Table Plugin

Introduction

The TablePlugin gives extra control of table display:

• Allows sorting
• Changing table properties like border width, cell spacing and cell padding
• Changing background color and text color for header cells
• Changing background color and text color for data cells - colors can alternate
• Table attributes can be set and overridden in this order:
  • Default TABLEATTRIBUTES Plugin setting in this topic.
  • A TABLEATTRIBUTES preferences setting on site-level (TWikiPreferences) or web-level (any WebPreferences), e.g.
    • Set TABLEATTRIBUTES = tableborder="0" cellpadding="1" ...
  • Before a table using %TABLE{...}%
• Row spans

Sorting

Click on column heading text to sort by a column. Initial column will be sorted in descending order, click again to get ascending order. The type of data in the cell is determined automatically:

• date if format is:
  • dd MMM YYYY - hh:mm (MMM is Jan, Feb, etc.)
  • dd-MMM-YY or dd-MMM-YYYY (can be / or space in place of -) (MMM is Jan, Feb, etc)
• number is digits, with optional decimal point
• otherwise treated as text

Row spans

Table cells with a single caret indicate follow-up rows of multi-row spans. For example,

| One One | One Two | One Three |
| ^ | Two Two | Two Three |
| Three One | ^ | Three Three |

TablePlugin Global Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences variables. To reference a plugin setting write %<plugin>_<setting>%, for example, %INTERWIKIPLUGIN_SHORTDESCRIPTION%

• One line description, shown in the TextFormattingRules topic:
  • Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Control attributes of tables and sorting of table columns

• Set DEBUG to 1 to get debug messages in data/debug.txt. Default: 0
  • Set DEBUG = 0

• Make all tables in a topic sortable. If this is set to all, all tables that have a header row (including those that do not have %TABLE before them) will be made sortable. If set to none, only tables with %TABLE will be sortable. Topic rendering is faster if this is set to none.
  • #Set SORT = none
  • Set SORT = all

• Default table attributes:
  • Set TABLEATTRIBUTES = tableborder="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" valign="top" headercolor="#ffffff" headerbg="#687684" headerbgsorted="#334455" databg="#ffffff,#edf4f9" databgsorted="#f1f7fc,#ddebf6" tablerules="rows"

Table Attributes

Attributes are defined as a TABLEATTRIBUTES Plugin setting in this topic, a TABLEATTRIBUTES preferences setting, or on line before the table using %TABLE{...}%:

• Supported attributes:

  Argument	Comment	Default value	Example
  sort	Set table sorting by clicking headers "on" or "off".	unspecified	sort="on"
  initsort	Column to sort initially ("1" to number of columns).	unspecified	initsort="2"
  initdirection	Initial sorting direction for initsort, set to "up" (descending) or "down" (ascending).	unspecified	initdirection="up"
  disableallsort	Disable all sorting, both initsort and header sort. This is mainly used by plugins such as the EditTablePlugin to disable sorting in a table while editing the table.	unspecified	disableallsort="on"
  headerbg	Header cell background color.	"#6b7f93"	headerbg="#999999"
  headerbgsorted	Header cell background color of a sorted column.	the value of headerbg	headerbgsorted="#32596c"
  headercolor	Header cell text color.	"#ffffff"	headercolor="#0000cc"
  databg	Data cell background color, a comma separated list. Specify "none" for no color, that is to use the color/background of the page the table is on.	"#edf4f9,#ffffff"	databg="#f2f2f2,#ffffff"
  databgsorted	Data cell background color of a sorted column; see databg.	the values of databg	databgsorted="#d4e8e4,#e5f5ea"
  datacolor	Data cell text color, a comma separated list.	unspecified	datacolor="#0000CC, #000000"
  tableborder	Table border width (pixels).	"1"	tableborder="2"
  tableframe	Table frame, set to "void" (no sides), "above" (the top side only), "below" (the bottom side only), "hsides" (the top and bottom sides only), "lhs" (the left-hand side only), "rhs" (the right-hand side only), "vsides" (the right and left sides only), "box" (all four sides), "border" (all four sides).	unspecified	tableframe="hsides"
  tablerules	Table rules, set to "none" (no rules), "groups" (rules will appear between row groups and column groups only), "rows" (rules will appear between rows only), "cols" (rules will appear between columns only), "all" (rules will appear between all rows and columns).	unspecified	tablerules="rows"
  cellpadding	Cell padding (pixels).	"0"	cellpadding="0"
  cellspacing	Cell spacing (pixels).	"0"	cellspacing="3"
  cellborder	Cell border width (pixels).	unspecified	cellborder="0"
  valign	Vertical alignment of cells and headers, set to "top", "middle", "bottom" or "baseline".	unspecified	valign="top"
  headervalign	Vertical alignment of header cells; overrides valign.	unspecified	headervalign="top"
  datavalign	Vertical alignment of data cells; overrides valign.	unspecified	datavalign="top"
  headeralign	Header cell alignment, one value for all columns, or a comma separated list for different alignment of individual columns. Set to "left", "center", "right" or "justify". Overrides individual cell settings.	unspecified	headeralign="left,right"
  dataalign	Data cell alignment, one value for all columns, or a comma separated list for different alignment of individual columns. Set to "left", "center", "right" or "justify". Overrides individual cell settings.	unspecified	dataalign="center"
  tablewidth	Table width: Percentage of window width, or absolute pixel value.	unspecified	tablewidth="100%"
  columnwidths	Column widths: Comma delimited list of column widths, percentage or absolute pixel value.	unspecified	columnwidths="80%,20%"
  headerrows	Number of header rows to exclude from sort. (will be rendered in a HTML thead section)	(determined automatically)	headerrows="2"
  footerrows	Number of footer rows to exclude from sort. (will be rendered in a HTML tfoot section)	"0"	footerrows="1"
  id	Unique table identifier string, used for targeting a table with CSS.	tableN (where N is the table order number on the page)	id="userTable"
  summary	Table summary used by screenreaders: A summary of what the table presents. It should provide an orientation for someone who listens to the table.	unspecified	summary="List of subscribed users"
  caption	Table caption: A title that will be displayed just above the table.	unspecified	caption="Users"

The %TABLE{...}% settings override TABLEATTRIBUTES preferences settings, which override the TABLEATTRIBUTES Plugin settings.

The setting disableallsort is normally not used as a TABLE or TABLEATTRIBUTES setting. Plugins such as EditTablePlugin dynamically sets disableallsort to disable sorting while editing a table. For this to work it is important that EditTablePlugin runs before TablePlugin, which is the default. The setting sort can be overwritten by a URL parameter or hidden formfield of the same name. Plugins such as EditTablePlugin can use this to disable table header sorting while in edit mode.

Examples

Use of %TABLE{...}%

Line before table: %TABLE{ sort="on" tableborder="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="3" cellborder="0" headerbg="#D5CCB1" headercolor="#666666" databg="#FAF0D4, #F3DFA8" headerrows="2" footerrows="1" }%

Table with two Header Rows and Footer Row
Num	Status	Action	Who	When	Progress
Num	Status	Action	Who	When	Progress
12	C	Spec error handling	Jack	1-Dec-02
5		Abc	John
3		Get feedback	Anne	1-Feb-02
2	X	Release	John	1-Apr-02
1	C	Chose new colours	John	1-Dec-02

Table with 4 digit year dates and no use of %TABLE{...}%

TablePlugin and CSS

Information for programmers.

TablePlugin implements the following precedence:

• the TABLEATTRIBUTE settings only write html styling, no CSS
• the TABLEATTRIBUTE settings can be overridden by a skin's CSS
• the TABLE tag attributes are converted to CSS styling, written in the head; these override any skin's CSS

CSS written by TablePlugin

Plugin Installation Instructions

This plugin is pre-installed with your TWiki release. You should not have to install it other than to do an upgrade.

• Download the ZIP file from the Plugin web (see below)
• Unzip TablePlugin.zip in your twiki installation directory. Content:

  File:	Description:
  data/TWiki/TablePlugin.txt	Plugin topic
  lib/TWiki/Plugins/TablePlugin.pm	Plugin Perl module
  lib/TWiki/Plugins/TablePlugin/Core.pm	Plugin Perl module

• (Dakar) Visit configure in your TWiki installation, and enable the plugin in the {Plugins} section.
• Test if the plugin is correctly installed:
  • Check above example if the table renders as expected
  • Try click on heading to sort. Other tables should also be sortable

Plugin Info

Plugin Author:	TWiki:Main/JohnTalintyre, TWiki:Main/PeterThoeny
Copyright:	© 2001-2003, TWiki:Main/JohnTalintyre, © 2001-2010, Peter[at]Thoeny.org, Twiki, Inc., © 2005-2010, TWiki:TWiki/TWikiContributor
License:	GPL (GNU General Public License)
Plugin Version:	1.2 (2010-05-16)
Change History:
2010-05-16:	1.2 TWikibug:Item6433 - doc improvements
2010-03-31:	1.12 TWikibug:Item6414 - fixed incorrect sorting of ISO dates. -- Peter Thoeny
2010-03-21:	1.11 TWikibug:Item6406 - fixed incorrect sorting for negative numbers. -- TWiki:Main/BryanKitts
2010-03-08:	1.1 TWikibug:Item6405 - fixed incorrect sorting for numbers with decimal places. -- Peter Thoeny
30 Sep 2008:	1.035 Fix sorting of attachment date column.
03 Aug 2008:	1.034 TWiki 4.2.1 release version
20 Mar 2008:	1.033 TWikibug:Item5387: allow rowspanned columns to contain HTML tags; otherwise it is impossible to add an invisible anchor to a rowspanned cell
16 Dec 2007:	1.030: Kenneth Lavrsen: Fixed the problem of tables being sorted by by TablePlugin while the table is being edited by plugins such as EditTablePlugin. This required adding a new attribute disableallsort so plugins such as EditTablePlugin can temporarily disable all sorting for a table. Additionally the CGI variable (URL parameter or hidden formfield) sort can be set to "off" which disables all header sorting in the topic. This is used by plugins such as EditTablePlugin to disable the sorting by clicking header fields during editing of tables. Ref: TWikibug:Item5135 and TWikibug:Item2690.
03 Dec 2007:	Arthur Clemens: Fixed rendering and order of html elements thead, tfoot and tbody; corrected id parameter.
24 Nov 2007:	Arthur Clemens: Fixed sorting of columns with only icons; also removed TWiki formatting before sorting.
06 Oct 2007:	15180: PTh: Added VarTABLE to have it listed in TWikiVariables
27 Jun 2007:	1.024 - 1.027 Various small bug fixes.
24 Jun 2007:	1.023: Arthur Clemens: Inline styles are now written to the head; updated default sort icons (from TWikiDocGraphics).
23 Jun 2007:	1.022: Arthur Clemens: Fixed styling of param tablerules on Internet Explorer.
23 May 2007:	1.021: Michael Daum: Fixed css attribute priority to cooperate nicely with skin themes.
27 Dec 2006:	1.020: Kenneth Lavrsen: Fixed initsort so all tables can be initsorted and not only the first. When you sort a table by clicking on the header of a column the table gets sorted accordingly. When you click the header of another table the previously sorted table goes back being sorted as specified by initsort.
13 Dec 2006:	1.019: Arthur Clemens: Prevent sorting of columns that do no exist.
02 Dec 2006:	1.018: Arthur Clemens: Data rows now start with first datacolor and databgcolor.
26 Nov 2006:	1.017: Arthur Clemens: Better support for tablerules.
24 Nov 2006:	1.016: Arthur Clemens: Added new attribute cellborder.
25 Oct 2006:	1.015: Arthur Clemens: Added support for background colors of sorted column. Columns can be unsorted - sorting order is now: sort ascending, sort descending, unsort. Added attributes headervalign and datavalign.
16 Aug 2006:	Michael Daum: Added CSS support for even/odd table rows
13 Dec 2005:	Arthur Clemens: Added support for id, summary and caption
05 Mar 2005:	1.014: Crawford Currie eliminated deprecated handlers for Dakar
01 Aug 2004:	Arthur Clemens: Added CSS support for first column and ascending/descending table headers
21 Mar 2004:	PTh: Internal change: Fixed reference to unofficial variable
01 Jan 2004:	PTh: Alternating data row colors restart again after each header row
01 Dec 2003:	PTh: Fixed error when footerrows was specified on an empty table, contributed by TWiki:Main/PaulineCheung
24 May 2003:	PTh: New |^| rule for multi row span (TWiki:Main/WalterMundt); added tableframe and tablerules (TWiki:Main/JohannesMartin); ignore columnwidths for multi column span; validate headerrows and footerrows (TWiki:Main/DarrylGreen); fixed link color problem and up/down icon color problem for dark header background
17 Dec 2002:	PTh: Removed individual table Plugin settings; added TABLEATTRIBUTES Plugins setting and TABLEATTRIBUTES preferences setting
15 Dec 2002:	PTh: Added headerrows and footerrows params (TWiki:Main/DarrylGreen, TWiki:Main/WoutMertens); added tablewidth and columnwidths params (TWiki:Main/ThorstenSommermann)
09 Dec 2002:	PTh: Added headercolor and datacolor parameters
05 Jun 2002:	PTh: Added "none" value to databg parameter (suggested by TWiki:Main/TaitCyrus); fixed sorting by stripping HTML tags, removing links and making sort ignore case (suggested by TWiki:Main/ShawnBradford)
13 Mar 2002:	PTh: Added TWiki:Main/ShawnBradford 's initsort and initdirection
12 Mar 2002:	PTh: Added valign, headeralign and dataalign; fixed bug of swapped cellpadding/cellspacing; fixed warning of uninitialized value
05 Jan 2002:	PTh: Fixed sorting bug of cells with leading white space
06 Dec 2001:	PTh: Fixed date sorting bug 03 Dec 2001 PTh: Fixed sort="off" bug and more
29 Nov 2001:	PTh: Fixed Perl warnings
16 Nov 2001:	PTh: Added table border, cell spacing, cell padding, gif files
07 Oct 2001:	JT: Initial version
CPAN Dependencies:	none
Other Dependencies:	none
Perl Version:	5.0
Plugin Home:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/TablePlugin
Feedback:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/TablePluginDev
Appraisal:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/TablePluginAppraisal

Related Topics: VarTABLE, TWikiPreferences, TWikiPlugins, StandardColors