Hi,

I am rather new to Xoops. Among other modules, I installed Formulize and Pageworks (both 2.3 RC1).
From what I read, it should be great modules. However, I did not find out yet how to use both modules in comination with an existing database.

I have a music database with fields like this:
Artist
Title
Release date
Duration
etc, etc.

It is not the meaning to let the users play, or download, music, but just to get the facts from the database.

So is the combination of Formulize and Pageworks the right tool to get that done?
And if yes, how?

I have downloaded the documentation of 2.3 RC1, but what I need is a good example, so that I can continue with that.


Thanks,
Jans

Thanks for your interest in Formulize and Pageworks.

These tools are meant for rapidly creating a new application or database, not for working with one you already have. However, you could create a form (think of it like a table) in Formulize, and then import data from your existing database. You would have to get a spreadsheet copy of the data in your existing database, and make sure the options in the form matched the possible values in each field of your existing database...the information in the Import popup box should guide you.

Let us know how it goes if you pursue this further. Good luck,

--Julian

TO ALL:
Please Excuse my interruption with the placement of these links but I am working on a possible way to tie conversation past, present and future with the Wiki area so important points of board conversation may be easily found in the future.

Pageworks ~ (discuss this page on the navigation bar at the bottom of the wiki page) Talk:Pageworks

Continue on....

Working....
BlueStocking

Thank for the reaction Jegelstaff,

However, I think that I need to look further.
It is not so that I want to go for the easy way only.
But I thought that the combination of Formulize / Pageworks could do the job I was thinking of, without doing any tricks, or whatever.

Maybe here I have to explain something. My age is around 60, so I am from a different computer generation.
2 months ago, I installed Xoops. It was very easy, and took only short time, thanks to good documentation.
But ever since I am looking for a module that can do the job I want.

In fact a simple job.
I have a database and I want users to show data from that database. They fill out a searchbox and a page shows a list with the results.

Ofcourse I could start learning PHP on my age, butg I am also still working and don't have the time for it.
Also the learning process of eldery people is not that good anymore

Since I thought that XOOPS is a database driven application, I also thought the there would be a module that could, at least, link a form with an existing database to show data to a user.

And of course has some documentation and/or examples to show how the job is done.

So, any suggestions are still welcome.

Thanks,
Jans

Hi,
I am an older lady myself and know what you mean about trying to learn php and smarty. That is the purpose of XOOPS, something so easy anyone can use it.

What kind of database do you have now?

How about a link to your newly made XOOPS site.
I would find it interesting to visit.

EDIT:
English - Google Translate I looked at your profile and see the page you are setting up. Very nice. As time goes on you will find just the right thing for your website, I am sure! It just takes a little experimenting.

BlueStocking

Thanks for the reply Bluestocking,

My site does, unfortunately, not yet start looking like what I have in mind.
I just have set up quickly a few pages.
The most time I spent now checking out modules at my local server.
So, in the next coming weeks you will not see any changes at all.

Best regards,
Jans

Interesting situation you have there Jans.

I think you are facing one of the subtle but significant architectural issues in website development today. On the one hand are systems like XOOPS and Drupal and Joomla and on and on and on. There are many. They are "website-in-a-box" solutions. They give you lots of flexibility, but they demand that you build a site "their way". The database driven aspect of the site is simply that the configuration of the website, and the content, is stored in a database and then that information is mixed with templates to produce pages for visitors to see. But all the information goes into the database only through the XOOPS software itself. It's a closed system.

On the other hand, there are programming frameworks like Zend Framework, Symfony, EZ Components and many, many, many others. They are aimed at building a huge library of code that developers can draw on to very easily build sites in PHP (or other languages...Rails is a framework for the Ruby language). The aim of this approach is to be inter-operable, open and flexible. You can integrate any data source, make your website application do anything you want. But you have to do more work to build your site, this is a programming-centric approach.

XOOPS and its ilk are aimed largely at non-programmers, but the price of the easier setup is a mostly closed system that's harder to integrate with other systems.

So to make a long, sad story short, I know of no out-of-the-box system in the family of software like XOOPS that will let you just point to an existing datatable and provide an interface to that. But you could build such a thing fairly easily in several frameworks I expect, if you knew how to use that framework and program in the framework's language.

With Formulize, things are a bit different. We are working on a few different approaches to making Formulize break out of the confines of XOOPS (it already works in conjunction with Drupal and any other system where you can embed PHP at the top "template" layer).

For now, the basic approach for you to get your data, would be to make a form in Formulize that had all the elements (fields) that your datatable has. Then you would need to make a copy of the data in your table and export it as a .csv file. You would then need to import it into the Formulize form you created. At that point you would have a copy of your data "inside" XOOPS (inside Formulize inside XOOPS to be precise), and Formulize would give you a default interface for searching and interacting with the data.

The current development version of Formulize has the capability to hook up to any table in the XOOPS database and give you a searchable, browsable, calculation-ready interface to that data. But you can't edit the data. So if that's all you want, maybe that would work for you. You would just need to make a copy of your datatable inside the XOOPS database.

The next release of Formulize will hopefully be next month, but that is not certain. However, if this sounds interesting to you, I would be happy to provide a copy of the current development code base and some more detailed instructions.

Good luck with your site and projects.

--Julian

Hi Julian,

Thanks for the explaination.
It is not so that I am looking for an "out of the box" solution for my problem. I have been working enough with databases to know that there are always some things to change.

What I have done for the time being, was making my own module in which I put a query to search for the data, that I want to display.
Yot can take a look here if you like. The page is in Dutch and shows you the Top 2000 listings of the last 9 years.
But, of course it does not look fancy at all, since I did not implement any smarties or whatever.
Also, if I want to change something, I have to change the file "off line" and then upload it again.

Those two things (and many others), I did not find the time for, to find out how it is done.

Maybe later I can have a look at pageworks again.
Fot the moment I still have to decide what, and how, I all want to display.

Best regards,
Jans

Hi again,

Tonight something crossed my mind.
It is obvious that I want something that is not there yet, at least not nearly 'pre-cooked'.
In the postings above you can see a few things:
1. I am new to Xoops
2. I wanr to share data with people who are interested.
3. The data are in the database already
4. I don't know how to get those data properly on the people's monitor.

What I've seen so far of Xoops, is that there so may modules and that people get lost in it.
There are so may support forums, in so may categories, that one does not know where to look anymore.

Still, I think that XOOPS is very good, and I want to continue with it.

So far, so good.
What I want to say is simple:
I like to have a module that does not exist.
Eevrything on XOOPS is open source, so carried by the community.
So, let's make my module TOGETHER.
A lot of people want to learn more how everything works.
At least, I want to.
And he we have a good approach (at least in my eyes):
I don't know anything about Xoops, but I want to start building a module.
You can say: "We have some good tutorials and examples". That's true. See my other posting, on which I got a very good reply. See The search item.

To make a long story short: I want to propose that I start building a new module.
The purpose of that module is to show data of an existing database to the people. It can be a database of your stamp collection, book shelves, or what ever.
In my case I want to start with my database of the Top 2000.
It is a program on the dutch radio at the end of each year.

My database has tables of the artists, songs, rankings in the top 2000 of the last nine years.

One of the things, that I would like to hear your opnion about is the following question:
If people are interested, are we doing this "workshop" here, in one of the may forums, or you we do it on my own site. I could start a forum for it.

Please let me hear some idea's

Best regards,

Jans

Jans_bl,
This was a module built with members of the community with the same idea as you are proposing. They have a very nice looking site ... http://www.xgarage.org/

It started out as an idea here and was developed from the interest generated here on XOOPS.

Thread where the idea was born

I suggest you read the thread through and get an idea of the players and the way they developed their idea into a working module. It may even be that you will find information that would allow you to adapt the module they have created for their automotive interest.

Good luck,
Read, get ideas and proceed to see if you can make it happen.

BlueStocking
HINT: Click on your nic link and put your Wiki page to work for you... SEE Example: Wishcraft and NovaSmart