Re: Data entry / data editing tools (more end-user focus).

On 3/27/19 11:49 PM, Tony Shelver wrote:

Please reply to list also, more eyes on the the problem.
Ccing list

My take on below is since you are feeding a Website why not use Web 
technologies for your data entry. My language of choice is Python. I 
have done something similar to this(on small scale) using the Django 
framework. For something lighter weight there is Flask. Then your client 
becomes a browser and you do not have to distribute forms around. You 
could integrate with the existing Web apps you are using e.g. SnipCart.


> Actually I found a possibility.  LibreOffice Base on top of PG lets me 
> paste photos into a Postgresql bytea field no problem.  MS Access should 
> work well also, but I am not going to buy it, and running Ubuntu most of 
> the time.
> Possibly will distribute the Base forms to select users to enter data.
> We are a startup company, so this is an affordable temporary fix, until 
> the product I have been looking at matures, or we can roll our own.
> 
> We are building a company website, including an eStore, and have a few 
> hundred products to load and maintain. Our product data currently isn't 
> suitable for a sales catalog.
> (Brands, categories, products, pricing and deal info, specials, images, 
> product comparisons and so on).
> 
> Right now I input / maintain this via CSV files maintained through a 
> spreadsheet  (LibreOffice Calc) which our site generator (Jekyll) uses 
> to build out the static HTML product [pages automatically.
> This is really quick to enter basic data, but I have to manually 
> maintain image uploads, image names and so on manually in the 
> spreadsheet and through individual file uploads. We have at least one, 
> preferably 3 and up to 6 photos per product to maintain.  Call it a 1000 
> images right now, and that will only go up.
> Invalid text / characters in product descriptions and so on can break 
> the CSV as well.
> 
> There are headless CMS solutions out on the market targeting this same 
> area, but for various reasons the suitable ones are still maturing and 
> shaking out in the marketplace, so I am not in a hurry to make a choice.
> 
> So the goal is to replace CSV with JSON file input.  This will also make 
> my life easier for more complex structures such as multiple categories 
> and specs per product.
> I also want to migrate text that can change from the HTML pages into the 
> database for easier changes by end users. For this the users could use  
> a WYSIWIG MarkDown editor, and just cut and past the MarkDown into Base 
> forms when finished.  This will be converted to HTML at build time by 
> Jekyll static site generator or a script.
> 
> So the proposed solution:
> 1. Create the database in Postgresql.
> 2. Link Base or other tool to it and design input forms where necessary
> 
> 3. Enter the data through Base into PG including images, MarkDown / HTML 
> text, long descriptions and so on.
> 3a. If I don't get a suitable CMS going, I could spend some time 
> developing a Vue/Quasar/Nuxt whatever front end to handle this, in 
> several months time.
> 
> 4. Pull the data from Postgres using Python (Psycopg2 will handle 
> images). Or a node.js app once my JS skills improve.
> 4A: optionally use PostgREST, Postgraphile, Pytone Graphene or other to 
> create an externally accessible API, and then use Python or javascript 
> module to pull the data out.
> 
> 5. This program will then write the JSON product file to the website 
> data source directory with image tags, and upload the files to the image 
> store.  Also create product item HTML page templates or or modify HTML 
> content where necessary.
> 6. At this stage the Jekyll static site generator will detect the new 
> JSON data and any changed pages, and regenerate all changed pages, move 
> images and so on.
> 
> 7. Git commit will push the generated site to Github, and Git will then 
> send everything to our CDN.
> 
> There is no traditional web server / app server / db server setup as you 
> would find for most websites using, for example, Wordpress, Magento 
> commerce or other tools.  Just the CDN.
> 
> Everything is static HTML and some javascript.  Because there is no 
> backend system, database or anything else at run time,just when 
> generating the site,  I am not concerned about performance except at 
> site build time, which will not happen that often.  All the SEO data 
> (w3schema / Google, OG / Facebook and Twitter cards) is automatically 
> built into the templates and fleshed out by our build process, so it 
> exists as searchable static content on our page.
> 
> Further down the road we will slowly migrate to a front-end javascript 
> framework like Vue / Nuxt or React / Next, where our site will remain 
> mostly static, with JS in the browser talking to back end hosted 
> services.  We already interact directly from the browser with SnipCart 
> for shopping card, order management and payment gateway services.
> 
> Not sure if that helps explain the problem space a bit better.
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, 27 Mar 2019 at 16:15, Adrian Klaver <adrian.klaver@aklaver.com 
> <mailto:adrian.klaver@aklaver.com>> wrote:
> 
>     On 3/27/19 3:48 AM, Tony Shelver wrote:
>      > Looking for a good tool that I can give to users to enter data (for
>      > example, products, categories, brands, price tables and so on).
>      > Preferably it should also allow images to be copied into a bytea
>     field
>      > but I know I can't have everything.
>      >
>      > Been battling with a few open source 'headless' content management
>      > systems the last few weeks.  All they really are is a data schema
>      > designer, an API interface (for the API / database based ones like
>      > Strapi and Directus), and a content entry front end, along with some
>      > access management added in.
>      > And they don't necessarily play well with the DB, or the technology
>      > stack is something I don't want to deal with.
>      >
>      > I figure using PostgREST or Postgraphile or Python Graphene  or
>     any of
>      > the dedicated 3rd party REST / GraphQL APIs will probably give as
>     good
>      > an API as most of the new content managers,
>      >
>      > pgModeler.io is a way better schema design tool than what I have
>     found
>      > in the CMS systems I have used so far as well.
>      >
>      > Data that I would like to store (and edit) is the usual, but also
>      > images, HTML sections, and markdown.
>      >
>      > Any ideas?
> 
>     I am not really sure from above what you want, so some questions:
> 
>     1) GUI form interface?
>          GUI form builder?
> 
>     2) Enter records one at time or in bulk?
> 
>     3) Cross platform?
>          If so what platforms?
> 
> 
> 
>     -- 
>     Adrian Klaver
>     adrian.klaver@aklaver.com <mailto:adrian.klaver@aklaver.com>
> 


-- 
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@aklaver.com