For maximum productivity and ease of maintenance, the Alexander Index is created by uploading .csv text files that are created in MS Excel (or compatible software).
Using MS Excel makes it easy to carry out visual scans of entries before upload, to use find-and-replace to change entries in bulk, to copy and paste between files or entries within a file - and so on. In addition, files can easily be exported and imported between MS Word (or other word processor) and the spreadsheet software, allowing a further range of editing techniques to be used.
Most of the index entries started of in .pdf or MS word files - for example, files of index entries supplied by Jean Fischer at Mouritz from the books published by him. To have entered these manually a screen at a time would have been a mammoth effort.
Upload options
The upload process includes the obvious facilities to create new entries or modify or delete existing entries.
Download
There is a corresponding download function which simply outputs a .csv file containing the entire index in the same format as the upload file. This (or more normally particular parts of it) can be used as a basis to create further upload files (eg to modify existing entries).
Administration
For quality control and to avoid possible conflicts, all uploads and downloads are handled by the Website Manager.
Markdown feature
Upload and download files are in plain text; but it is possible to upload bold and italics using "markdown".
A string enclosed in single asterisks is converted to italics when uploaded to the index. A string enclosed in double asterisks is converted to bold. The download process does the reverse conversion.
Examples:
- *Man's Supreme Inheritance* <-> Man's Supreme Inheritance
- 29, 34, **95-96**, 144 <-> 29, 34, 95-96, 144
Comma delimited files
Upload files must be comma delimited text with the fields in the order specified below.
Using MS Excel, when the CSV file is created, if a string contains a comma, then the string is enclosed in double quotes.
If a string contains double quotes then it is also enclosed in double quotes and the double quote in the string becomes a pair of double quotes.
The following bullet points show sample records from an upload file (to the left of <-->) showing the text of the index entry thus produced (to the right).
- ,2,12,,"""aardvark testing double quote""",,,,, <--> "aardvark testing double quote"
- ,2,12,,'aadrvark testing single quote',,,,, <--> 'aadrvark testing single quote'
- ,2,12,,"aardvark testing mixed quotes ""man's supreme inheritance""",,,,, "<--> aardvark testing mixed quotes "man's supreme inheritance"
So long as MS Excel is being used the appropriate transformations should happen automatically. It is important to be aware of these rules so as not to "correct" data in a .csv file (eg using Notepad or MS Word).
Upload file fields
Upload (and download) files contain the following fields:
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Node ID |
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User ID |
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LibText ID |
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File ID |
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Main Entry |
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Sub Entry |
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Sub Sub Entry |
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Pages |
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Notes |
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Delete (use with caution) |
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