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SimplifiedAdvancedTableDirectives

This recipe does not work with PHP 5.5.0 or newer because the preg_replace e modifier is no longer supported. To fix this change the Markup function call:

    Markup_e('SATD',
        '<AdvancedTableDirectives',
        # "(?<!\\[)\\["  is a Negative Lookbehind  - so it does not interfere with links which use "[[" 
        # Negative Lookbehind - "(?<!a)b" matches b that is not preceded by a, a not part of the match
        '/(?<!\\[)\\[(table(?:end)?|caption[rlc]?|row#|row(?:end)?|![rlc]?|#[rlc]?|[rci]#[rlc]?|i[cr]#[rlc]?|r|l|c| |\\]|[^\\]]*)(\\s.*?)?\\]/i',
        "SimplifiedAdvancedTableDirectives(\$m[1], PQA(PSS(\$m[2])))"
        ) ;

Questions answered by this recipe

• Is there an easier way to use table directives?
• Ordinary tables allow for center, left, and right justified text, is there an easy way to do this with page directives?

This section is optional; use it to indicate the types of questions (if any) this recipe is intended to answer.

Description

This recipe will make table directives much much easier to use - they will be easier to understand and typing them in will be easier. Another recipe that will enhance SimplifiedAdvancedTableDirectives SourceCodeHorizontalLines.

Table Directives code that looks like this:

(:table border=1:)
(:head align=center:)animal
(:head align=center:)food
(:cellnr align=center:)cat
(:cell align=center:)catfood
(:cellnr:)dog
(:cell:)dogfood
(:cellnr align=right:)bird
(:cell align=right:)birdfood
(:tableend:)

can look like this (this example uses recipe SourceCodeHorizontalLines):

------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
[table border=1]
---------------------
[row]
[!c]animal
[!c]food
---------------------
[row]
[c]cat
[c]catfood
------------
[row]
[]dog
[]dogfood
------------
[row]
[r]bird
[r]birdfood
---------------------
[tableend]
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------

Installation

Copy AdvancedTableDirectives.phpΔ and SimplifiedAdvancedTableDirectives.phpΔ to your cookbook directory. (AdvancedTableDirectives is required to use this recipe).

In your config.php enter:

or in your farmconfig.php enter:

Notes

Any attributes will work within the SimplifiedAdvancedTableDirectives. Automatic zebra formatting (see FormattingTables) as well as any other table functions will work.

[table]    = (:table:)
[tableend] = (:tableend:)

[caption]  = (:caption:)
[captionc] = (:caption style="text-align:center:)
[captionr] = (:caption style="text-align:right:)
[captionl] = (:caption style="text-align:left:)

[!]        = (:head:)
[!c]       = (:head align=center:)
[!r]       = (:head align=right:)
[!l]       = (:head align=left:)

[row]      = (:row:)

[]            = (:cell:)
[ colspan=2]  = (:cell colspan=2:) <- notice space before attributes
[c]           = (:cell align=center:)
[r]           = (:cell align=right:)
[l]           = (:cell align=left:)

[r#]       = (:cellr#:)
[r#c]      = (:cellr# align=center:)
[r#r]      = (:cellr# align=right:)
[r#l]      = (:cellr# align=left:)

[c#]       = (:cellc#:)
[c#c]      = (:cellc# align=center:)
[c#r]      = (:cellc# align=right:)
[c#l]      = (:cellc# align=left:)
[#] [#r] [#l] [#c] (these also show a cell with column number)

[i#]      = (:celli#:)
[i#c]     = (:celli# align=center:)
[i#r]     = (:celli# align=right:)
[i#l]     = (:celli# align=left:)

[ic#]     = (:cellic#:)
[ic#c]    = (:cellic# align=center:)
[ic#r]    = (:cellic# align=right:)
[ic#l]    = (:cellic# align=left:)

[ir#]     = (:cellir#:)
[ir#c]    = (:cellir# align=center:)
[ir#r]    = (:cellir# align=right:)
[ir#l]    = (:cellir# align=left:)

Automatic zebra formatting (mostly used for coloring) can be applied as well. In this example the table header row will have a lightblue background and the other table rows will have alternating lightgreen and lightyellow background colors.

$TableRowIndexMax = 2;
$TableRowAttrFmt  = "class='row\$TableRowIndex'" ;
$TableCellAttrFmt = "class='col\$TableCellCount'";

table th      { background-color:#99ccff; }
table tr.row1 { background-color:#ffff99 ; }
table tr.row2 { background-color:#ccffcc; }
table td      { line-height: 12px; }

For more information about formatting tables see FormattingTables.

Release Notes

• Version 2.4 - working but still testing
• Version 2.3 - test version
• Version 2.2 - cleaner code, executes only for specific actions
• Version 2.1 - small tweaks
• Version 2 - should be much faster

Comments

Horizontal alignment of numbered rows
Normal table cells are aligned to left by default. When I want to number rows (use [row#]) then all cells are aligned to center (<tr> gets 'align=center' attribute). It means that if I want to align normal cells to the left as usual, I have to specify it explicitly. I think that <tr> should not have 'align=center' attribute and better alignment of numbered cell is right (ciphers at the same level would be in the same "column"). In HTML, instead of <tr align='center' class='rowind2'><td align='center' >1</td> it should be <tr class='rowind2'><td align='right'>1</td> Roman 2006-08-21

Vertical alignment
Cells of pmwiki core advanced tables are vertically aligned to top (they have valign='top' attribute). When I installed your recipe, some tables (mostly layout tables) did not look good because your advanced tables don't have valign='top'. So I had to put td { vertical-align:top; } to my CSS. If you want to be compatible with pmwiki core tables you should also add valign='top' attribute. If not, you should mention it in documentation because it affects all users who want switch to your recipe. Roman 2006-08-21

Some attributes not interpreted
Some table attributes are not interpreted when put in the first position. E.g. instead of [colspan=2] I have to write [ colspan=2]. Roman 2006-08-21

Additional table tags at end of page
When I add a table with the SATD markup, I get additional <table end> </table> tags wrapped around the last item on the page (a WikiTrail implemented through a group footer). It is fine in FF, but in IE it breaks some of the CSS attributes. If I use the (:tableend:) instead of [tableend] it is fine--no extra tags.

Incompatible with MarkupExtensions
I'm trying to use the footnotes feature of MarkupExtensions (the [^#^] notation, explicitly), but it seems to be clashing with the [...] notations of S.A.T.D. I looked in SimpleAdvancedTableDirectives.php, and I noticed that inside [...], you seem to be checking for #, ^, or [. Why the last two, why not just check for #?

Clashes with use of single square-brackets elsewhere
We had/have a lot of content that uses square brackets, and SATD was replacing them with the default cell and quoted attrs stuff. There's no version number in the php source comments, so I don't know if I have the latest. Anyway, I tweaked the regex, and had a lot more success with the following...

Continued clashes with use of single square-brackets elsewhere
I'm sold on the ease of SATD tables, but found it substituting for every use of single square-brackets (e.g. busname[bitnumber]). The regex above was identical to what was already in the SATD.php code. So figuring I only needed SATD substitution at the beginning of lines, I just added a caret...

I'm open to a less ham-fisted solution if anyone has one, but so far this simple change is allowing us to use SATD without breaking non-SATD use of single square-brackets.

See Also

• AdvancedTableDirectives
• SourceCodeHorizontalLines

Contributors