CSV Files

Comma-separated files are gedasymbols' way of managing tabular data, specifically the mapping between symbols and footprints. CSV files are readily importable into many spreadsheet and database programs.

Example: test.csv

How to use

First off, you must name your files with a .csv suffix. Doing so causes the web server to read the CSV file and format it for web viewing. Within the CSV file, there are four types of lines, which, if present, must be in this order:

1. If the first line of the file has neither a comma nor an equals sign, it is the title of the file and is used as the title of the web page.
2. Next, any lines which do not have commas yet have equals signs are parsed as name/value pairs, and are assumed to be "constant value columns". This means you don't have to repeat the same value over and over, for each row.
3. The remaining lines are true CSV lines. The first such line must contain the column headers. See below for standard column names.
4. All remaining lines are CSV data rows. Each row is assumed to correspond to one specific part, tying together the symbol, footprint, value, manufacturer, mfg part number, vendor, vendor part number, pdf file, etc.

Standard Column Names

There are a couple of column names which have special meaning to the web server, or are defined specially so that we can have some consistency. Names are case sensitive. These are:

symbol

The value in this column is a symbol file name, normally one present in your area. If it ends in .sym, it is printed without it. If it does not end in .sym, the file in your area is assumed to end in it. Thus, you can add the .sym or not, and you get the same results. If the file referred to by this symbol exists in your area, a hyperlink to that symbol will be created for this value.

footprint

Likewise, for footprints, and .fp.

value

The value of the part, like 1k or 0.47uF. This corresponds to the "value" field in the footprints.

description

A description of the part. Watch out for commas in the description; use double quotes around the description if you need to include a comma.

manufacturer

Manufacturer

manufacturer_part_number

Manufacturer part number, if it isn't already in value or description.

vendor

Where this part can be ordered from; usually used in conjunction with the Part Number (below).

vendor_part_number

The part number, usually for the vendor (Digikey, for example).

author

Your name. This is usually a constant-value column.

email

Your email.

price

I don't expect people to use this field in public files, but I'm reserving this name (vs "Cost" or some other name) for utilities to use to tally project costs.

Planning for the Future

My thoughts on this are, at some point these tables might get used to provide gattrib or gsch2pcb with the information they need to help you match up symbols, footprints, and real parts. So, keep this in mind, and make sure your information is consistent enough to serve this purpose (i.e. if your 1k resistors are always "1k", you may only get one copy of that value in a menu choice).

Just a thought ;-)