Multi Text

Let’s see if I can explain it a bit more.

During development of our site I’ve updated from 1.0.7 to 1.0.8. We had about 50 entries where we used the extension.

Once I had altered the correct number of columns the data looked out of place. Just in the ACP. But we had to change all entries again to make sure data looked in place.

A sample:

Version 1.0.7 Column 1 | Column 2 Name A | Role A Name B | Role B

After the update it looked like this: Version 1.0.8 Column 1 | Column 2 Name A | Role A empty | Name B Role B | empty

We manually adjusted all entries, but now that we’ve gone live I wouldn’t want to do all that manual labour again.

Is there a way for me to adjust the extension so that it has a standard 2 column layout as soon as I update? Because I guess that’s where the problem started for us.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll just update and see where we end. I’m just trying to be cautious.

Hum, I’m not sure why the upgrade would have messed up the display of the data. It doesn’t touch that table in the database. I’d like to say that wouldn’t happen again, but now knowing why it happened last time doesn’t leave me feeling confident that it won’t happen again. I’d certainly suggest attempting the upgrade on a development or staging server before doing it to your live data.

Could this be related to the problem I described in my post?

possibly Visiluna, and it’s something I’m looking into for the next version. I’m not sure my method of storing the data is as sound as I thought it was when I started out.

Ok, thanks for your answers. I recently cleared my development installation. I hope to get back to it in a couple of days/weeks. Until then I leave things the way they are. I’ve been able to solve my speed problems. So I keep this on hold.

Nevertheless, if you need some testing, let me know. Within a week or two I must be able to start my usual routine again and be able to spend some time on these things.

Hi there,

I have used this extension before on other sites with no problems at all but today I am having problems with it. I just updated the site from 1.4.2 to 1.5.2. I have installed the extension and language file. I created a custom field called files_for_download. I then placed 2 into the textarea field and then filled in the drop down list for the names and then converted it to a Multi-Text field.

When I go to publish a new entry or edit an existing one the field shows up with two columns as expected but if I submit the entry and then go back and edit it again there is nothing in there so I am guessing that the data isn’t going into the database.

Has anyone else ever had this and knows what’s causing it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Mark

Shameless bump!! :-(

Sorry but I was wondering if anyone had ever had the problem whereby they place data into the fields in either a new post or a post via edit and then submit the entry and then go back to it and the data has disappeared?

Any help with this would be massively appreciated.

Regards,

Mark

Hiya,

Sorry about the last two posts. Figured it out myself in the end. There is a post here if anyone else should ever have the same problems that I had with this.

Best wishes,

Mark

I have the same problem as Ronny & Mark with version 1.5.2 Build: 20070604 And the last version of multi text 1.0.9

When save/update article, multitext moves colums around and adding rows…

-Michael

Hi Michael,

Did you see my post above with the link in. I was also using the Multi Drop Down extension provided by Mark and when I turned this off everything was okay. I upgraded to the latest version of that extension and then Multi-Text started working properly again.

I have also had the problem with things moving around and it has really only been when let’s say I have 3 columns and don’t fill in say the third column with anything I find that things go a bit awry. As long as there is data in all the columns then no problems. A bit silly of me I think anyway for creating the column and then not using it but it was because some of the entries wouldn’t need that column so all I do now is put a dash or something else in there and check against that.

A question for Mark though and more of a feature request than anything. I was wondering if it would be at all possible to make the Multi-Text field able to have drop-down fields in one or more of the columns. Currently on a few client sites I have say a 3 column multi-text field for images where they need to fill in a name for the image (they can manage this one 😊 ) the name of the file (again they usually get this right :-D ) and then the last column is the trickier one whereby I need them to put in a word or more correctly a choice of words with underscores in (please don’t ask why).

It would be great if the column could have a drop-down in it that already has these options in it so that they can just choose it from a list instead of trying to remember the correct word to put in and even when they do remember then sometimes they spell it wrong so it all mucks up. I do at the moment use the fields instructions box to put the words in so that they can copy and paste but that can still go wrong as they might copy an extra space or something so this would be a brilliant addition if at all possible.

I was thinking maybe where you put in the details for the columns it could be like this instead :

Column One
Column Two
Column Three || Option One | Option Two

This would then create a multi-text field that would have three columns the third of which would have a drop-down selector field with Option One & Option Two in as choices.

Not a problem if it isn’t possible but it would really help me out on a lot of sites and hopefully others too?

Regards,

Mark

Michael, are you running any other extensions? Can you give me an example of what the content of the field looks like before and after you save the entry?

Mark that is certainly possible, I just don’t want to frankenstein the extension to do more than it should, I’d like to keep the functionality simple. That said your solution is the cleanest I’ve seen yet, and may just make it into a future revision, but thats still a while off.

Thanks for the thoughts, mark.

Mark that is certainly possible, I just don’t want to frankenstein the extension to do more than it should, I’d like to keep the functionality simple. That said your solution is the cleanest I’ve seen yet, and may just make it into a future revision, but thats still a while off. Thanks for the thoughts, mark.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the reply. I totally agree about you not Frankensteining (I guess that means bloating) the extension but I really do hope that this makes it into the next revision as I would be massively appreciative of that functionality. At the moment on a lot of client sites I am having to go in and fix their mistakes a lot and this would prevent probably 99% of the errors. Also my idea of implementation may not be the best but I did think that it would be nice in this way because then people could choose as to whether or not they do or don’t utilize this method just by what they type into the textarea.

Anyway I hope that this does make it in. Just want to echo again that I think you are an extension god!! 😊

Best wishes,

Mark

Thanks for the kind words.

No problem at all.

Thank you for all the excellent work that you put into making EE so good!!

Regards,

Mark