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Show HN: PivotHelper, utility for generating Pivot tables and charts

37 points by BjoernKW 8y ago

zschuessler 8y ago
Looks neat! Would it be possible to show off a demo with an existing data set? On initial viewing the page I'll admit I have no idea what this is for or what I should do. When I upload the demo CSV I was confused because I only saw a table. I almost closed the page but scrolled to the very bottom, then saw a tool involving pivots, but wasn't sure how to use it. If you add a headline and short blurb about what this tool does, then show a demo with an active data set showing how it solves the problem outlined in your headline, I think it'd be a pretty nice landing page! Cheers.
- BjoernKW 8y ago
  Thank you for these very useful suggestions. I'll look into it.
aboutruby 8y ago
Very cool, one thing is that it drops the last line of my csv
- BjoernKW 8y ago
  This might be an issue with SheetJS, the library used for reading data from input files. If you create a GitHub issue with some example data for reproducing the problem I'll look into it.
- creatornator 8y ago
  Maybe you need to have a trailing newline? Not sure...
phailhaus 8y ago
When I tried using one of the example datasets, it automatically downloaded the CSV instead of just using it. That was pretty unexpected. After that I tried going to the pivot table, couldn't really get anything useful to appear, so I left.
- aboutruby 8y ago
  The example data is not great, the column names are not very informative. But if you load some real data then it gets interesting. Took me a few tries to kind of "get it" but basically I drag my index / name into the main area (in "bar chart" mode) and then tried a few operators on some columns and it gave pretty good results quickly. I feel like there is a lot of depth but as I'm not used to spreadsheets / pivot tables too much I just used the basics.
- BjoernKW 8y ago
  Sorry for that. Downloading the sample datasets could indeed be unexpected. I'll clarify this by adding a hint.
BjoernKW 8y ago
I've just released a new version that fixes the issues reported here so far. Thanks a lot for your input!
nreco 8y ago
It seems this is just integration of https://github.com/nicolaskruchten/pivottable https://github.com/nicolaskruchten/pivottable, and this component already has a sample where you can upload your CSV: https://pivottable.js.org/examples/local.html https://pivottable.js.org/examples/local.html pivottable.js is client-side only widget, so naturally it cannot handle large CSV files (try to use it with 100+ MB). For quck ad-hoc reporting with pivot tables I recommend to check https://www.seektable.com/ https://www.seektable.com/
- BjoernKW 8y ago
  Yes, PivotHelper is an integration of these components (as mentioned in the project's README file): * PivotTable.js * PrimeNG TurboTable (for filtering) * SheetJS (for importing not just CSV files but Excel files, too, as well as exporting the filtered results to an Excel file again) SeekTable looks interesting. Thanks for the link.

37 points by BjoernKW 8y ago

Looks neat! Would it be possible to show off a demo with an existing data set? On initial viewing the page I'll admit I have no idea what this is for or what I should do. When I upload the demo CSV I was confused because I only saw a table. I almost closed the page but scrolled to the very bottom, then saw a tool involving pivots, but wasn't sure how to use it. If you add a headline and short blurb about what this tool does, then show a demo with an active data set showing how it solves the problem outlined in your headline, I think it'd be a pretty nice landing page! Cheers.

BjoernKW 8y ago
Thank you for these very useful suggestions. I'll look into it.

aboutruby 8y ago

Very cool, one thing is that it drops the last line of my csv

BjoernKW 8y ago
This might be an issue with SheetJS, the library used for reading data from input files. If you create a GitHub issue with some example data for reproducing the problem I'll look into it.
creatornator 8y ago
Maybe you need to have a trailing newline? Not sure...

phailhaus 8y ago

When I tried using one of the example datasets, it automatically downloaded the CSV instead of just using it. That was pretty unexpected. After that I tried going to the pivot table, couldn't really get anything useful to appear, so I left.

aboutruby 8y ago
The example data is not great, the column names are not very informative. But if you load some real data then it gets interesting. Took me a few tries to kind of "get it" but basically I drag my index / name into the main area (in "bar chart" mode) and then tried a few operators on some columns and it gave pretty good results quickly. I feel like there is a lot of depth but as I'm not used to spreadsheets / pivot tables too much I just used the basics.
BjoernKW 8y ago
Sorry for that. Downloading the sample datasets could indeed be unexpected. I'll clarify this by adding a hint.

BjoernKW 8y ago

I've just released a new version that fixes the issues reported here so far. Thanks a lot for your input!

nreco 8y ago

It seems this is just integration of https://github.com/nicolaskruchten/pivottable https://github.com/nicolaskruchten/pivottable, and this component already has a sample where you can upload your CSV: https://pivottable.js.org/examples/local.html https://pivottable.js.org/examples/local.html pivottable.js is client-side only widget, so naturally it cannot handle large CSV files (try to use it with 100+ MB). For quck ad-hoc reporting with pivot tables I recommend to check https://www.seektable.com/ https://www.seektable.com/

BjoernKW 8y ago
Yes, PivotHelper is an integration of these components (as mentioned in the project's README file): * PivotTable.js * PrimeNG TurboTable (for filtering) * SheetJS (for importing not just CSV files but Excel files, too, as well as exporting the filtered results to an Excel file again) SeekTable looks interesting. Thanks for the link.