Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Datagridxl.js – No-nonsense fast Excel-like data table library

datagridxl.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 136 posts

Re: Show HN: Datagridxl.js – No-nonsense fast Excel-like data table library

#71

Post by robbiejs »

kanobo wrote: post #9
randtrain34 wrote: post #3

How does that compare to https://github.com/paulhodel/jexcel ?

jexcel is great, it has more features (sorting, formulas, colors, etc)... but those same features are not very performant with many (>1000) rows since each cell is a html table cell. datagridxl looks promising if you need to display lots of data. I'm a fan of any open source data grid library so I'm happy both exists.

What I appreciate about Jexcel is their numerous input methods (like dropdowns and checkboxes). DGXL does not offer these features at this moment.

Both Jexcel and Handsontable are quite excellent when it comes to the amount of features, but they do have the same downsides: their enthusiastic creators implement any feature that they can dream off, ingoring the effects on performance and a growing code base that gets more complex every time.

If you're looking to create a spreadsheet app to compete with Excel or G. Sheets, don't look at DataGridXL. If you're looking for the fastest and most reliable editor for 2D or JSON data sets, choose DGXL :-)

Re: Show HN: Datagridxl.js – No-nonsense fast Excel-like data table library

#73

Post by robbiejs »

whylo wrote: post #69
robbiejs wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, it does not use canvas. It uses HTML. Sure, DGXL contains one or two canvas elements, but they're used for measuring strings length and drawing cell background colors. The actual values are all in HTML. The benefit is that you can use CTRL+F and values are found and selected. You can zoom the page and text will remain crisp. The values are not in a tag however. values are sorted y,x (rows first, columns second).…

Unfortunately screen reader support isn't great at the moment, but using HTML instead of canvas is definitely going to make it easier for you to improve. I'd encourage you to download the free NVDA screen reader ( https://www.nvaccess.org/download/ ) and compare DataGridXL with Excel, or Google Sheets with screen reader support enabled (Tools > Accessibility settings). Announcing the column, row and cell content as y…

That you for this valuable advice! I have to admit that I have never worked on accessibility before (apart from writing meaningful HTML). Will definitely look at improving screen reader support when I get to it.

Re: Show HN: Datagridxl.js – No-nonsense fast Excel-like data table library

#75

Post by robbiejs »

bennettfeely wrote: post #21

It looks really great and the one million cells demo is impressive, but that price is way out of reach.

Right now the free version offers the same features as the commercial version. As long as you're OK with displaying the branding link and DIY-support, you can use the product for free, as long as you like.

Re: Show HN: Datagridxl.js – No-nonsense fast Excel-like data table library

#76

Post by robbiejs »

pictur wrote: post #43

Who are you targeting with 800 euro?

Do you think it's too little or too much? This is my first commercial product. I have looked at other professional grids like Handsontable & Ag-Grid and have decided to choose a similar price, just to have some reference.

There will always be people that find it too expensive or that find it too cheap.

Even though the product looks like a simple tag; the reality is that I spent 2 years working on it. (I am almost embarrassed to admit it.)

Let's say an employee of your company (or perhaps yourself) is a much better programmer than myself. He/she could perhaps build a similar data table in perhaps 6 months, including all these features that don't meet the eye: keyboard controls, context menus, touch events, virtual DOM implementation, clipboard support on all browsers and devices...

That would cost an employer perhaps 6 months worth of programmer salary, which is, depending on where you are, at least $10,000+.

Then 800 euros is not such a bad deal, I believe. At the same time, I hope it's affordable for solo makers as well.

How would you price the product?

Re: Show HN: Datagridxl.js – No-nonsense fast Excel-like data table library

#77

Post by pictur »

robbiejs wrote: post #76
pictur wrote: post #43

Who are you targeting with 800 euro?

Do you think it's too little or too much? This is my first commercial product. I have looked at other professional grids like Handsontable & Ag-Grid and have decided to choose a similar price, just to have some reference. There will always be people that find it too expensive or that find it too cheap. Even though the product looks like a simple tag; the reality is that I spent 2 years working on it. (I am almost emb…

I think not much. but I asked because I was wondering who could be a customer for this price.

Re: Show HN: Datagridxl.js – No-nonsense fast Excel-like data table library

#78

Post by robbiejs »

captivechains wrote: post #31

Please improve the screen reader support

Thanks, I have seen this suggestion a couple of times now in this thread. Will have to study it, as right now I am a non-expert when it comes to screen readers. Will make an effort to seriously improve this aspect!

Re: Show HN: Datagridxl.js – No-nonsense fast Excel-like data table library

#79

Post by chrismorgan »

sgarrity wrote: post #20
robbiejs wrote: post #2

Hello HN, I’m Robbert, the creator of DataGridXL.js. DataGridXL is a free (and commercial) editable data table library written in ES6. My goal is to develop the most performant & user-friendly spreadsheet-like data table out there: - It has zero dependencies. You don’t need any framework to use DataGridXL. - It is lightweight (~200kb) and easy to use. It does not even require messing with CSS. - It has its own Virtua…

How did you implement the scrolling such that it feels smooth/fast/native, but scrolls in one row/column steps (so you never see half a row)? CSS Scroll Snap? Nicely done.

CSS Scroll Snapping doesn’t make scroll in steps like the steps() timing functions, it just controls the points that the eventual scroll position will snap to.

CSS Scroll Snapping may have a place for image gallery sorts of widgets, but for broader layout matters I strongly recommend against it: it can work tolerably on mobile (though it’s not without problems), but on desktop it seriously messes with scrolling so that on many devices it’s almost entirely problems.

Using a real scrolling area and observing what effect scrolling has upon it is the only correct way of rendering things. Then you could draw the contents in various ways—canvas (handle interactivity yourself), another DOM element behind the scrolling area (ditto), or a fancily-done `position: sticky` element that fills the visible part of the scrollable area.

Just remember that there are serious accessibility concerns about any of these sorts of things. Approach any sort of clever lazy loading of content with extreme caution.

Re: Show HN: Datagridxl.js – No-nonsense fast Excel-like data table library

#80

Post by beojan »

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #19
robbiejs wrote: post #2

Hello HN, I’m Robbert, the creator of DataGridXL.js. DataGridXL is a free (and commercial) editable data table library written in ES6. My goal is to develop the most performant & user-friendly spreadsheet-like data table out there: - It has zero dependencies. You don’t need any framework to use DataGridXL. - It is lightweight (~200kb) and easy to use. It does not even require messing with CSS. - It has its own Virtua…

Congratulations on launching, but consider distilling a part of the project and making it available under a free and open source license like MIT or Apache or BSD. There are many commercial and open source products on the market, some more established and less expensive than your offering. From the business standpoint, it's easy to sell something like ag-grid because many developers have experience with its open sour…

I expect he may be averse to choosing a permissive license like the ones you mention, but perhaps AGPL?
Post reply on HN