BB DataTables Code now enabled

[Bonsai Nut]

For those of you interested, BB DataTables Code has now been enabled on the site.

 

[0soyoung]

Thanks, but there is still trouble.

Take a look at http://bonsainut.com/index.php?threads/douglas-fir-repotting-experiment.10611/ for example.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

[table=head]Month Tree Soil Type Roots Rotted
January Pine Turface All
February Elm Turface All
March Maple Turface All
April Spruce Turface All
May Juniper Turface All
June Oak Turface All
July Birch Turface All
August Beech Turface All
September Redwood Turface All
October Azalea Turface All
November Dogwood Turface All
December Magnolia Turface All[/table]

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Data separators aren't being picked up... give me a few minutes

 

[Bonsai Nut]

[table=head]Month Tree Soil Type Roots Rotted
January Pine Turface All
February Elm Turface All
March Maple Turface All
April Spruce Turface All
May Juniper Turface All
June Oak Turface All
July Birch Turface All
August Beech Turface All
September Redwood Turface All
October Azalea Turface All
November Dogwood Turface All
December Magnolia Turface All
[/table]

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Well... I'm struggling with this. Do you have your original data tables in Excel? We could just edit the posts and enter them via this tool.

My concern is that there is no out-of-the-box solution to immediately convert the tables in your posts.

 

[0soyoung]

Do you have your original data tables in Excel?

I did but I can regenerate them if not. Are you going to enable me to edit my posts that have tables or do I need to send you Excel files identified by which post they belong to?

BTW, will I/users be able to enter new tables? I don't see any table icon in the editor and simple pasting of Excel/Word tables doesn't work.

 

[0soyoung]

there is no out-of-the-box solution to immediately convert the tables in your posts.

That is odd. BNut 1.x generated standard BBCode table tags - AFIK, it is still standard/basic BBCode. My quick take is that CTA BB Tables does what is needed, as an example.

I know that I don't need to explain that I am just trying to be helpful, but I am just trying to be helpful

The plug in you've installed isn't using standard BBCode for tables. As best as I can decipher, it uses a tab for a cell/column and a return for a row. I suppose it might be intuitive for many, but is why it won't render existing/standard BB table code.

[table]
[tr]and now I tab	[th] column1 (and tab again)	[/th]
and this follows a return[th]column2[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]data11[/td][td] data12le][/td][/tr][tr][td]data21[/td][td]data22[/td][/tr][/table]

becomes

column1 (and tab again)	column2
data11	data12le]
data21	data22

and now I tab
and this follows a return

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I know. The problem I am having is how many plug-ins do I want to enable for people to be able to use 20 year-old BB code? On rare occasion I have wanted to insert a table, but to be honest, there are so many workarounds that I have never really felt the lack. I would rather take your study, record it as a PowerPoint video, make it into a PDF, or do something else with it than have to depend on BB code. I can't even be 100% certain how it will look on tablets and phones because the entire site was built around responsive design. Last thing I would want is a BB code table breaking the auto-formatting.

As far as CTA BB Tables goes, I looked at it and did you see you have to enter your entire table in a single line of code? No line breaks at all? At least the plug-in I am using allows you to cut and paste directly from Excel, and has built in sort and filtering.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Oh and make sure, when you are entering a table, that you use the little "BB code editor" that you can access with the icon on the far right of the text box.

[table=head]insert Your Cool Table
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12[/table]

 

[Bonsai Nut]

The old site was based on vBulletin 3.x which was released in March, 2004. I don't doubt it had support for BB code at the time because there were still a lot of bulletin boards in existence. I upgraded the site to vBulletin 4.x in 2010, but it still was based on a lot of that legacy code.

Here's a video for the plug-in

 

[0soyoung]

Okay. But first a try at a table pasted from Excel. First I enter the BB table tags

[table=head][/table]

(if I don't add '=head' to the first tag, the plugin supplied generic column 1, column 2, etc.), and then I paste my table copied from Excel in between, all the while in the BB code editor mode.

[table=head]|column A column B column C
row 1 data 1 data 2 data 3
row 2 data 4 data 5 data 6
row 3 data 7 data 8 data 9
[/table]
Which seems to work adequately, after inserting a pipe so that the first cell is blank like my Excel table.


So what do I need to do to fix the problem in my old posts?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I can't tell, but is it too late for you to edit them? If so, just email me your tables and I will edit them and you can proof them to make sure I didn't mess up

 

[0soyoung]

is it too late for you to edit them?

Oh yes. I've got tables littered through 6 threads that started back in early 2011.

I'll try to make an Excel file for each thread, with the tables on tabs marked with the post# (or somesuch). Watch your conversation space for the first one in the next day or two.