function (and renaming it, else it'll conflict with the main display function itself!) Then altering its db call to match what you wish to display (pretty simple) - you'd then be able to add the submit/ read button into the function and instead of returning the table as code, change it to call a form using drupal_get_form so you can then use drupals form_submit function to pick up which checkboxes have been checked. It's a far neater way of doing it.

Pobster

By 'main display' function I was referring to the tablemanager_display function... Just copy and paste the whole lot and call the new one... Say... tablemanager_display_custom... Or something, then I guess what I'd do is to create a new table data type (checkbox) and use the row id as the checkbox reference. I'd definitely put a submit button in the function and not in the page you call the table from as then you can use (if you use the example I gave above) tablemanager_display_custom_submit... If you simply stick a print_f ($form); if this function it'll give you a huge hint about what you have to work with.

Don't be put off by Drupals api instructions, they're functional rather than helpful and I really don't know anything about php programming myself, but I muddle through it by just trial and error.

Hope this helps

Pobster