Need more display flexibility for table header and important columns

  • Resolved ABTUK webmaster

    (@abtuk-webmaster)


    9 years, 10 months ago

    If anyone else has a similar problem/requirement or can offer alternative suggestions, please contribute to this post.

    My CF7 form DB has many more fields than can be displayed without a horizontal slider, and many more rows than can be displayed without a vertical slider. Assume I have 100 rows, each with 30 fields (many of which simply have Yes|No answers), and the maximum that can be displayed simultaneously is 10 rows by 10 columns.

    To study the contents of columns 21-25 in all rows the following steps are needed:
    1. scroll to the bottom of the table
    2. move the horizontal slider so that rows 21-25 are displayed. But which are the correct rows? There are no clues here.
    3. scroll back to the top to check the table header. Am I positioned correctly, horizontally? If not, loop to step 1.

    4. eventually I come out of this loop, and can use the vertical slider to scroll through the rows. But around row 50 I can’t remember which columns relate to which field names, and would like to be reminded of their field names.
    5. scroll to the top to view the table header.
    6. return to the row I was on. But which row is it? There are no clues here. Aaargh !

    Here are my suggestions to ease this CF7 DB table navigation nightmare. There may well be other solutions:
    For horizontal control (steps 1-3 above)

    • either: repeat the table header at bottom (just above or below the horizontal slider). This would eliminate step 3.
    • or (better): repeat the horizontal slider at top (just above or below the table header). This would eliminate steps 1 & 3.
    • or (best of all): float the table header and slider so that they are always displayed. This would eliminate steps 1, 3, 5, 6.

    For vertical control (steps 4-6 above)

    • either: allow some fields to be defined as hidden (i.e. do not display their columns). This could reduce or eliminate the need to use the horizontal slider.
    • or: the reverse of this (i.e. offer a “display only these fields” option). Same benefit as above.
    • or (best of all): allow a small number of columns to be defined as “sticky” (or perhaps “float”) so that their contents are always displayed, regardless of horizontal slider position.

    For me, “for this display only” would be sufficient scope for any of the above.

    I would be really grateful if CF7DB could offer improved horizontal control, and if possible vertical control too. It would make my web admin’s life decidedly less stressful ??

    Pete (ABTUK webmaster)

    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/contact-form-7-to-database-extension/

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Plugin Author Michael Simpson

    (@msimpson)

    I assume your are talking about the view in the admin page and not a view via a short code.

    Regarding vertical view, there are a couple options. (1) In the CFDB Options page, refer to option Maximum number of rows to retrieve from the DB for the Admin display. Set that so you don’t have to scroll and can see both the column headers and the bottom horizontal scrollbar. Anything beyond that number will paginate (page numbers will show at the top). But that requires the web page to reload for each page. (2) You might instead just load all the entries and use the “Show # entries” control to limit the height/number of rows viewed on the table and use the arrow buttons on the bottom-right table border to paginate through the data.

    Regarding horizontal scroll, but you can limit the vertical size you will always see the headers.

    Thread Starter ABTUK webmaster

    (@abtuk-webmaster)

    Yes I was talking about the view in the admin page.

    Your option 1 supports searches only through the subset of the table that is currently available at the browser. Since I very much like the search facility and my database currently has under 100 rows, I don’t want to set “Maximum number of rows to retrieve from the DB for the Admin display” (but I accept it may be needed in future if the database size increases significantly).

    Your option 2 (the “Show # entries” control) gives me pretty well everything I need. And within CF7DB Options, I can set its default value at #Rows (of maximum above) visible in the Admin datatable
    Why didn’t I explore those before now !!

    Thank you for your prompt and precise reply. Marking topic as resolved.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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