Count to 10 and Say Yes

Count to 10 and Say Yes
JOHN HENRY DONOVAN
Engine Summit 7th June 2011

Introduction
We have all been there. A client emails and makes an unreasonable
feature request. Our first response after the explosion of expletives
would be to say no. But let's count to 10 and rescue the situation.

Lateral thinking
• For me personally, lateral thinking plays a big part when designing
architecture for a clients web application/site

• It's problem solving at it's lowest common denominator

• In ExpressionEngine these problems present themselves all the
time. I call it problem solving but it is really solution finding

• Lateral thinking comes into play the more you become aware of the
flexibility that EE has to offer. Your solution depends on the tools
and knowledge you have at hand. It's about taking something you
know and applying or seeing it in a different way.

• Lets examine one of the most common over thought items in EE

{if news_image == "black"}

<img src="/images/black-image.jpg" />

{if:elseif news_image == "red"}

<img src="/images/red-image.jpg" />

{if:elseif news_image == "yellow"}

<img src="/images/yellow-image.jpg" />

{if:elseif news_image == "green"}

<img src="/images/green-image.jpg" />

{if:elseif news_image == "blue"}

<img src="/images/blue-image.jpg" />

{if:else}

<img src="/images/pink-image.jpg" />

{/if}

The Member Export Tool
"We want to be able to export our members into Excel. Looking at
them in EE is all well and good but I want the data available to our
non-webeditors also. We have an a piece of software here in the
office that we want to import our members into"

IMMEDIATE THOUGHTS

• I just built you a whole website in ExpressionEngine, why do you
need to do this??
• There must be an add-on that does what they want
• Punt the cat down the stairs

LETS THINK ABOUT THIS

• What are the exact reasons behind the client wanting this
• There must be a gap in the workflow I created for them
• It is something out of scope so lets do our best to make his flawless
• Lets cover all angles
• Lets turn this into a project that we can charge a client for and be
happy with the outcome

SPEC

• Export as a downloadable CSV file
• Choose today's date
• Choose a specific date
• Choose a date range
• Make it all template based
• Protect it from the public

http://www.mydomain.com/member-export/index

/member-export/index
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">

<title>Member Data Custom Export Tool</title>

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.13/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
<script src="/global/js/daterangepicker.jQuery.js"></script>

<link href="/global/css/ui.daterangepicker.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />
<link href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.13/themes/redmond/jquery-ui.css"
type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />


<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="{stylesheet=_includes/style}" />

<script type="text/javascript">
$(function(){

$('input#range').daterangepicker( {
text: 'My Range',
dateStart: '2010-01-01',
dateEnd: 'Today',
dateFormat:'yy-mm-dd',
rangeSplitter:'/',
onClose: function(){

var actionDate="/member-export/exporter/"+$("input#range").val();

$("#export-tool").attr("action",actionDate);

}
} );
});
</script>

</head>

/member-export/index (continued)

<body>

{if logged_out}

<h1>Bugger off!</h1>
<p>You must be a site administrator to view this page.</p>

{if:else}

<h1>Member Data Custom Export Tool</h1>
<form action="" id="export-tool">
<input type="text" value="Choose dates" id="range" />
<input class="submit" type="submit" value="Download"/>
</form>

{/if}

</body>
</html>

member-export

exporter

today specific date date range

member-export.csv

/member-export/exporter

{if segment_3 == "" AND segment_4 == ""}
<h1>Bugger off!</h1>
<p>You must be a site administrator to view this page.</p>
{/if}


{if segment_3 == "{current_time format='%Y-%m-%d'}" AND segment_4 == ""}
{embed="member-export/today" date1="{current_time format='Y-%m-%d'}"}
{/if}


{if segment_3 != "{current_time format='Y-%m-%d'}" AND segment_4 == "" AND segment_3 != ""}
{embed="member-export/specific-date" date1="{segment_3}"}
{/if}


{if segment_3 != "" && segment_4 != ""}
{embed="member-export/date-range" date1="{segment_3}" date2="{segment_4}"}
{/if}

/member-export/today

{exp:ajw_export sql="SELECT
m.member_id AS 'Website Member Id',
date_format(from_unixtime(join_date), '%d/%m/%Y') AS 'Join Date',
m.username AS 'Username',
m.email AS 'Email',
m.url AS 'URL',
m_field_id_1 AS 'Subscribed to Newsletter'
FROM exp_members AS m LEFT JOIN exp_member_data AS d ON d.member_id = m.member_id
WHERE date_format(from_unixtime(join_date), '%d-%m-%Y')='{embed:date1}'
ORDER BY m.member_id DESC"
format="csv" filename="member-export.csv"
}

/member-export/specific-date

m.email AS 'Email',
m.url AS 'URL',
WHERE date_format(from_unixtime(join_date), '%d-%m-%Y')='{embed:date1}'
}

/member-export/date-range

m.email AS 'Email',
m.url AS 'URL',
WHERE date_format(from_unixtime(join_date), '%Y-%m-%d') BETWEEN '{embed:date1}' AND
'{embed:date2}'
}

Thanks
JOHN HENRY DONOVAN
http://johnhenry.ie
@johnhenry_ie

Count to 10 and Say Yes

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