Convert crap to tables or something? in Webmasters and Developers http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r21175003 en Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:36:06 EDT Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:36:06 EDT Re: Convert crap to tables or something? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21206232 usa2k : Your links seem unreachable here!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21206232 Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:00:04 EDT Re: Convert crap to tables or something? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21201623 muiredised : Unless your PHP solution allows the OP to upload the .doc files and automagically import the data you may have misunderstood the request. Regardless of what framework the OP puts the data into, it still has to be extracted from the current format (Word files). As I understand the post, what is desired here is an automated way to get the data out of the Word files into a (more) usable format.
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Assiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21201623 Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:04:42 EDT Re: Convert crap to tables or something? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21199962 theedj : I have a custom developed PHP solution that the restaurant self-manages. Easily skinable and all. See it in action at »bravabistro.com/menus.php or wine list at »bravabistro.com/wines.php - I've been meaning to recode a few aspects of it, but the best part is they maintain it and I never need to interfere!
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# a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21199962 Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:55:38 EDT Re: Convert crap to tables or something? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21191916 tao : nm]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21191916 Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:55:18 EDT Re: Convert crap to tables or something? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21187493 Dersgniw : I know of a menu site around here that simply scans in the menu as images and you click on the image to change the page.

You could also save as HTML in MS Word. The HTML code sucks, but it looks fine.

Yes, those are the easy ways out, but you can make it look respectable and the owner gets off cheap.
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I Smell Cures! -- Our Hope]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21187493 Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:26:12 EDT Re: Convert crap to tables or something? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21179265 muiredised : Probably several approaches, and I am on Linux so my approach may be different from someone on win32. That being said... what I would do is re-save as rich text (.rtf), then I would use Perl to reformat. Specifically I would use the rtf2html program that comes with the RTF::HTML::Converter module. It spits out this for your example:


I could then take it a step further and use HTML::Parser to throw the data into a structure and then pass it to Template Toolkit to reformat it in any manner I chose. The tricky part would be the order in which the elements get put into the data structure because of the funky formatting.

My two cents.

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]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21179265 Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:04:52 EDT Re: Convert crap to tables or something? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21178134 marigolds : I am going to use microsoft word syntax here. Obviously use only the text between the quote marks for your search and replace arguments.
1) Clear all tab stops
Now you get rid of the dot lines
2) Replace ". " with " "
3) Replace " ." with " "

Then you convert whitespace to single tabs
4) Replace " "(two spaces) with " " (one space)
4) Replace " "(two spaces) with "^t"
5) Replace "^t " with "^t"
6) Replace "^t^t" with "^t". Repeat until you have 0 replaces left.

Finally, you need to catch missed line breaks (there was one in your doc). Use the following two replaces.

7) With wildcards on, replace ".[0-9][0-9] " with "^&xxx"
Now turn off wildcards.
8) Turn wildcards off again and replace " xxx" with "^p"

And finally, two cleanup steps.
9) Replace " ." with " "
10) Replace "^t " with "^t"

You will still need some cleanup on the description columns (some of the descriptions that should be in column 3 are in column 4 instead), but otherwise it should be pretty close.
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Geographic Information Science researcher]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21178134 Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:42:53 EDT Re: Convert crap to tables or something? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21176201 jayco437 : Ugly formatting in there. You *might* try dropping it into either Excel or OpenOffice and maybe you'll get lucky. I think the time spent on a regex would probably be wasted since it appears the text has some wrapping and line issues in it.

Maybe you could draw the tables in Word then copy into excel?

You could try using mechanical turk or Elance as well if you're really pressed for time.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21176201 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:56:12 EDT Re: Convert crap to tables or something? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21175957 johnnyboyct : Hehe, If it was only that simple :(

First off, Im not billing. I had my baby shower there for free, which really, seeing as they are getting Joomla and an original hand coded template, kinda sucks for me. But I had to do it, long story.

Second, I had a baby, I get like 5 minutes at a time if Im lucky lol.

Third, thats about 1/8 of 1 document, there are about 20... All in this

Something . . . . . . . . . Crap format
Next crap . . . . . . . . . Above line 2, but i cant tell lol

And last, Im now spoiled, I haven't done data entry in a long time :) Closest is "hey, reformat this to a spreadsheet like this, then ill import it with navicat" lol

It sucks, Im trying to find a wysiwig or something that will be smart enough when I paste, but I bet that slim and none :( I even was thinking regex or SOMETHING, but that wont work, at least easily.

Any ideas?
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Connecticut Web Design and Development]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21175957 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:14:53 EDT Re: Convert crap to tables or something? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21175418 JAAulde : I don't really see the difficulty...the file you presented suggests a two or three table setup.

Table 1 - Menu Categories
ID, Name, (etc...)

Table 2 - Menu Items
ID, Name, Price, Description, Category ID, (etc...)

If you run into items falling into more than one category, a drop the Category ID column from Table 2 and add a 3rd table:

Table 3 - Item To Category Matching
ID, Menu Item ID, Menu Category ID

Once your tables are setup, it should only take a couple hours (for which you're billing).
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My Development Sandbox | Blessed Beyond Reason | LinkedIn Profile]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21175418 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:40:53 EDT Convert crap to tables or something? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21175003 johnnyboyct : Hey guys, Ive got a small side job for a resteraunt, they want me to put up like 20 menus. I said yeah fine, ill work something out. Look at the file.. This could take days lol, anyone have an automated way or some tips?

John
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