In this weblog we write about our products and our experiences while designing, implementing, supporting, promoting and using them.
Export Excel files
05 07 2015, Michiel van Vlaardingen in FlexListsWe've improved FlexLists export abilities. First of all we've given you more options when exporting CSV files. Furthermore you are now also able to export Excel (xlsx) files.
We are planning to improve our import options as well.
Print Details
14 12 2010, Michiel van Vlaardingen in FlexListsWe have added a small, but requested feature to FlexLists: you can now print individual entries as well: click an item in the list, at the bottom of the details listing a 'Print Item' button will appear.
Furthermore we fixed a small access bug. In some cases, users with a READ_ADD key were also able to edit entries, by doubleclicking a row. We have now secured FlexLists against this.
For those interested in more advanced search queries, we've added a section to our FAQ:
Can I search specific fields?
Yes you can by using "column name":"your keyword" as a query.
Furthermore you can combine parts of queries using AND and/or OR. e.g.:
status:Busy OR status:"Not started"
you can also exclude certain parts e.g.
-status:Done
for columns with spaces in them you need to put quotes around the name e.g.
"assigned to":Michiel AND -status:Done
Save Your Queries
13 07 2010, Michiel van Vlaardingen in FlexListsThis new feature has been on our todo list for quite some time: storable search queries. If you do a search now, you can click 'Save Query As...' to store your currrent query as a View. You can either store it just for yourself or (if you have adequate permissions) for all list users.
Some examples of queries to store (on a todo style list):
- -status:Done archived:0 (Todo items)
- status:Busy ( All active items)
This new feature is combined with a small layout change, hopefully adressing two important issues:
- Users unable to find their archived items
- New users unable to find out how to add items to an existing list
More Filtering Options
31 03 2009, Michiel van Vlaardingen in FlexListsToday we worked on extending our filtering options to other parts of FlexLists. Starting today you can now also select which items to show on the widget by configuring it on the 'Publish' tab. You could for example show a list on your website with priority 1 items only by entering 'priority:1' as a custom filter and putting the code in your site. Furthermore the printing option will now print the current selection as you see it, instead of the whole list. So you can quickly compile a list using a search query and print just those items.
An other thing we added is the option to hide the time on the date/time fields. You can hide it by checking the 'Date Only' checkbox in the field properties dialog. (available through the 'Fields' tab)
Finally we fixed a few issues with the date picker and optimized the loading of the list data a bit to be on your screen even faster.
Customize FlexLists web export layout
28 10 2008, Michiel van Vlaardingen in FlexListsSome users ask to customize the layout of the FlexLists web export script. Therefore I created a small guide:
It is currently partly possible to customize the layout of the web export ( available from the Publish tab). You can not do it directly in the FlexLists website, but if you are familiar with HTML/CSS there are some things you can change.
Basically the output of the FlexLists web export script looks like:
<table class="FLEXlist">
<thead>
<tr> <th>field name 1</th> ............</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr> <td> field 1 value</td> ..............</tr>
................
</tbody>
</table>
So if you insert the following code before the <script....> from flexlists:
<style type="text/css">
table.FLEXlist{width: 500px;}
table.FLEXlist thead th{ background-color: #666666; color: white; text-align: left; }
table.FLEXlist tbody td{ border: 1px solid #666666; }
</style>
You will see a different appearance. Have a look at: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/propidx.html to see possible properties and values that are allowed in this small piece of CSS. To explain a bit: the first row are the table properties, the second row the properties of the header cells and the third row are the properties of the other table cells. So this particular example gives the table a standard width of 500 pixels, makes the header have a dark background with white text and left-aligned text. And finally adds dark borders around the data cells.
Changing the locks
27 06 2008, Michiel van Vlaardingen in FlexListsWe made a change to the FlexLists secret URL approach. We no longer use the keys for normal list access, this means that the secret key will no longer be displayed in the URL bar. And will not be used at all, as soon as the list is in your user account. This means that if you do not share your lists the key is not handed out anymore. In the future we can now also make it possible to use secret keys for individuals and make them revokable. Which will make it more in line with the sharing options used in other sites.
An other addition is the possibility to export CSV files for subsets of your data. So you can for example search for a keyword and then export only that part of your data to CSV.
04 06 2008: Archives
01 06 2008: Downtime expected for FlexLists
09 05 2008: FlexLists Update
07 05 2008: Towards BloxDB
01 03 2008: Clone Your Lists
11 10 2007: Time to clean up
05 05 2007: Do YOU get FlexLists?
30 04 2007: Better FlexLists Lists
16 03 2007: User Interface Tuning
24 12 2006: FlexLists updates
18 08 2006: Simple Project Management with FlexLists