Sortable Tables

Here I will show how to make this sortable tables become generically useful on any asp enabled web server. This example, available for downloading in .txt format (simply save as a .asp file as required on your server). Click here to see a sample showing .asp Sortable Tables.

We will automate by enabling this one asp file to process any .csv (comma delimited file). These .csv files can easily be created in Excel and exported as a comma delimited file. Make the first row the Headers for the table, being sure there is one header for each column in the table. Data fields in some columns may be blank but be sure each column has a header value in the A row.

This asp generic program functions as follows:

• Define the values to be received from the invoking link:

  Dim tableName
  tableName = request("fname")
  Dim tableWidth
  tableWidth = request("twidth")
  Dim tableAlign
  tableAlign = request("talign")
  Dim borderSize
  borderSize = request("bsize")
  Dim tableNumerics
  tableNumerics = request("tnums")
  

• Then create javascript code from asp and start the data array.

  response.write "<scr" & "ipt language=""javascript"">" & vbCrLf response.write "var data = new Array(" & vbCrLf

• Open the .csv file and setup some values

          Set fileFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
          
          dim strPathInfo, strPhysicalPath
          strPathInfo = Request.ServerVariables("PATH_INFO")
          strPhysicalPath = Server.MapPath(strPathInfo)
          
          Dim objFSO, objFile, objFileItem, objFolder, objFolderContents
          Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
          set objFile = objFSO.GetFile(strPhysicalPath)
          set objFolder = objFile.ParentFolder
          set objFolderContents = objFolder.Files
          fName = objFolder & "\VIS_PRINTERS.csv"
          fName = objFolder & "\" & tableName
          Set fileCurFile = fileFSO.OpenTextFile(fName,1)
          lineCurFile = fileCurFile.ReadLine 'future
          needTitles = true
          Dim Titles
          dim rows
          rows = 0
          cols = 0
          continue = false
          if fileCurFile.AtEndOfStream = false then continue = true
  

• Start the loop for reading lines in the file.

          do until continue = false
                  if fileCurFile.AtEndOfStream = true then continue = false
  

• On the first pass, read this line, counting the commas

                  if needTitles then
                          start = 1
                          pos = Instr(start,lineCurFile,",")
                          do until pos = 0
                                  cols = cols + 1
                                  start = pos + 1
                                  pos = Instr(start,lineCurFile,",")
                          loop
                          cols = cols + 1
                  End if
  

• Start the row count and initialize the output line for javascript, and create the javascript array values.

                  rows = rows + 1
                  if Right(lineCurFile,1) <> "," then lineCurFile = lineCurFile & ","
                  theLine = ""
                  spos = 1
                  epos = Instr(1,lineCurFile,",")
                  'do while epos > 0
                  'for i = 1 to 5
                  for i = 1 to cols
                          if epos > spos then
                                  temp = Mid(lineCurFile,spos,(epos - spos))
                                  temp = Server.HTMLEncode(temp)
                                  theLine = theLine & """" & temp & ""","
                          else
                                  theLine = theLine & """"","
                          end if
                                  spos = epos + 1
                                  epos = Instr(spos,lineCurFile,",")
                  next
  

• Remove the trailing comma so that javascript won't fail, read the next line of the .csv file, and set the conditional

                  if Len(theLine) > 0 then theLine = Left(theLine,(Len(theLine) - 1))
                  if continue then lineCurFile = fileCurFile.ReadLine             
  

• If processing the first line, setup the Titles. Otherwise, output the javascript array statement. Close the file.

                  if needTitles then
                          needTitles = false
                          Titles = theLine
                  else
                          'if fileCurFile.AtEndOfStream = True then
                          if continue = false then
                                  response.write "new Array(" & theLine & ")" & vbCrLf
                          else
                                  response.write "new Array(" & theLine & ")," & vbCrLf
                          end if
                  end if
          loop
          fileCurFile.close
  

var data = new Array(
new Array("George","Wade","676 781-5181","5"),
new Array("Rebecca","Wade","676 781-5181","9"),
new Array("Christia","Lewis","676 375-3775","21"),
new Array("Kalamazoo","SDA School","342-8983"),
new Array("Matthew","lewis","676 375-3991","15")
)
var buttons = new Array("First Name","Last Name","Phone Number"," Age")

We allow javascript to create the buttons and the data table with the following assistance:

var buttons = new Array(<% =Titles %>)
var table = new SortableTable("<% =tableName %>",<% =rows %>,<% =cols %>,<% =borderSize %>,"<% =tableWidth %>%","<% =tableAlign %>") /*id,rows,columns,border,width,align*/

And we are almost finished with our customization to the Sortable Tables. We still need to setup the definitions for sorting a column numerically (since sortable tables sorts alphabetically by default). We do this with the following asp code:

<%
Dim tableNumerics
Dim c
tableNumerics = request("tnums")
        for i = 1 to Len(v) step 2
                c = CInt(mid(v,i,2))
                if c > 0 then
                        response.write "table.setNumeric(" & (c - 1) & ")" & vbCrLf
                end if
        next
%>

Oh, you want to know how to call this generical Sortable Tables page? Create this link:

<a href="genSortTables.asp?fname=phonelist.csv&twidth=90&talign=right&bsize=1">MyLink</a>

or for numeric columns

<a href="genSortTables.asp?fname=phonelist.csv&twidth=90&talign=right&bsize=1&tnums=00000004">MyLink</a>

Enjoy using sortable Tables in the future. Just download this example as instructed above and use this code without changing anything within the script tags. Just link to the page using the parms shown.