echo $form->input('fieldname', array('options'=>array('1'=>'val1', '3'=>'val2' [...]), 'multiple'=>'checkbox', 'label'=>'Da Label'));

The nice thing was that when I pasted Excel data into the textarea, it was tab-delimited with line breaks.  At that point, all I needed to do was some replacements and throw a table wrapper on it.

Here’s the code for the conversion function (sorry – i haven’t installed a php code parser yet to style this more nicely):

<?php
/**
* convert tab delimited file to html table
* @input string tab-delimited text
* found at http://james.revillini.com
* note: you are not required to keep the above copyright notice in this code.
*/
function tabs_to_table($input) {
//define replacement constants
define(‘TAB_REPLACEMENT’, ‘</td><td> ‘);
define(‘NEWLINE_REPLACEMENT’, ‘</td></tr><tr%s><td> ‘);
define(‘TABLE_BEGIN’, ‘<table><tr><td> ‘);
define(‘TABLE_END’, ‘</td><tr></table>’);</code>

//replace all tabs with end-cell, begin-cell
$input = preg_replace  (’/\t/’  , TAB_REPLACEMENT  , $input);

//split the list on linebreaks
$rows = preg_split  (’/\r\n/’  , $input);

//replace all linebreaks with end-row, begin-row (with or without altRow class)
$output = ”;
foreach ($rows as $index => $row) {
$output .= $row . sprintf(NEWLINE_REPLACEMENT, ($index%2?”:’ class=”alt”‘));
}

//build table
$input = TABLE_BEGIN . $output . TABLE_END;
return ($input);
}
?>

The article includes the SwfUploadComponent as well as usage tips. I developed this component because I needed to handle uploads which could be associated with any number of objects in Mango. One of the key goals of Mango is to be user-friendly, and since file uploading is one of the least fun experiences on the Web (in my opinion, anyway), I needed to find a way to at least simulate the kind of user interaction that the desktop operating system offers. SWFUpload meets that need.

I’m working on a project page for SwfUploadComponent which will have the API for the component. Stay tuned.

Thanks to Eelco Wiersma for the original code which I used as a basis for development. Also, thanks to gwoo for guidance and cakebin pastes – he helped me to tweak it for performance and readability.

A few things about the plan have changed, however. First, I decided that for now, I’m just targeting me as an audience for this thing. Trying to program it in a way that would work for the whole world was stressing me out and slowing down development. My wife snapped me out of a funk one night when I was lamenting my predicament by asking, ‘Why don’t you just make it for you and don’t worry about selling it?’

It was the best advice I ever listened to – it made me remember why I started this. I suddenly knew the direction I wanted to go in. I got my spark back.

Thanks, Lovie.

This doesn’t mean that Mango is dead or anything. I’m still going to release it to the public under one of the open source licenses, but whether or not I try to turn it into a money making adventure remains a question that I’m not too concerned with right now. Right now I’m excited because I’ve got the following features in there now:

• WYSIWYG editor – TinyMCE
• Multiple file uploads with progress bars for each file – SWFUpload
• Multimedia attachment to Pages – Anarchy Web Player (not sure if I’m staying with this or if I will roll my own)
• Full YAHOO UI integration for a great look and feel and intuitive, responsive interfaces.
• A basic authentication system
• All the usual stuff that wikis have.

I still need to have a search feature, but I might leave that for the second realease. Mostly, I’m trying to concentrate on the most important part: making editing pages easy and fun. I need to run through things tomorrow and figure out what needs to be locked down better. I’m sure I’ve got security holes in it right now. once I plug those, I’ll put it online and start checking in new versions periodically as I reach stable milestones.

It feels really good to be working on this right now. My wife has been very supportive, which helps a lot. Almost every day I come home, put down my stuff, crack open the laptop, and start hammering away at it. I’ve even gotten the alias ‘Wiki-man’ recently.

Ultimately, I would like to do a full product launch a month or two from now which includes a boxed version of this software.� The commercial, packaged version will include the Mango software, printed and digital user manual, and video tutorial cd-rom and/or dvd.

I will be hosting a live version of Mango at http://mango-demo.revillini.com.

I will also host my family wiki using Mango at http://family.revillini.com – this was the original intent of the software, even though it does not yet have any geneology-specific features at this time.