Today I’d like to introduce EasyTable for Joomla, which can be found on the (temporary) See People Software website. If you don’t want to read my waffle, then click on the EasyTable link and download the component. Please bear in mind this is not the official release, it should only be used for testing at this point in time. Sometime after JoomlaDay Sydney I’ll endeavour to release the 1.0 production ready version for public consumption.
EasyTable is our first publicly available component for the Joomla CMS and it’s performs a simple but apparently needed function. EasyTable allows you to export data to a CSV file and present it as a searchable, paginated table on your Joomla website.
Given the vintage of this component it only supports Joomla 1.5.14 and later, so sorry no 1.0/Mambo support (and no plans to add it). I don’t have the time/resources to test it out on earlier version of J1.5, but feel free to try it out and report your results in the forums.
At this point I can only tell you that if enough people like and support EasyTable we’ll bring it to Joomla 1.6 - so here’s hoping.
Features
EasyTable Manager
A simple and familiar layout for the EasyTable manager leverages your existing familiarity with Joomla administration allowing you to create, delete, publish (and unpublish) and of course edit tables. The EasyTable manager also leverages Joomla’s check-in/check-out framework to ensure that only one user can edit an EasyTable table at a time.
Multiple Tables
EasyTable despite it’s singular name supports multiple tables and even allows you to link a sub-table to a master table through the values of a key field.
Capacity
The number of tables and the amount of data in each table is only limited by your server limits as EasyTable stores each table in it’s own database table.
Performance
Each CSV file you upload creates a new native table in the database your Joomla website uses. As such, searching and record retrieval is only limited by the capacity of your database server. The small amount of meta data and any options you specify for column data do not impact on your website thanks to the paginated presentation of records - no matter how many are in your tables.
Requirements
Joomla Version
1.5.14 ( although it may work on previous versions of Joomla 1.5 { 1.5.10 does have a known issue with packages that we haven't addressed at this time } )
Database
MySQL 5.0+ ( FC1 has run on the last version of MySQL 4.1 so it should work )
PHP Version
5.0+ ( it's nearly 2010 people - you'll just have to live with it ).
Table Features
I had hoped to cover off the range of table features available in EasyTable’s editing screen but I’ve run out of time, so instead I’ll leave you with this annotated screen shot and write up the rest in another post when I get back from Joomla Day.
I've been described as a lost technocrat or a wondering luddite, personally I just like everything that takes us forward.