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MediaWikiTablePlugin

This plugin allows to create tables using the MediaWiki table syntax and can be used to help porting MediaWiki content to TWiki as well as lower the entry barier of users acustommed to MediaWiki to also use TWiki.

This plugin deliberately does not provide the full MediaWiki markup syntax and only focuses on table markup. TWiki's and MediaWiki's table markup can't be mapped on each other as the latter is much more powerful and allows to control the resulting HTML markup in much detail.

If you want to enable MediaWiki wiki markup then you might also be interested in the TWiki:Plugins/EditSyntaxPlugin.

If you want to import content in MediaWiki format and convert it to TWiki markup as much as possible then use the TWiki:Plugins/MediaWiki2TWikiAddOn (forthcoming).

Syntax Rules

The entire table is encased with curly brackets and a vertical bar character (a pipe). So use {| to begin a table, and |} to end it. Each one needs to be on its own line:

{|
   table code goes here
|}

An optional caption is included with a line starting with a vertical bar and plus sign |+ and the caption after it:

{|
|+ caption
   table code goes here
|}

To start a new row, type a vertical bar and a dash on its own line: |-. The codes for the cells in that row will start on the next line.

{|
 |+ The table's caption
 |-
   cell code goes here
 |-
   cell code goes here
|}

Type the codes for each cell in the next row, starting with a bar:

{|
|+ The table's caption
|-
| cell codes go here
|-
| cells in the next row go here
| more cells in the same row here
|}

Cells can be separated with either a new line and new bar, or by a double bar || on the same line. Both produce the same output:

{|
|+ The table's caption
|-
|Cell 1 || Cell 2 || Cell 3
|-
|Cell A 
|Cell B
|Cell C
|}

A row of column headings is identified by using ! instead of |, and using !! instead of ||. Header cells typically render differently than regular cells, depending on the browser. They are often rendered in a bold font and centered.

{|
|+ The table's caption
! Column heading 1 !! Column heading 2 !! Column heading 3
|-
|Cell 1 || Cell 2 || Cell 3
|-
|Cell A
|Cell B
|Cell C
|}

The first cell of a row is identified as row heading by starting the line with ! instead of |, and starting subsequent data cells on a new line.

{|
|+ The table's caption
! Column heading 1 !! Column heading 2 !! Column heading 3
|-
! Row heading 1 
| Cell 2 || Cell 3
|-
! Row heading A 
|Cell B
|Cell C
|}

Optional parameters can modify the behavior of cells, rows, or the entire table. For instance, a border could be added to the table:

{| border="1"
|+ The table's caption
! Column heading 1 !! Column heading 2 !! Column heading 3
|-
! Row heading 1
| Cell 2 || Cell 3
|-
! Row heading A
|Cell B
|Cell C
|}

The final table would display like this:

The table's caption
Column heading 1	Column heading 2	Column heading 3
Row heading 1	Cell 2	Cell 3
Row heading A	Cell B	Cell C

The table parameters and cell parameters are the same as in HTML see w3c However, the thead, tbody, tfoot, colgroup, and col elements are currently not supported.

A table can be useful even if none of the cells have content. For example, the background colors of cells can be changed with cell parameters, making the table into a diagram. An "image" in the form of a table is much more convenient to edit than an uploaded image.

Each row must have the same number of cells as the other rows, so that the number of columns in the table remains consistent (unless there are cells which span several columns or rows, see colspan and rowspan in Mélange example below). For empty cells, use the non-breaking space   as content to ensure that the cells are displayed. To show a visible pipe in a cell, use <nop>| or |.

Pipe syntax in terms of the HTML produced

The pipe syntax, developed by Magnus Manske, substitutes pipes (|) for HTML. There is an on-line script which converts html tables to pipe syntax tables.

The pipes must start at the beginning of a new line, except when separating parameters from content or when using || to separate cells on a single line. The parameters are optional.

Tables

A table is defined by

params>

which equals

 <table params>Insert non-formatted text here
 </table>

Rows

<tr> tags will be generated automatically for the first row. To start a new row, use

|-

which results in

 <tr>

Parameters can be added like this:

 |- params

which results in

 <tr params>

Cells

Cells are generated either like this:

 | cell1
 | cell2
 | cell3

or like this:

 | cell1 || cell2 || cell3

which both equal

 <td>cell1</td><td>cell2</td><td>cell3</td>

so "||" equals "newline" + "|"

Parameters in cells can be used like this:

 | params|cell1 || params|cell2 || params|cell3

which will result in

 <td params>cell1</td>
 <td params>cell2</td>
 <td params>cell3</td>

Headers

Functions the same way as TD, except "!" is used instead of the opening "|". "!!" can be used instead of "||". Parameters still use "|", though! Example:

 ! params|cell1

Captions

A <caption> tag is created by

 |+ Caption

which generates

 <caption>Caption</caption>

You can also use parameters:

 |+ params|Caption

which will generate

 <caption params>Caption</caption>

Comparison of table syntax

This is a comparison of the three basic ways to compose tables. The TWiki collumn just lists the basic markup capabilities. Note, that there are table plugins to enhance the formatting capabilities, i.e. the TWiki:Plugins/TablePlugin. For the sake of simplicity its features are not under consideration here.

The the notion of n/a in some cases means that the element under consideration is not represented in the markup model.

XHTML

TWiki

MediaWiki

Table

n/a

{|
|}

Caption

n/a

Row

n/a

Data cell

| cell1 | cell2 | cell3 |

| cell1
| cell2
| cell1 || cell2 || cell3

Header cell

| *cell1* | *cell2* | *cell3* |

Sample table

1	2
3	4

| 1 | 2 |
| 3 | 4 |

{|
| 1 || 2
|-
| 3 || 4
|}

Examples

Simple example

Both of these generate the same output. Choose a style based on the amount of cells in each row and the total text inside each cell.

Wiki markup

{| 
| A 
| B
|- 
| C
| D
|}

{| 
| A || B
|- 
| C || D 
|}

What it looks like in your browser

A	B
C	D

Multiplication table

Wiki markup

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+Multiplication table
|-
! &amp;times; !! 1 !! 2 !! 3
|-
! 1
| 1 || 2 || 3
|-
! 2
| 2 || 4 || 6
|-
! 3
| 3 || 6 || 9
|-
! 4
| 4 || 8 || 12
|-
! 5
| 5 || 10 || 15
|}

What it looks like in your browser

Multiplication table
×	1	2	3
1	1	2	3
2	2	4	6
3	3	6	9
4	4	8	12
5	5	10	15

Colors and scope of parameters

Two ways of specifying color of text and background for a single cell are as follows. The first form is preferred:

Wiki markup

{| 
| style="background:red; color:white" | abc
| def
| bgcolor="red" | <font color="white"> ghi </font>
| jkl
|}

What it looks like in your browser

abc

def

ghi

jkl

Like other parameters, colors can also be specified for a whole row or the whole table; parameters for a row override the value for the table, and those for a cell override those for a row:

Wiki markup

{| style="background:yellow; color:green"
|- 
| abc || def || ghi
|- style="background:red; color:white"
| jkl || mno || pqr
|-
| stu || style="background:silver" | vwx || yz
|}

What it looks like in your browser

abc	def	ghi
jkl	mno	pqr
stu	vwx	yz

To make the table blend in with the background, use style="background:none". (Warning: style="background:inherit", does not work with some browsers, including IE6!)

Width and height

The width and height of the whole table can be specified, as well as the height of a row. To specify the width of a column one can specify the width of an arbitrary cell in it. If the width is not specified for all columns, and/or the height is not specified for all rows, then there is some ambiguity, and the result depends on the browser.

Wiki markup

{| style="width:75%; height:200px" border="1"
|- 
| abc || def || ghi
|- style="height:100px" 
| jkl || style="width:200px" |mno || pqr
|-
| stu || vwx || yz
|}

What it looks like in your browser

abc	def	ghi
jkl	mno	pqr
stu	vwx	yz

Note that style="inline CSS" has no effect with some browsers. If it's important equivalent older constructs like width="75%" should work on more browsers.

Setting your column widths

If you wish to force column widths to your own requirements, rather than accepting the width of the widest text element in a column's cells, then follow this example. Note that wrap-around of text is forced.

{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
!width="50"|Name
!width="225"|Effect
!width="225"|Games Found In
|-
|Pok� Ball || Regular Pok� Ball || All Versions
|-
|Great Ball || Better than a Pok� Ball || All Versions
|}

Name	Effect	Games Found In
Pok� Ball	Regular Pok� Ball	All Versions
Great Ball	Better than a Pok� Ball	All Versions

To set column widths in a table without headers, specify the width in the first cell for each column, like this:

{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
|-
|width="100pt"|This column is 100 points wide
|width="200pt"|This column is 200 points wide
|width="300pt"|This column is 300 points wide
|-
|blah || blah || blah
|}

This column is 100 points wide	This column is 200 points wide	This column is 300 points wide
blah	blah	blah

Vertical alignment

By default data in tables is vertically centrally aligned, which results in odd-looking layouts like this:

'''Row heading'''	A longer piece of text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.	A shorter piece of text.
'''Row heading'''	A longer piece of text.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.	A shorter piece of text.

To fix this, apply the valign="top" attribute to the rows (unfortunately it seems to be necessary to apply this individually to every single row). For example:

{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
|-valign="top"
|width="10%"|'''Row heading'''
|width="70%"|A longer piece of text. Lorem ipsum...
|width="20%"|A shorter piece of text.
|-valign="top"
|'''Row heading'''
|A longer piece of text. Lorem ipsum... 
|A shorter piece of text.
|}

'''Row heading'''	A longer piece of text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.	A shorter piece of text.
'''Row heading'''	A longer piece of text.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.	A shorter piece of text.

Positioning

One can position the table itself, and all contents in a row, and contents in a cell, but not with a single parameter all contents in the table. Do not, under any circumstances, use "float" to position a table. It will break page rendering at large font sizes.

Mélange

Here's a more advanced example, showing some more options available for making up tables. You can play with these settings in your own table to see what effect they have. Not all of these techniques may be appropriate in all cases; just because you can add colored backgrounds, for example, doesn't mean it's always a good idea. Try to keep the markup in your tables relatively simple -- remember, other people are going to be editing the article too! This example should give you an idea of what is possible, though.

Wiki markup

{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|+'''An example table'''
|-
! style="background:#efefef;color:black;" | First header
! colspan="2" style="background:#ffdead;color:black;" | Second header
|-
| upper left
| &nbsp;
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" valign="top" |
right side
|-
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" | lower left
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" | lower middle
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" |
{| border="0"
|+''A table in a table''
|-
| align="center" width="150px" | [[Image:wiki.png]]
| align="center" width="150px" | [[Image:wiki.png]]
|-
| align="center" colspan="2" style="border-top:1px solid red; border-right:1px
          solid red; border-bottom:2px solid red; border-left:1px solid red;" |
Two logos
|}
|}

What it looks like in your browser

'''An example table'''

First header

Second header

upper left

right side

lower left

lower middle

''A table in a table''

Two logos

Floating table

Wiki markup

This paragraph is before the table.  Lorem ipsum dolor sit
amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor
incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad
minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation...

{| align="right" border="1"
| Col 1, row 1 
|rowspan="2"| Col 2, row 1 (and 2) 
| Col 3, row 1 
|- 
| Col 1, row 2 
| Col 3, row 2 
|}

Note the floating table to the right.   

This paragraph is after the table.  Lorem ipsum dolor sit
amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor
incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad
minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation...

What it looks like in your browser

This paragraph is before the table. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation...

Col 1, row 1	Col 2, row 1 (and 2)	Col 3, row 1
Col 1, row 2	Col 2, row 1 (and 2)	Col 3, row 2

Note the floating table to the right.

This paragraph is after the table. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation...

Nested tables

This shows one table (in blue) nested inside another table's cell2. ''Nested tables have to start on a new line.''

Wiki markup

{| border="1"<br />
| &amp;alpha;<br />
| align="center" | cell2<br />
<span style="color: navy;">
'''{| border="2" style="background-color:#ABCDEF;"'''<br />
'''| NESTED'''<br />
'''|-'''<br />
'''| TABLE'''<br />
'''|}'''<br />
</span>
| valign="bottom" | the original table again<br />
|}

What it looks like in your browser

cell2

NESTED

TABLE

the original table again

Combined use of COLSPAN and ROWSPAN

Wiki markup

{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"
|-
! Column 1 || Column 2 || Column 3
|-
| rowspan="2"| A
| colspan="2" align="center"| B
|-
| C &lt;!-- column 1 occupied by cell A --&gt;
| D 
|-
| E
| rowspan="2" colspan="2" align="center"| F
|- 
| G &lt;!-- column 2+3 occupied by cell F --&gt;
|- 
| colspan="3" align="center"| H
|}

What it looks like in your browser

Column 1	Column 2	Column 3
A	B
A	C	D
E	F
G	F
H

Note that using rowspan="2" for cell G combined with rowspan="3" for cell F to get another row below G and F won't work, because all (implicit) cells would be empty. Likewise complete columns are not displayed if all their cells are empty. Borders between non-empty and empty cells might be also not displayed (depending on the browser), use   to fill an empty cell with dummy content.

Centering tables

Centered tables can be achieved, but they will not "float"; that is to say, no text will appear to either side. The trick is {| style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"

Wiki markup

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|+ *Cells left-aligned, table centered*
! Duis || aute || irure
|-
| dolor  || in reprehenderit || in voluptate velit
|-
| esse cillum dolore || eu fugiat nulla || pariatur.
|}

What it looks like in your browser

**Cells left-aligned, table centered**
Duis	aute	irure
dolor	in reprehenderit	in voluptate velit
esse cillum dolore	eu fugiat nulla	pariatur.

Setting parameters

At the start of a cell, add your parameter followed by a single pipe. For example width="300"| will set that cell to a width of 300 pixels. To set more than one parameter, leave a space between each one.

Wiki markup

{| style="color:white"
|-
| bgcolor="red"|cell1 || width="300" bgcolor="blue"|cell2 || bgcolor="green"|cell3
|}

What it looks like in your browser

cell1

cell2

cell3

Decimal point alignment

A method to get columns of numbers aligned at the decimal point is as follows:

Wiki markup

{| cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
|align="right"| 432 || .1
|-
|align="right"| 43 || .21
|-
|align="right"| 4 || .321
|}

What it looks like in your browser

432	.1
43	.21
4	.321

If the column of numbers appears in a table with cell padding or cell spacing, one can still align the decimal points without an unsightly gap in the middle. Embed a table in each number's cell and specify its column widths. Make the embedded tables' column widths the same for each cell in the column. (If decimal points are still misaligned using this method, the main table's column may be too narrow. Add a parameter to increase the column's width.)

Wiki markup

{|border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="2" width="100px"
|
{|cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"
|align="right" width="50%"| 432 ||width="50%"| .1
|}
|-
|
{|cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"
|align="right" width="50%"| 43 ||width="50%"| .21
|}
|-
|
{|cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"
|align="right" width="50%"| 4 ||width="50%"| .321
|}
|}

What it looks like in your browser

432

.21

.321

In simple cases one can dispense with the table feature and simply start the lines with a space, and put spaces to position the numbers:

 432.1
  43.21
   4.321

Style classes

Some users have created CSS classes and templates to make table styles easier. Instead of remembering table parameters, you just include an appropriate style class after the {|. This helps keep table formatting consistent, and can allow a single change to the class to fix a problem or enhance the look of all the tables that are using it at once. For instance, this:

{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
|+Multiplication table
|-
! &amp;times; !! 1 !! 2 !! 3
|-
! 1
| 1 || 2 || 3
|-
! 2
| 2 || 4 || 6
|-
! 3
| 3 || 6 || 9
|-
! 4
| 4 || 8 || 12
|-
! 5
| 5 || 10 || 15
|}

Multiplication table
×	1	2	3
1	1	2	3
2	2	4	6
3	3	6	9
4	4	8	12
5	5	10	15

becomes this:

{| class="wikitable"
|+Multiplication table
|-
! &amp;times; !! 1 !! 2 !! 3
|-
! 1
| 1 || 2 || 3
|-
! 2
| 2 || 4 || 6
|-
! 3
| 3 || 6 || 9
|-
! 4
| 4 || 8 || 12
|-
! 5
| 5 || 10 || 15
|}

Multiplication table
×	1	2	3
1	1	2	3
2	2	4	6
3	3	6	9
4	4	8	12
5	5	10	15

simply by replacing inline CSS for the table by class="wikitable". This is because the wikitable class in the plugin's style.css file contains a number of wikitable CSS style rules. These are all applied at once when you mark a table with the class. You can then add additional style rules if desired. These override the class's rules, allowing you to use the class style as a base and build up on it:

Wiki markup

{| class="wikitable" style="font-style:italic; font-size:120%; border:3px dashed red;"
|+Multiplication table
|-
! &amp;times; !! 1 !! 2 !! 3
|-
! 1
| 1 || 2 || 3
|-
! 2
| 2 || 4 || 6
|-
! 3
| 3 || 6 || 9
|-
! 4
| 4 || 8 || 12
|-
! 5
| 5 || 10 || 15
|}

What it looks like in your browser

Multiplication table
×	1	2	3
1	1	2	3
2	2	4	6
3	3	6	9
4	4	8	12
5	5	10	15

Notice that the table retains the gray background of the wikitable class, and the headers are still bold and centered. But now the text formatting has been overridden by the local style statement; all of the text in the table has been made italic and 120% normal size, and the wikitable border has been replaced by the red dashed border.

Of course this works only for browsers supporting inline CSS, if it's important use XHTML markup like <big> instead of "font-size:120%", or Wiki markup like _text_ instead of "font-style:italic".

Plugin Installation Instructions

Download the ZIP file
Unzip MediaWikiTablePlugin.zip in your twiki installation directory. Content:

File: Description:

%$MANIFEST%

Visit configure in your TWiki installation, and enable the plugin in the {Plugins} section.

Plugin Info

Plugin Author:	TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum
Copyright ©:	2006-2007, Michael Daum http://wikiring.de
License:	GPL (GNU General Public License)
Plugin Version:	v1.00
Change History:
13 Nov 2007:	minor performance tweaks
13 Oct 2006:	table markup may start have whitespaces at the beginning of a line
22 Sep 2006:	Initial version
CPAN Dependencies:	none
Other Dependencies:	none
Perl Version:	5.8
TWiki:Plugins/Benchmark:	GoodStyle nn%, FormattedSearch nn%, MediaWikiTablePlugin nn%
Plugin Home:	TWiki:Plugins/MediaWikiTablePlugin
Feedback:	TWiki:Plugins/MediaWikiTablePluginDev
Appraisal:	TWiki:Plugins/MediaWikiTablePluginAppraisal

-- TWiki:Main/MichaelDaum - 13 Nov 2007

TWiki

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Attachments Attachments

	Attachment	Action	Size	Date	Who	Comment
	style.css	props, move	0.3 K	09 Oct 2006 - 10:39	UnknownUser

r0 - 22 Sep 2006 - 16:56:33 - TWikiContributor

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