User-defined separator in CSV export

[nomorsad@…]

In the French locale, the CSV separator is the semilicon (;) instead of the comma (,). This is because the comma (,) is already used for the decimal numbers.

The default CSV separator should be placed as an option in the trac.conf

[Emmanuel Blot]

Replying to nomorsad@gmail.com:

In the French locale, the CSV separator is the semilicon (;) instead of the comma (,). This is because the comma (,) is already used for the decimal numbers.

Well, CSV stands for comma-separated value…

The default CSV separator should be placed as an option in the trac.conf

It would bring another issue: your server could only be used from a client with the same locale as the server.

I'd suggest you configure your CSV importer to use "," as a separator to import CSV files.
Trac does not produce floating point values with "," decimal number separator anyway.

[anonymous]

Replying to eblot:

It would bring another issue: your server could only be used from a client with the same locale as the server.

This is true over the net, but we use Trac in an french intranet.

I'd suggest you configure your CSV importer to use "," as a separator to import CSV files.

Our PC are preconfigured with Excel, and Excel use the locale of Windows, which is French. OpenOffice ask every time for the separator before opening an CSV file, but Excel don't.

Trac does not produce floating point values with "," decimal number separator anyway.

You're right, but we don't have the problem because there is no decimals in queries yet …

I think the CSV standard is not compatible with the French locale.
Maybe I'll try to do a marco or a plugin to override this.

[Emmanuel Blot]

Replying to anonymous:

This is true over the net, but we use Trac in an french intranet.

True, however this would be a specific use case for Trac.

Our PC are preconfigured with Excel, and Excel use the locale of Windows, which is French. OpenOffice ask every time for the separator before opening an CSV file, but Excel don't.

As an ugly workaround with this "tool", you can rename the .csv file as a simple .txt file and open it from Excel File menu: Excel will prompt for the TXT file format, including the separator character - note that this does not work if you select the file and choose "Open with Excel" from the Explorer…

[Daniel Serodio <dserodio@…>]

It's a shame this won't be implemented, it's a problem for Brazilian locale (which uses ; as the CSV separator) too.

I understand that a minority of the users need this, but I don't see any downside to it. IMHO, it's no different from using the server's locale to set the date/time format.

I'd give it a try if the maintainers'd welcome a patch.

[Christian Boos]

Well, I think this is user dependent, I don't see how a server side setting could make things better.

So what about adding a separator≤char> argument to the request and using that? On your site, a simple plugin could then be made to replace the CSV download link.

The point is, if that format doesn't suit your needs, you'll then have a very simple way to get a different output by changing the URL.

Thoughts?

[Daniel Serodio <dserodio@…>]

An extra URL parameter would be nice, then I'd only need to change a single template file to change the default separator for my Trac install.