how to best approach a massive list?

[richard]

I've been working on a massive project for several months. Basically it is
all primarily text with the display showing up in table format.

Basically, one table would show the 3 primary items. Then the second table
would show a calendar, with 3 rows of info. The calendar would be a simple
weekly report thing. Not daily.

Instead of showing each and every item on one huge page, I was thinking of
perhaps showing just one. The user would click on the list of "names" and
then a table would show up displaying the findings.

Question is, which format would be best suited for this? I am kind of
leaning towards PHP but know diddly squat about it. Any one have any clues
or perhaps a website that might show something similar?

Yeah I know you guys are gonna ask for a link to the material. Don't have
one yet. I know it's sketchy but it's the best I can do for now.

But here's one idea I had played with.

<table><tr><td>item1</td><td>item2</td><td>item3</td></tr></table>
<table>
<tr>January</td>
<tr><td>1</td><td>8</td><td>15</td><td>22</td><td>29</td></tr>
<tr><td>99</td><td>99</td><td>99</td><td>99</td><td>99</td></tr>
</table>

Multiply that 1000 times and you soon see just how huge of a page that
would be. I would not be showing all 12 months, at the most, maybe 6.

<flame>

 

[Bone Ur]

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:05:05
GMT richard scribed:

I've been working on a massive project for several months. Basically
it is all primarily text with the display showing up in table format.

Basically, one table would show the 3 primary items. Then the second
table would show a calendar, with 3 rows of info. The calendar would
be a simple weekly report thing. Not daily.

Instead of showing each and every item on one huge page, I was
thinking of perhaps showing just one. The user would click on the list
of "names" and then a table would show up displaying the findings.

Question is, which format would be best suited for this? I am kind of
leaning towards PHP but know diddly squat about it. Any one have any
clues or perhaps a website that might show something similar?

Yeah I know you guys are gonna ask for a link to the material. Don't
have one yet. I know it's sketchy but it's the best I can do for now.

But here's one idea I had played with.

<table><tr><td>item1</td><td>item2</td><td>item3</td></tr></table>
<table>
<tr>January</td>
<tr><td>1</td><td>8</td><td>15</td><td>22</td><td>29</td></tr>
<tr><td>99</td><td>99</td><td>99</td><td>99</td><td>99</td></tr>
</table>

Multiply that 1000 times and you soon see just how huge of a page that
would be. I would not be showing all 12 months, at the most, maybe 6.

<flame>

Er, 1000 times what you've shown would be 1000 months, not 6. Math
impaired?

 

[mbstevens]

I've been working on a massive project for several months. Basically it is
all primarily text with the display showing up in table format.

Basically, one table would show the 3 primary items. Then the second table
would show a calendar, with 3 rows of info. The calendar would be a simple
weekly report thing. Not daily.

Instead of showing each and every item on one huge page, I was thinking of
perhaps showing just one. The user would click on the list of "names" and
then a table would show up displaying the findings.

Question is, which format would be best suited for this? I am kind of
leaning towards PHP but know diddly squat about it.

Anyone reading the post so far is likely to be confused.
There are tables on a webpage, indicated by <table> and there are tables
on databases like SQL; they are different things, and each has its own format.
PHP is not a format, it is a programming language that can be used for
programming web pages along with SQL or other databases.

Any one have any clues
or perhaps a website that might show something similar?

Yeah I know you guys are gonna ask for a link to the material. Don't have
one yet. I know it's sketchy but it's the best I can do for now.

But here's one idea I had played with.

<table><tr><td>item1</td><td>item2</td><td>item3</td></tr></table>
<table>

<tr>January</td>

....Whup! That dog won't hunt.

<tr><td>1</td><td>8</td><td>15</td><td>22</td><td>29</td></tr>
<tr><td>99</td><td>99</td><td>99</td><td>99</td><td>99</td></tr>
</table>

Multiply that 1000 times and you soon see just how huge of a page that
would be. I would not be showing all 12 months, at the most, maybe 6.

Use PHP, Perl, Ruby, or Python to access a data base and rewrite pages
on the fly. Google each of those languages along with HTML, SQL, and CGI.
Rewrite the page given initial user input.

 

[richard]

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:05:05
GMT richard scribed:


Er, 1000 times what you've shown would be 1000 months, not 6. Math
impaired?

Yes you are apparently.
I was speaking of 1,000 times the data shown, not months.

 

[richard]

Anyone reading the post so far is likely to be confused.
There are tables on a webpage, indicated by <table> and there are tables
on databases like SQL; they are different things, and each has its own format.
PHP is not a format, it is a programming language that can be used for
programming web pages along with SQL or other databases.


...Whup! That dog won't hunt.

Wow! Hey look typo flame!

Use PHP, Perl, Ruby, or Python to access a data base and rewrite pages
on the fly. Google each of those languages along with HTML, SQL, and CGI.
Rewrite the page given initial user input.

sanku muchos graxias comrade.

 

[Andy Dingley]

I've been working on a massive project for several months. Basically it is
all primarily text with the display showing up in table format.

Basically, one table would show the 3 primary items. Then the second table
would show a calendar, with 3 rows of info. The calendar would be a simple
weekly report thing. Not daily.

How many "blocks" do you need to show in the second table _at_one_time_?

If this is a lot, maybe because you need to print it in one section,
then just generate the tables easily with PHP or whatever and output
them as a very long piece of HTML. Make sure it's well-formed and valid
HTML, where each <table> itself is quite short. If you do that, it'll
still be "reasonably" quick to download and render, even for a large
amount of data. If a <table> stretches over the whole of a very long
page, then it can be slow to load.

If you only ever ned to show one "block" at a time, then investigate
AJAX.

 

[Bone Ur]

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Wed, 07 Nov 2007 23:45:47 GMT
richard scribed:

Yes you are apparently.
I was speaking of 1,000 times the data shown, not months.

Oh, I see. -Grammar impaired.

 

[John Hosking]

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Wed, 07 Nov 2007 23:45:47 GMT
richard scribed:

Multiply it 2,645.29 times and you soon wonder why you're doing it.

What's this for, to grill a hamburger with? To warm my heart's cockles?

....in which the data shown seems to be for one month...

Oh, I see. -Grammar impaired.

If he's told you once, he's told you: 1,000 times.
;-)

 

[richard]

How many "blocks" do you need to show in the second table _at_one_time_?

If this is a lot, maybe because you need to print it in one section,
then just generate the tables easily with PHP or whatever and output
them as a very long piece of HTML. Make sure it's well-formed and valid
HTML, where each <table> itself is quite short. If you do that, it'll
still be "reasonably" quick to download and render, even for a large
amount of data. If a <table> stretches over the whole of a very long
page, then it can be slow to load.

If you only ever ned to show one "block" at a time, then investigate
AJAX.

One of my other ideas is to go ahead and the table thing as above but use
<gasp> iframes. The first table would be on the main "index" page, then the
2nd table shows up on the iframe. Using only a handfull of pages and
anchors, paging would not be all that much of a problem.

 

[Adrienne Boswell]

I've been working on a massive project for several months. Basically
it is all primarily text with the display showing up in table format.

Basically, one table would show the 3 primary items. Then the second
table would show a calendar, with 3 rows of info. The calendar would
be a simple weekly report thing. Not daily.

Instead of showing each and every item on one huge page, I was
thinking of perhaps showing just one. The user would click on the list
of "names" and then a table would show up displaying the findings.

Question is, which format would be best suited for this? I am kind of
leaning towards PHP but know diddly squat about it. Any one have any
clues or perhaps a website that might show something similar?

Server side with a database. Loop through the records with a link to
the data, then use the querystring object to query the db table for that
record(s). Any server side language will do, and a database. Probably
PHP and Mysql or you could go with ASP and Access.

 

[Bone Ur]

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Thu, 08 Nov 2007 02:08:25
GMT John Hosking scribed:

Multiply it 2,645.29 times and you soon wonder why you're doing it.

Hey, math always makes me wonder why I'm doing it...

What's this for, to grill a hamburger with? To warm my heart's
cockles?

'Course. Ya can't go around with cold cockles, can ya?

...in which the data shown seems to be for one month...


If he's told you once, he's told you: 1,000 times.
;-)

It must be the echo...

 

[Andy Dingley]

One of my other ideas is to go ahead and the table thing as above but use
<gasp> iframes.

Poor man's AJAX

Use some JavaScript to set the .src property on the <iframe> and away
you go. Works fine (assuming JS available)