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Hello,

Could you please recommend me a Python tool that could help me to get
rid of the messy information and scripts I have in spreadsheets?

Spreadsheets are great for having simple things done quickly. But as
the needs grow their limitations can be quite frustrating. I would
like to use the browser to edit information that for the moment I
store in spreadsheets.

I believe that the perfect tool for me would be that a combination a
table editing tool and a tree navigation tool. I would like to
navigate in a tree, expanding and collapsing nodes. The leaf nodes
would then be tables with some editable columns.

A good table editing tool (without the tree navigation) would already
be very helpful.

Examples of information I would store in such a tree/table system
(which are now in spreasheets):
- My dvd, avi collection: The tree would be the directory tree of the
file system where I store my movies. For each directory containing the
avis or the dvds there would be a table with one movie by row and
several editable columns: the file name, the genre, the year, whether
I have seen it or not, comments, etc.
.. The same thing for mp3.
- My family budget. The tree would be the account tree, the rows in
the table would be the deposits and withdrwals. This is actually my
most important need. I don't find gnucash flexible enough for my
needs. Beancount (http://furius.ca/beancount/) has a great html
output, but I would like to use the browser also for input.

I am very comfortable with Python, but I don't know much about web
framewords and javascript interfaces. I am ready to learn anything
that could help me to do the desired tasks quickly, without having to
code a web application from scratch. Is javascript the way to go? In
this case is there a Python lib can I use on the server side? Could a
tool like django be helpful? Pyjamas? Both a single machine or a
client-server architecture are fine for me.

Thanks a lot in advance for all suggestion,
Marko

On Oct 2, 10:36*pm, markolopa <marko.lopa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Could you please recommend me a Python tool that could help me to get
> rid of the messy information and scripts I have in spreadsheets?
>
> Spreadsheets are great for having simple things done quickly. But as
> the needs grow their limitations can be quite frustrating. I would
> like to use the browser to edit information that for the moment I
> store in spreadsheets.
>
> I believe that the perfect tool for me would be that a combination a
> table editing tool and a tree navigation tool. I would like to
> navigate in a tree, expanding and collapsing nodes. The leaf nodes
> would then be tables with some editable columns.
>
> A good table editing tool (without the tree navigation) would already
> be very helpful.
>
> Examples of information I would store in such a tree/table system
> (which are now in spreasheets):
> - My dvd, avi collection: The tree would be the directory tree of the
> file system where I store my movies. For each directory containing the
> avis or the dvds there would be a table with one movie by row and
> several editable columns: the file name, the genre, the year, whether
> I have seen it or not, comments, etc.
> . The same thing for mp3.
> - My family budget. The tree would be the account tree, the rows in
> the table would be the deposits and withdrwals. This is actually my
> most important need. I don't find gnucash flexible enough for my
> needs. *Beancount (http://furius.ca/beancount/) has a great html
> output, but I would like to use the browser also for input.
>
> I am very comfortable with Python, but I don't know much about web
> framewords and javascript interfaces. I am ready to learn anything
> that could help me to do the desired tasks quickly, without having to
> code a web application from scratch. Is javascript the way to go? In
> this case is there a Python lib can I use on the server side? Could a
> tool like django be helpful? Pyjamas? Both a single machine or a
> client-server architecture are fine for me.
>
> Thanks a lot in advance for all suggestion,
> Marko

May not be what you are asking for but you may want to look at
orgmode:

http://orgmode.org/

On 10/02/2011 06:36 PM, markolopa wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Could you please recommend me a Python tool that could help me to get
> rid of the messy information and scripts I have in spreadsheets?
>
> Spreadsheets are great for having simple things done quickly. But as
> the needs grow their limitations can be quite frustrating. I would
> like to use the browser to edit information that for the moment I
> store in spreadsheets.
>
> I believe that the perfect tool for me would be that a combination a
> table editing tool and a tree navigation tool. I would like to
> navigate in a tree, expanding and collapsing nodes. The leaf nodes
> would then be tables with some editable columns.
>
> A good table editing tool (without the tree navigation) would already
> be very helpful.
>
> Examples of information I would store in such a tree/table system
> (which are now in spreasheets):
> - My dvd, avi collection: The tree would be the directory tree of the
> file system where I store my movies. For each directory containing the
> avis or the dvds there would be a table with one movie by row and
> several editable columns: the file name, the genre, the year, whether
> I have seen it or not, comments, etc.
> . The same thing for mp3.
> - My family budget. The tree would be the account tree, the rows in
> the table would be the deposits and withdrwals. This is actually my
> most important need. I don't find gnucash flexible enough for my
> needs. Beancount (http://furius.ca/beancount/) has a great html
> output, but I would like to use the browser also for input.
>
> I am very comfortable with Python, but I don't know much about web
> framewords and javascript interfaces. I am ready to learn anything
> that could help me to do the desired tasks quickly, without having to
> code a web application from scratch. Is javascript the way to go? In
> this case is there a Python lib can I use on the server side? Could a
> tool like django be helpful? Pyjamas? Both a single machine or a
> client-server architecture are fine for me.
>
> Thanks a lot in advance for all suggestion,
> Marko


Well my answer is not really python-related, but one tool that really
changed my life is orgmode
http://orgmode.org/

It does almost everything you ask and a 1000 other things.
If you want to go with a python project, in general you should probably
need a lot of javascript
to have something which is nice and easy to use, and yes something like
django would work.

On Oct 2, 12:36*pm, markolopa <marko.lopa...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Examples of information I would store in such a tree/table system
> (which are now in spreasheets):
> - My dvd, avi collection: The tree would be the directory tree of the
> file system where I store my movies. For each directory containing the
> avis or the dvds there would be a table with one movie by row and
> several editable columns: the file name, the genre, the year, whether
> I have seen it or not, comments, etc.
> . The same thing for mp3.
> - My family budget. The tree would be the account tree, the rows in
> the table would be the deposits and withdrwals. This is actually my
> most important need. I don't find gnucash flexible enough for my
> needs. *Beancount (http://furius.ca/beancount/) has a great html
> output, but I would like to use the browser also for input.

Is there any reason why you could not use the advanced widgets in
WxPython? You never said whether this MUST BE a web application. If
GUI is okay then check out wxListCtrl and wxTreeCtrl. All you need to
do is write a little control code and voila.

http://www.wxpython.org/onlinedocs.php

On Sun, 2 Oct 2011 10:36:30 -0700 (PDT), markolopa
<> declaimed the following in
gmane.comp.python.general:

>
> Spreadsheets are great for having simple things done quickly. But as
> the needs grow their limitations can be quite frustrating. I would

My first step would be to convert the messy spreadsheets into a
normalized relational database. Since you're asking for a Python
solution, SQLite3 might be recommended.

Granted, I'll grab a spreadsheet for short lists (basically --
single table information), but ever since the days of Multiplan on a
TRS-80 Model III/4 my thoughts have been that spreadsheets were
optimized for complex chained calculations deriving from a small subset
of user input items (I used to have the entire first edition Traveller
RPG starship design rules encoded into Multiplan wherein the user
selected the main options [shape, displacement, desired drives, weapons,
etc.] and the spreadsheet validated that the options are viable [a
Jump-6 drive won't fit on a typical scout], and determine crew and cost)

> like to use the browser to edit information that for the moment I
> store in spreadsheets.
>
Python-based web-framework... Maybe Django

> I believe that the perfect tool for me would be that a combination a
> table editing tool and a tree navigation tool. I would like to
> navigate in a tree, expanding and collapsing nodes. The leaf nodes
> would then be tables with some editable columns.
>
The base Django "admin" pages grant basic low-level access to
tables; structuring the data if tables are linked may require coding
Django application modules.


> - My dvd, avi collection: The tree would be the directory tree of the
> file system where I store my movies. For each directory containing the
> avis or the dvds there would be a table with one movie by row and
> several editable columns: the file name, the genre, the year, whether
> I have seen it or not, comments, etc.
> . The same thing for mp3.

Relational database...

> - My family budget. The tree would be the account tree, the rows in
> the table would be the deposits and withdrwals. This is actually my

If for more than one account, another relational database (I suspect
you're maintaining a separate table for each account; the relational
approach would have one table for the account specifics (bank name,
address, account number, type of account, with a simple integer primary
key); transaction table with internal integer key, foreign key
identifying which account, transaction ID (check #), type of transaction
(deposit, withdrawal), name of other party, amount, memo... Possibly a
code for "split" (I'm basing this on Quicken) in which you itemize the
subparts of a transaction...

> this case is there a Python lib can I use on the server side? Could a
> tool like django be helpful? Pyjamas? Both a single machine or a
> client-server architecture are fine for me.
>
Django's "development server" might be sufficient for a single
machine single-user mode.
--
Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber AF6VN
HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/

Check out ResolverOne
http://www.resolversystems.com

Malcolm