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Having read other forum posts, it seems ChronoForms could be used to create what is effectively a spreadsheet (only better-looking!). Custom PHP or Javascript coding would be required.

My aim is to develop a site with a "saveable spreadsheet". I would design the spreadsheet, which would be moderately complex. Whenever a user registers, a blank version of this spreadsheet becomes available to them to enter data. They would be able to save this spreadsheet and return later. The data would be particular to them - so it's not a shared spreadsheet.

Although a spreadsheet in principle, I think it could be achieved by one box in Chronoforms being the sum of a number of other boxes, etc etc. It would have to be split on to a few pages, with (for example) a final page drawing figures from previous pages and creating a summary... much like sheets in Excel.

It would not be "submitted" afterwards, it's basically just an online saveable spreadsheet for a particular purpose.

With these particular requirements in mind, can anyone suggest whether Chronoforms could cope with this? Is there an example of where something like this has been done before?

Thanks, Tom.

Hi Tom,

I'm sure that this is techically possible - though I've never seen anything like it and it feels like quite a lot of hard work.

It might be easier just to embed a customised spreadsheet from Google Apps or even Excel??

Bob

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your prompt reply.

I think embedding a spreadsheet with Google Docs or Excel would be easy enough if I just wanted one shared spreadsheet. What I want, however, is one "master spreadsheet", a blank version of which is created for each user (so each user can input and save their own data). From that point of view (i.e. creating a blank form for each user to save their own data) Chronoforms would be perfect, and it is also likely to be more attractive and user-friendly than a spreadsheet. But I take your point that for the rest of the job it's maybe too much hard work!

Correct me if I'm wrong (I probably am), but more or less wouldn't a few lines of Javascript in text box A be able to show the sum of text boxes B - E (for example)? If so, that doesn't sound too bad, even if repeated dozens of times.

Tom

Hi Tom,

Yes, with a little design thought and using some arrays in the code & the script that should work OK. If you only need 'addition' and some basic spreadsheet type functionality then ChronoForms should work OK.

Bob

Thanks Bob, very interesting. It sounds achievable, though as a coding novice I might well get unstuck (I won't know until I try). I'll give it a go - I might decide on another route, but we'll see.

I appreciate your help.
Tom