Re: Now there is table-element with predetermined quantity of column. But sometimes we need to visualize three tables (for example, database tables) as one table: first table contains names of rows, second table contains names of columns (this table

I do believe you have set to record for the longest subject line (yet, and
hopefully for all time) on this mailing list.

On 4/22/07, Dmitry Turin <html60@narod.ru> wrote:
>
>
> Now there is table-element with predetermined quantity of column.
> But sometimes we need to visualize three tables (for example, database
> tables) as one table:
> first table contains names of rows,
> second table contains names of columns (this table determine quantity of
> columns),
> third table contains data.
> I offer new html-element "table3" for that:
>
> <table3 rows="r.htm"              col="c.htm"              data="d.htm">
> <table3 rows="/cgi-bin/a.cgi?q=r" col="/cgi-bin/a.cgi?q=c"
> data="/cgi-bin/a.cgi?q=d">
>
> Content of "r.htm":
>
> <th id=1>RowName1</th>
> <th id=2>RowName2</th>
> <th id=3>RowName3</th>
>
> Content of "c.htm":
>
> <th id=10>ColName1</th>
> <th id=20>ColName2</th>
> <th id=30>ColName3</th>
>
> Content of "d.htm":
>
> <td row=1 col=10>Data11</td>
> <td row=1 col=20>Data12</td>
> <td row=1 col=30>Data13</td>
> <td row=2 col=10>Data21</td>
> <td row=2 col=20>Data22</td>
> <td row=2 col=30>Data23</td>
> <td row=3 col=10>Data31</td>
> <td row=3 col=20>Data32</td>
> <td row=3 col=30>Data33</td>
>
> If some row or column don't exist for cell of data,
> then cell of data is throwed out.
>
> ---
> P.S.
> Requests in database for "r.htm" and "c.htm":
> select '<th id='  + field_id + '>' + field_name + '</th>' from ...
> Request for "d.htm":
> select '<td row=' + field_i + ' col=' + field_j + '>' + field_data +
> '</td>' from ...
>



Oddly enough, my current exercise is an attempt to render a view of a OLAP
cube into HTML, so I am slamming into the limitations of current
HTML/CSS/Javascript quite a bit (as well as the differences between browser
implementations).  I can indeed see a need for abstracting the
representation of row and column headers beyond what is currently present in
the HTML standard and implementations.  At present I do not have an opinion
on what that abstraction should look like.  (I will, but not yet.)

That said, my immediate reactions in reading the above:

   1. I would prefer to add a new attribute to the existing <table> tag
   over defining a new tag.
   2. Generating three round trips to the server to populate a table is
   not optimal.  My interest would be in populating the table with a single
   round trip (possibly also used for other purposes) using the DOM and
   Javascript.  Otherwise you want an inline HTML variant.
   3. Is this really the right model?

Guess I just do not see this as compelling or necessarily the right model.