How to show a hierarchical list (like Mac Finder/Explorer)

Rails
1

I have a list of Groups with members and sub-groups in an unlimited
depth.

It has the same basic structure as a directory listing in either Mac
Finder or Windoze Explorer where the files a roughly analogous to my
members, and the sub-dirs are analogous to my sub-groups. Just as in
Mac Finder, I would like to have it remember the “open-ness” of the
dirs/sub-dirs in the db so user will see it the same way on subsequent
uses of the app.

Is there some sort of a plugin for displaying this kind of a data set in
Rails?

If not, how would you go about designing this? I’m stuck.

thanks,
jp

2

Jeff P. wrote:

I have a list of Groups with members and sub-groups in an unlimited
depth.

Here’s one example that might work for you:
http://jquery.bassistance.de/treeview/demo/

3

Robert W. wrote:

Jeff P. wrote:

I have a list of Groups with members and sub-groups in an unlimited
depth.

Here’s one example that might work for you:
http://jquery.bassistance.de/treeview/demo/

Thanks Robert. This looks very interesting. I’m php-challenged, so I
will have to study it to figure out how to adapt it to Rails. I don’t
suppose you’ve done that before? Have any Rails demo code?

At a minimum, the notion of using

    and some fancy css gives me a
    start.

    thanks,
    jp

4

Jeff P. wrote:

I have a list of Groups with members and sub-groups in an unlimited
depth.

It has the same basic structure as a directory listing in either Mac
Finder or Windoze Explorer where the files a roughly analogous to my
members, and the sub-dirs are analogous to my sub-groups. Just as in
Mac Finder, I would like to have it remember the “open-ness” of the
dirs/sub-dirs in the db so user will see it the same way on subsequent
uses of the app.

Is there some sort of a plugin for displaying this kind of a data set in
Rails?

If not, how would you go about designing this? I’m stuck.

Why are you stuck? 2 minutes of Google searching on implementing
hierarchical trees in SQL would have led you to the nested-set pattern.
Another minute would have led you to the awesome_nested_set plugin for
Rails.

thanks,
jp

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

5

Marnen Laibow-Koser wrote:

Jeff P. wrote:

I have a list of Groups with members and sub-groups in an unlimited
depth.
…
Is there some sort of a plugin for displaying this kind of a data set in
Rails?

If not, how would you go about designing this? I’m stuck.

Why are you stuck? 2 minutes of Google searching on implementing
hierarchical trees in SQL would have led you to the nested-set pattern.
Another minute would have led you to the awesome_nested_set plugin for
Rails.

thanks,
jp

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

Ok, I’m a moron. I didn’t remember ever seeing one. I came here and
searched this group for “hierarchical”. Got bupkis. Thanks much for
making me aware of this new thing called Google. Looks very useful.
:wink:

cheers,
jp