Presale question: Cobalt

Guest I currently have a fairly large (3000+ records) flat mysql database with a few hundred fields per record. I need to update and convert it to a relational database (3-5 tables) that is joomla compatible. Does Cobalt have this capability? If so, how do I proceed? Import the tables as CSV data one at a time?

The volume sounds ok. There is CSV import but it does not work with Related (parent/child) fields. Most probably you will have to edit every record.

Guest Background on what I’m looking for: In the front-end, I will need a list view which is sortable and searchable and has buttons on each record linked to a “details” “edit” “copy” and “print”.

All is there. Except rint view. View of CCK might be very complicated so very hard to ensure correct print view.

Guest The details view (same layout as the edit view, new view and copy/duplicate view) will be in a multi-page format and/or with accordion type of sections.

you can create only pseudo milti-page articles. It means that visualy you can style it like multi-page articles but actualy that will be one page.

Guest The print view will need to be formatted accordingly. This being said…am I correct in assuming I will be able to style with css and html?

You can do that with a little custom programming.

Guest Also, does Cobalt utilize Bootstrap? Or, is it otherwise responsive in design?

It utilizes BS2. The one that is embeded into Joomla.

One question about Print view:

I'm in the same spot. I need a specific print view of the resulting record_list of a template.

You say that can be done with a litle custom programing. Can you elaborate this?

How I can achieve to code a custom print view?

Thanks in advance.

XaRz How I can achieve to code a custom print view?

Hello XaRz, most likely the visual representation could be optimized by a specific "print" CSS stylesheet.
So if a user just calls the browser's print function, it would not have any print specific styles. Probably default browser styles are used. Result: unpredictable and everything on the page is displayed.

If you want the user to click a certain button and custom link, you might also control this link and its additional parameters.
For instance: Joomla core uses an extended URL with parameters. It loads the component.php file, which display the main content area without any modules! I believe there is also an additional "print" parameter in some calls.

Basically there are two ways to use print styles:
A link where the media type is "print". This is an external file like print.css
and also @media queries to separate print specific styles inside your regular CSS styles. Depends on the amount and use case.

• SmashingMagazine - Related article
• W3schools - Media Queries

Apart from that, there are different ways to use and apply your styles.
You have to inspect the cobalt list output and classes. Either override and adjust them in your print.CSS file. You could also create general CSS rules beforehand... e.g. .DoNotPrint {display: none;} and enter the class in all available custom class input fields. If there are no inputs in backend, you would have to insert them into your cobalt template markup directly.

If something else have to be modified or creates technical issues, you might create a special list-view template. But this would have to be called explicitely… and then you have to print. Probably a 2-step process a user does not understand!? Eventually you have to create a print CSS for that list-view as well. No big advantage, IMHO.

Thanks for all the info, but I have used another aproach and now I'm strugling to show some decent reports.

I'm using reportico extension for creating the custom reports attacking the cobalt tables. I'm trying to build the print view throght a pdf.

I'll post my results when I'm done.

Thanks anyway.