Bidirectional clipboard interop with Excel, Google Sheets, and any
other spreadsheet that uses RFC-4180-ish TSV on the text/plain
clipboard mime. Pasted cells write straight into the draft buffer
the same way per-key edits do; row-level save (Phase 3) picks them
up on the next row-blur with the same If-Match optimistic-
concurrency flow.
TSV parser (clipboard.js parseTSV):
- Tabs separate columns, \\n / \\r\\n separate rows.
- Quoted fields ("...") may contain tabs and newlines verbatim.
- Doubled \\"\\" inside a quoted field escapes a literal \\".
- Trailing empty row from a final \\n is dropped (Excel sends
this; matching the convention avoids a phantom blank row at
the end of every paste).
Apply-paste (clipboard.js applyPaste):
- Anchor = currently selected cell.
- 1×1 clipboard into selection → writes that one cell.
- N×M clipboard → SPILLS from the anchor down/right to
(anchor.row + N - 1, anchor.col + M - 1). Cells past the end
of either axis are silently dropped with a toast count.
- Each pasted value goes through coerceCell, which checks the
column's row-schema property type:
* number / integer → Number()
* boolean → "true"|"yes"|"1" → true; "false"|
"no"|"0"|"" → false
* everything else → raw string
Drafts hold the right JS type so the row-PUT body matches the
JSON Schema the server validates against.
Copy (clipboard.js onCopy):
- Single-cell selection: Ctrl/Cmd+C writes the cell's
effectiveCellValue (draft if dirty, else stored) as text/plain
via formatCell (RFC-4180 quoting on tab/newline/quote).
- Range copy is Phase 5 (depends on range-selection landing).
Event wiring:
- document.addEventListener('paste'/'copy') so events bubble
from any cell with focus. Phase 1's roving tabindex moves
focus around; per-cell binding would have to be re-applied
after every paint.
- onPaste bails when an editor input is mounted (the input
owns its own paste — typing into a cell editor that was just
populated with a chunk of TSV would be a footgun).
Toast for partial pastes:
When applyPaste skipped any cells, a small message in
#table-status: "Pasted N cells; M dropped (out of bounds)".
Auto-clears after 4s. Coexists with Phase 3's stale-row prompt
(toast doesn't fire if a prompt is already up; prompt outranks
toast).
Tests (6 new Phase 4 specs, total 37 in tests/tables.spec.js):
- parseTSV handles tabs, newlines, and quoted fields — covers
the parser edge cases including embedded \\n inside "..." and
doubled "" escapes.
- paste single value into selected cell — the 1×1 path; verifies
the draft buffer entry.
- paste 2×2 grid spills from anchor — the N×M spill semantic.
- paste coerces numeric/boolean values via row schema —
verifies the draft holds typeof===number for an integer column
and === true for a boolean column.
- paste out-of-bounds drops cells silently with toast — drives
via dispatched ClipboardEvent('paste') (the only way to
exercise onPaste end-to-end including the toast).
- copy single cell writes value to clipboard — synthesizes a
ClipboardEvent('copy') with a writable DataTransfer payload
and asserts the cell value lands in text/plain.
Bundle size: 134 KB → 138 KB.
Files:
- tables/js/clipboard.js (new) — parseTSV, formatTSV,
applyPaste, onPaste/onCopy, toast helper.
- tables/build.sh — clipboard.js in concat list.
- zddc/internal/handler/tables.html — regenerated bundle.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Cell edits now actually persist. Row-level batch save fires on
row-blur (selection moves to a different row); the request is one
PUT with the full merged row (server-side data + client drafts)
and If-Match: <etag> for optimistic concurrency. Conflict and
validation responses are surfaced inline; drafts are NEVER silently
discarded — when the server says no, the user's typing stays put
until they explicitly reload or replay.
Architecture (per the research synthesis from earlier in this
sequence):
- ETag tracking: context.js readRows captures the per-row ETag
from HttpFileHandle's response header on the initial GET.
Stashed at row.etag alongside row.data and row.yamlUrl. Phase 3
reads it; later phases (undo replay) inherit it.
- Row-blur trigger: editor.js setSelected calls a new
notifySelectionChanged() hook after selection lands. save.js's
onSelectionChanged tracks _previousSelectedRowId; when it
changes AND the previous row had drafts, fires saveRow(prevId).
Fire-and-forget — don't block the user's flow on the network.
- save.saveRow flow:
1. mergeRow(row.data, drafts) → full updated row.
2. js-yaml dump → wire body.
3. PUT row.yamlUrl, body, headers={Content-Type, If-Match}.
4. Branch on response status:
- 200/201 → success: clear drafts + invalid marks, capture
new ETag from response, replace row.data with merged.
- 202 → outbox queued (downstream client offline):
clear drafts (the outbox owns them now), mark row queued.
- 412 → stale: drafts STAY; mark row stale; show
status-bar prompt with [Use mine] / [Reload] buttons.
- 422 → server validation failed; body has
{errors: [{path, message}]}; mark each cell invalid via
a red-corner CSS marker + title-attribute tooltip.
- other → mark errored; drafts stay.
- Conflict resolution UX:
- "Use mine" replays the user's drafts onto fresh server
state. Re-GETs the row to learn the new ETag + new server
data, replaces row.data with the fresh server values, then
re-PUTs the merge of fresh + drafts. This is client-side
field-level last-writer-wins: fields the user did NOT
touch get the server's new values automatically; only
fields the user changed override server state. No JSON
Patch endpoint required — pure client logic on top of the
existing whole-row PUT path.
- "Reload" drops drafts entirely, re-GETs the row, repaints.
- Validation error display: per-cell red-corner triangle
(Excel-style) plus title-attribute tooltip on hover. Marker
keyed off data-col-idx + the column's field; survives until
the next edit on that cell or the next paint() cycle.
- beforeunload safety net: any rows with drafts at unload time
get one fire-and-forget save attempt. Modern browsers limit
what beforeunload can do; a follow-up could add fetch's
keepalive flag for a more reliable last-shot.
UI surfaces:
- Per-row state classes drive a left-border swatch in the first
cell:
--dirty subtle blue (uncommitted changes)
--saving muted grey (PUT in flight)
--queued warm yellow (outbox accepted)
--invalid orange (server 422)
--stale warning amber (server 412 — also tints row bg)
--errored red (other failure — also tints row bg)
These re-apply across re-paints via save.markAllDirtyRows()
called from main.js's paint() hook (innerHTML='' wipes them).
- #table-status doubles as the conflict prompt host. When a row
goes stale, the bar shows
"This row was changed by someone else. [Use mine] [Reload] [×]"
and the row-id it's bound to is stored on data-row-id so a
successful reload of that row dismisses the prompt.
Outbox (downstream client) interaction:
The cache layer's PUT-replay queue intercepts saves transparently.
On local network failure the cache returns 202 with
X-ZDDC-Cache: queued; we treat 202 as "succeeded for now" —
drafts clear (the outbox owns them and will replay), but the
row stays marked --queued so the user knows the write hasn't
reached upstream yet. When the cache replays and gets a
real 200/201/412/etc., the row state will reflect that on next
read (next paint cycle / page refresh).
Tests (4 new Phase 3 specs, total 31 in tests/tables.spec.js):
- row-blur fires PUT with merged drafts + If-Match. Edit a
cell in row 0, Enter (commits + moves to row 1). Verifies
PUT went out with the right URL, the merged YAML body
contains the new value AND the unchanged fields, and the
If-Match header carries the original ETag.
- 412 conflict marks row stale + shows status prompt. Verifies
the row gains the stale class, the status bar appears with
both [Use mine] and [Reload] buttons, AND the draft is
preserved (never silently dropped on conflict).
- 422 validation errors mark cells invalid. Verifies multiple
field errors → multiple red-corner cells.
- Reload button drops drafts and refreshes. Verifies the bar
hides and drafts clear after a successful reload GET.
Setup: a small page.route helper intercepts http://test.local/*
PUTs and GETs, lets each test queue the next response via
window.__nextResponse, and captures requests at
window.__capturedRequests for inspection. Test fixtures use
absolute http URLs in row.yamlUrl so the route catches them.
Bundle size: 127 KB → 134 KB.
Files:
- tables/js/save.js (new) — saveRow, useMine, reload, status
prompt, row-state markers, beforeunload flush.
- tables/js/editor.js — notifySelectionChanged hook.
- tables/js/context.js — etag + yamlUrl on each row.
- tables/js/main.js — paint() re-applies dirty markers via
save.markAllDirtyRows; exposes app.repaint for save callbacks.
- tables/build.sh — save.js in concat list.
- tables/css/table.css — row-state classes + invalid-cell corner
+ status-bar prompt styling.
- zddc/internal/handler/tables.html — regenerated bundle.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
First step toward the Excel-like editable-table the user asked for.
Architecture decisions in this phase came from a focused research
pass over Notion / Airtable / AG Grid / Handsontable / Glide / W3C
ARIA APG; the design notes are in this commit's predecessor as a
research synthesis. Five phases planned; this is phase 1 of 5 and
ships the cell-selection + keyboard-navigation + per-cell editor
mount-on-demand foundation. Edits in this phase live in a client-
side draft buffer only; row-level save + ETag conflict UX is
phase 3.
Scope:
- ARIA grid pattern verbatim (W3C WAI-ARIA APG): role=grid on the
table, role=row on rows, role=gridcell on cells, roving
tabindex (only one cell carries tabindex=0; arrows move it).
This makes the grid one tab stop in the page tab order — the
documented spreadsheet UX, and also the basis for screen-reader
correctness.
- Click selects a cell. Arrow keys move selection. Tab and
Shift-Tab move with row-wrap. Home / End jump within row;
Ctrl/Cmd+Home / End jump to grid corners. Enter, F2, double-
click, or any printable character all enter edit mode. In edit
mode: Enter commits and moves down (Excel convention), Tab
commits and moves right (with row-wrap), Escape cancels and
restores the prior value, blur commits.
- Mount-on-demand cell editor: one <input> at a time is
instantiated inside the selected cell. Survives 1000-row tables
without the focus-ring churn an always-editable design would
hit, and lets Phase 2 swap the input for schema-driven widgets
(number / date / select / etc.) without restructuring.
- Draft buffer at app.state.drafts keyed by row id (the row's
re-edit URL — stable across sort and filter). When a cell
commits with a value different from row.data, the draft entry
is set; render reads from the draft via effectiveCellValue() so
the visible cell content reflects unsaved edits. No-op edits
(commit returns the original value) clear any pending draft.
- Selection survives re-paints. Sort / filter / spec changes
trigger a re-render; the editor's setSelected at end of paint()
clamps to new bounds and rebinds tabindex. The user's cell
doesn't disappear when they sort the column they're editing.
- Numeric coercion fast-path: cells whose column declares
format=number/integer coerce the input string to Number on
commit. Phase 2 will generalize this to schema-driven coercion
for date, boolean, enum, etc.
UX consequence — single-click semantics change:
The pre-existing row-click-navigates-to-form-edit behavior is
gone. Single click now selects a cell (spreadsheet-native). The
"open this row in the form editor" affordance moves to phase 2
(an explicit "Edit…" button or an icon column). The row-click-
navigation tests in tests/tables.spec.js are replaced with seven
new tests covering the editor lifecycle.
What this phase does NOT do (and which phases own it):
- Phase 2: schema-driven editor widgets (right input type per
column). Server-side validation 422 → red-corner marks. Complex
types (object, generic array, oneOf) get an "Edit…" button that
opens the side-panel form-render mode the unified bundle
already ships.
- Phase 3: row-level save on row-blur via PUT + If-Match. Stale-
row badge with "Use mine" / "Reload" on 412. Outbox carries the
offline path transparently via the existing source.js layer.
- Phase 4: copy/paste from Excel/Sheets via TSV parser, spill-
from-anchor or fill-all into a selection range.
- Phase 5: undo (linear command stack, Ctrl+Z, session-local) and
multi-cell ops (range select, bulk delete, Ctrl+D / Ctrl+R fill).
Tests (tests/tables.spec.js, all 15 pass):
- clicking a cell selects it (replaces the old row-click-navigates
test; verifies single-click does NOT navigate)
- arrow keys move cell selection
- Tab and Shift-Tab traverse cells with row-wrap
- Enter enters edit mode; Enter commits and moves down (verifies
draft is applied to visible cell + selection moves)
- Escape cancels edit, restoring prior value (verifies no-op on
draft buffer)
- typing a printable char enters edit and replaces the value
- double-click also enters edit mode
- non-editable rows still get the readonly class (cosmetic guard
for an existing convention; phase 3 will gate write submission)
Files:
- tables/js/editor.js (new) — selection + keyboard handling +
edit-mode lifecycle + draft buffer.
- tables/js/app.js — state.selected / state.editing / state.drafts
fields.
- tables/js/render.js — ARIA roles + editor.attachToCell wiring;
cells render via editor.effectiveCellValue so drafts show.
- tables/js/main.js — paint()-end editor.attachToTable +
setSelected restore.
- tables/css/table.css — selected-cell focus ring (outline,
doesn't shift surrounding cells); cell-input bare-inside-cell
styling.
- tables/build.sh — editor.js in the concat list.
- zddc/internal/handler/tables.html — regenerated bundle.
Bundle size: 117 KB → 124 KB (+7 KB for editor.js + ARIA + draft
machinery). Well within the budget the library survey identified
(Tabulator would have been +100 KB; SlickGrid +34 KB; custom is
+7 KB and we keep the no-third-party-deps invariant).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Two intertwined refactors that share too many files to split cleanly.
Both are described separately below.
PART 1 — in-dir convention for table+form spec files
Old layout had the spec at the parent and rows in a child:
archive/<party>/
mdl.table.yaml spec
mdl.form.yaml row-edit form
mdl/ rows-dir
row-001.yaml ...
URLs were /<dir>/mdl.table.html and /<dir>/mdl.form.html. Copying
mdl/ elsewhere lost the spec and form because they lived next door.
New layout collapses everything into the rows-dir:
archive/<party>/mdl/ self-contained
table.yaml spec
form.yaml row-edit form
row-001.yaml ... rows
URLs become /<dir>/mdl/table.html and /<dir>/mdl/form.html. The
"copying-the-folder-takes-everything" property the user asked for
falls out by construction; the row-edit URL /<dir>/<id>.yaml.html
keeps the same shape (spec is now in the same dir, not the
grandparent).
Server changes:
- internal/handler/tablehandler.go RecognizeTableRequest fires on
/<dir>/table.html when <dir>/table.yaml exists. The .zddc.tables
alias map is gone — pure presence-based discovery now matches
the form system's existing convention. Default-MDL fallback at
archive/<party>/mdl/ stays for the virgin-archive case (the
rows-dir need not exist on disk; the URL renders fully virtually).
- internal/handler/formhandler.go RecognizeFormRequest fires on
/<dir>/form.html and /<dir>/<id>.yaml.html with spec at
<dir>/form.yaml. specEligible accepts on-disk files OR the
default-MDL virtual path so an empty mdl/ dir still surfaces the
add-row form.
- internal/handler/tablehandler.go IsDefaultMdlSpec moves to
serving archive/<party>/mdl/{table,form}.yaml (5 segments after
ZDDC_ROOT). New isAtArchivePartyMdlLevel predicate; new
isAtArchivePartyMdlDir for directory-based recognition. New
IsDefaultMdlSpecAbs accessor for callers that hold an abs path
rather than a URL (formhandler).
- internal/handler/formhandler.go loadFormSpec(fsRoot, path) falls
back to embedded default-MDL bytes when os.ReadFile returns
NotExist AND the path matches the archive-party-mdl shape. Three
call sites updated to pass cfg.Root.
- internal/handler/formhandler.go serveFormCreate writes
submissions to filepath.Dir(req.SpecPath) — the spec, the form,
and rows all live in one directory. The submissionsDir creation
is idempotent (MkdirAll); cascade falls back one level for ACL
evaluation when the dir hasn't been materialized yet.
- internal/handler/tablehandler.go tableRowsRedirect now points at
/<dir>/table.html (was /<dir>.table.html) when the directory
request maps to a recognized table.
- cmd/zddc-server/main.go dispatch synth flips from
urlPath + ".table.html" to urlPath + "/table.html" for the
no-trailing-slash → tables-app routing.
- internal/apps/availability.go DefaultAppAt comment clarified
that the dir at archive/<party>/mdl/ IS the table (not a child).
Client changes:
- tables/js/context.js walkServer fetches <currentdir>/table.yaml
directly — no .zddc walk for table declarations. Rows are every
*.yaml in current dir EXCLUDING table.yaml and form.yaml. The
.zddc fetch-for-aliases is gated on file:// (online mode 404s
on .zddc reads via the dispatcher's reserve guard, so skipping
the request avoids browser console noise).
- tables/js/main.js add-row button links to relative form.html
(same dir).
- tables/js/render.js + filters.js: every column's autofilter is
uniformly a text-contains input, even enum columns — keeps the
filter row visually consistent and doesn't constrain users to
the enum vocabulary.
PART 2 — unified table+form HTML bundle
The form-render and table-render code paths share field schemas,
the cell editor for excel-mode IS a form widget, and the form
system's POST-back / validation already exists. Combining the two
HTMLs eliminates duplicating jsyaml/jsonschema/theme/source-
detection/.zddc-parsing across two single-file tools.
- tables/template.html grows two top-level mode containers:
#table-mode (toolbar + sortable table) and #form-mode (form +
submit button). Both hidden at parse time; the dispatcher
unhides one. The shared #form-context placeholder was added
here so the server's existing injectFormContext target
resolves.
- tables/js/mode.js (new) sets window.zddcMode synchronously
based on URL pattern: /form.html or /<id>.yaml.html → form,
/table.html → table, else inline-context fallback for
file:// (whichever context blob is non-empty wins). Unhides
the matching container at DOMContentLoaded.
- tables/js/main.js init() and form/js/main.js boot() each guard
early when mode isn't theirs. Both apps live on different
globals (window.tablesApp vs window.formApp) so module
registration doesn't collide.
- form/js/main.js title write falls back from #form-title to
#table-title (the unified bundle's shared header element)
when the dedicated id isn't present.
- tables/build.sh concatenates form modules (widgets, render,
object, array, errors, post, serialize, util) and form CSS.
No new external deps. Bundle grows from ~95KB to ~120KB.
- internal/handler/formhandler.go drops the //go:embed form.html
directive; serveFormRender now writes embeddedTablesHTML via
a small formRenderHTML() accessor (var declared in
tablehandler.go, same package). The embedded form.html file
is removed.
- build script: cp form/dist/form.html → internal/handler/form.html
step is gone (file no longer exists in the source tree). cp
tables/dist/tables.html → internal/handler/tables.html now
runs unconditionally rather than only on beta/stable cuts —
the renderer is a fixed binary component and dev iteration
needs the embedded copy refreshed every build. Channel-cascaded
apps (internal/apps/embedded/) stay channel-gated as before.
- form/dist/form.html still builds for standalone offline-only
use (downloadable from /releases/), but no longer goes into
the binary.
Tests:
- internal/handler/tablehandler_test.go and formhandler_test.go
rewritten for the in-dir layout. New test
TestRecognizeFormRequest_DefaultMdlAtArchiveParty covers
empty-form, create POST, re-edit row, and the negative cases
(Working/, non-mdl name) where the fallback must NOT fire.
- internal/handler/directory_test.go updated for the new
/<dir>/table.html redirect target.
- cmd/zddc-server/main_test.go TestDispatchSlashRouting Location
expectation updated.
- tests/form-safety.spec.js loads tables/dist/tables.html
(named form.html in the temp dir to trigger form-mode in the
dispatcher) so it tests the same bytes the server returns.
Title-element selector switches to #table-title.
- tests/tables.spec.js updates the status-filter test for the
uniform text-input filter.
Docs:
- AGENTS.md form-data system rewrites the URL conventions and
storage layout for in-dir; gains a Tables system section
parallel to forms describing the self-contained-directory
property; subfolder rules ("one table per folder by
construction; subfolders allowed and silently ignored as rows
— legitimate uses: nested sub-tables, per-row attachments,
drafts, future history sidecars") so we don't re-derive this.
Not included (deferred):
- ACL gating on cell-level writes — not relevant until Phase 3.
- Editable cells UI — separate commit (Phase 1).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Tables is the eighth HTML tool: a read-only tabular view over a
directory of YAML files declared via `tables:` in `.zddc`. Anchor use
case is the Master Deliverables List, where each row is one
`<tracking>.yaml` under `Archive/<Party>/MDL/`. Rows click through to
the existing form renderer for editing.
Schema (zddc/internal/zddc/file.go)
- New `Tables map[string]string` on ZddcFile. Map key becomes the URL
stem (`tables[MDL]` → `<dir>/MDL.table.html`); the value is a path
relative to the .zddc pointing at a `*.table.yaml` spec describing
columns + the rows directory. No upward cascade in v1 — each
directory hosting a table declares it directly.
Server handler (zddc/internal/handler/tablehandler.go)
- `RecognizeTableRequest` matches GET `/<dir>/<name>.table.html`
against the cascade's `tables:` declarations. Dispatch routes
table requests before the form-system intercept.
- `ServeTable` ACL-gates with `policy.ActionRead` and serves the
embedded `tables.html` template; client walks the directory itself
via the listing JSON or FS Access API.
- tables.html embedded via //go:embed — same pattern as form.html.
Frontend (tables/)
- Vanilla JS: app/context/util/filters/sort/render/main modules.
- Reads spec + row YAML files via window.zddc.source (HTTP polyfill
or local FS handle); js-yaml 4.1.0 vendored in shared/vendor for
client-side parsing.
- Sample fixtures under tables/sample/ for local testing.
Build + CI
- Lockstep build registers tables alongside the other 7 tools (HTML
output, embed mirror, versions.txt, release-output, tags).
- Playwright project added; `npx playwright test --project=tables`
is part of `npm test`.
Drive-by: rename mdedit Playwright selectors `#select-directory` →
`#addDirectoryBtn` to fix three pre-existing failing tests.
Drive-by: ignore locally-built `zddc/zddc-server` binary so it doesn't
get accidentally staged.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
