Add a Spreadsheet Layout #3874
Replies: 19 comments 19 replies
-
|
Another amazing idea!!! I'd prefer a third option: Use the correct interfaces and only make them pop up if necessary from a layout perspective. That way in the mockup above probably only the Image fields would need context popup, as text/dropdown should work with really little space. Of course the decision which mode to use could be manual (but per field), in the layout settings. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Hahah, thank you! Regarding "Option 3", it might seem like most interfaces can fit in that small space, but most interfaces are actually a bit too large. IMO, a good alternate option would be for the Layout itself to have dedicated ways of managing each datatype, and perhaps a "right-click the cell" menu that has an option for editing with the full interface in a drawer. This might be the best of both worlds. For example, here is how we might edit values (with right-click always available to use the native interface):
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
This would be a killer feature definitely! Currently we are trying to migrate a system from google sheets to Directus, and a lot of people are reluctant because they were accustomed to the spreadsheet format. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@benhaynes |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Interesting! I think the Spreadsheet Layout would be great for quick/bulk edits, but we can still have "Import" (eg: CSV) as a separate feature, so it works for any Layout. That said, there's plenty of room for discussion with how this will work. 👍 |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Like to sponsor the activity within my limit if anyone can take it up. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
An editable spreadsheet view would be fabulous. I’d prefer the option to specify for each column wether a single click goes into RAW editing or wether a popup should be displayed. I think Airtable is a good reference. I’m currently using NocoDB just for this feature. My primary use case is copy & paste data from sheets/ CSV and bulk editing. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Hi, recently we've made a datagrid interface for non-relational tables. It can store both json and csv table data, supports bulk editing, chart displaying. Json data supports both records-like data |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Ohh, I like this... nice job! |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
This is an awesome feature ! ⭐️ I'd advice you not to build the spreadsheet yourself but to reuse a dedicated component (like Revogrid, with proper patches and customization ?) or you'll end up with endless requests for new features everyone expect from spreadsheets but were not in your 80/20 plan (selection, copy paste, moving values, infinite loading...). You can also look how revogrid manage the "edition interfaces" you discussed above : cells displays formatted values (like the classic directus view), until you double-click to edit them and they display raw values with sometimes buttons and popup. For directus, as a "quick first step", you could simply reuse the edition interfaces to put in place of the cells (or in top of, if too large, with a shadow effect) when (double-)clicked, with auto focus & popup opened. This would not be visually perfect for every data types, but this would enable you to reuse all displays and interfaces as is, without the drawer arduousness. English is not my first langage and i'm not confident with directus internals, so here is full a summary of my proposal 😄 :
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
The right-click is not widely used elsewhere in directus (or not used at all) and would not be expected here. I would rather recommend a simple click or a discreet
You could reach the same result with a simple "Table Layout" + advanced computed fields with functions. In this case, these advanced computed fields would have dedicated display and edition interface, like other fields types, and no spreadsheet-specific code (and can easily be used anywhere) ! And for presentation/visualization, the Insights panel already allows to display collections. I don't think about specific needs that would not be filled by collection previews with table layout in Insights. 80/20 + maximum re-usability 😛
Personally, this is not something I expect from Directus. It provides me a very good data management interface on top of my database, I almost never feel the need to break the abstraction, and when I need to (repetition), I'll find the proper and dedicated tools for that. I think Directus should leave that part of the job to others (all hosts already provides a database management interface). |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
We're looking to change that, but want to do it "in a big push" so it's intentional, consistent, and documented. As for just being "on click", that is the event to open the item detail page, so you'd have to enter some global context for an "editing mode" first.
Very true! I think the main thing to think through here is how can any user create and configure these alias/computed fields on the fly within the Layout itself. Does that affect API output, etc? Assuming this would be possible by admins and normal users alike, we'd need a way to confgure if this is allowed by non-admins. This is why this is the most difficult direction.
True, if any Collection/Layout can be added to Insights, then this is moot.
Not sure if I'm 100% onboard with this one. To be clear, I'm not really talking about the schema/DDL side of things... just a fast, raw way to see the database as-is (no presentation). It also is a quick way to remove all the "icing on the cake" that Directus provides (alias fields, displays, relational traversal, etc) so you can audit the actual DB values. I do agree that these tools are readily available and they're going to be better (more robust) at handling this. But I don't see a reason why this can't be included as an admin feature if it's not a very heavy engineering lift or bloated code. Anywho, always worth weighing the pros/cons! |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
Ok, good idea !
I see. The need would not only to have "dynamic fields", but to let all users create the dynamic fields they need in a shared environment. Well, in classic shared spreadsheets, all fields are shared anyway, so you can start by enabling all users to create alias fields on the fly (because they don't change the database structure). And you'll see if there is requests for more advanced features (like user/group-specific fields). |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
As far as it understand, this meet the other feature you were describing : "the ability to toggle the entire view to show raw database values instead of the display's presentation". So maybe "Raw data" toggle in the collection header that switch to a preset with :
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
Yeah, that gets you most of the way. To get those four items is a lot of extra config on the no-code side of things (the layout)... but there is a good amount of overlap. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Maybe https://nocodb.com can be used as a spreadsheet for the collections? Directus can integrate NocoDB by sharing the same DB connection, and can have a button "Open in NocoDB" (opens collection in a new tab and in NocoDB loaded) in the collection toolbar. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Interesting. This platform actually seems far more robust than a library we can leverage... more like a secondary competitor. Still, we'll look into it! |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
This is the primary thing preventing me from wanting to use 99% of all content management systems. So much of Directus is incredible, but without this feature I'm still reluctant to use it. If Directus can ship this and execute it well it will be a true game changer (at least for me). |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
A save button is needed, accidents can happen if fields are accidentally modified. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
This is the risk you take when you give people access which is why you can filter biased on roles. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
the sadly discontinued https://github.com/basetool-io/basetool seems like a perfect fit for the missing piece; it is better than nocodb because it supports collaborative editing. not sure how hard it would be to integrate it with directus |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Did anyone ever manage to implement this? Is there any plan, by Directus, to bring this feature to life? |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Heya! Thanks for opening this feature request! This feature request has received over 15 votes from the community. This means we'll move this feature request to the Under Review state! The Core team will schedule a meeting to review this request as soon as possible. The discussion will then be approved or denied. You may or may not be invited to join this meeting with the core team. For more information, see our Feature Request Process. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Hi @rijkvanzanten , has this feature been reviewed? |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Nope! Well I mean it's an idea coming from our own team, but we still gotta update the original posting to have the full RFC format so we can properly implement it 🙂 There's still a couple of unresolved questions we need to address, like
so yeah that should be reviewed and thought through still! |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
My suggestion: Have 2 modes for the table as a whole: default & raw.
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
I would suggest that it depends on the display and interface :
The display and interface can have their behavior or style customized with a parameter indicating whether it is invocated in inline or classic context |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Any news about the process for table / Bulk edit like a google sheet? Would be an amazing feature - I mean - actually it should be an essential thing. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
For Directus Studio to be usable as the primary tool (for various use-cases), this sort of functionality in the UX/UI becomes even more critical! Otherwise, most of the use-cases for Directus Studio would continue to be:
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Any updates here? Really looking forward to this one! |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Would be great!!! |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
We've just released a spreadsheet layout as a Directus Labs project factoring in many of the comments made here.
It's available now in every Directus project via the Marketplace. Enjoy!
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Thank you for the hard work 🥳👏🎉 |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
This would be a layout similar to the table layout, but would allow editing fields directly on the page. I'm torn between two options:
Here's a quick mockup I made...
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
All reactions