Thanks for the reply David,
I'm not too fussed about getting the data there automatically on a schedule... that's not really part of it. In fact, for the scenarios I've had so far, manual upload was the requirement.
Just in case Chad feels like mulling it over.. some examples of when I've needed this are:
Person runs a poker-scorekeeping app on his laptop, goes around club events, and when he's ready, the app can export a CSV, and he can upload it. I need to have a module that can read the CSV and display it according to however I have configured it to be displayed.
Person is a financial advisor, has a legacy application that stores data on all his customers and their portfolios. The application can spit out a CSV at any time, he wants to upload it now and then to his website so that investors can log in and check up on their status. I need the same functionality as the poker situation, but with the addition of filtering the display by one of the fields, which would probably be an ID in the CVS againt a custom profile property in the portal.
Another one is a chap who does long-term wine storage for clients. Again there's a legacy app that has all the data and can put out a CSV. He would upload it now and then manually, and the module again needs the same functionality as with the financial advisor.
I keep coming across the same requirements:
1. Want to upload a CSV or Excel file, and display the data.
2. Sometimes display the data filtered by either a UserID or a sepcific field that relates to a profile field.
It sounds to me like to most basic thing in the world for a computer to do, but I can't find a ready-made way to do it.
The CSV files are created by the applications in a consistent manner. The mapping part of the job has to be able to be done by the page editor or admin in a safe manner so that other tables in the db are not damaged or put at risk - basically all other tables in the database should be off-limits for uploading to and for viewing. The module should operate in some sort of safe bucket. That's why I thought that reading a flat file would suit.. after all it's exactly what Excel does.
The uploading would just be done by a module editor role, who should not be able to break anything.
It seems like we have half of the functionality in plenty of data display modules.. just need an enterprising developer to create the other half
I did get a quote from one of the companies on Snowcovered a while back, for a one-off module for doing just one of the scenarios above, but I think there could be a module that has more flexibility... and Dynamic Views is such a natural fit for it.
Regards
Rob