Can Joomla! read from a CSV file?

Question

I'm building a Joomla! Website (currently running 3.9.0). It's a website of a Sports Club and we would like to add Live Score, Scoreboard and Last Result. The Sport Association told us the only two options currently are iFrame (please, no!) or data, that would be read from a CSV file (they are still building a system, that would work with a proper database). So, basically, I need a module that can read the file and show the required data.

Is this possible, can you give me some clues how to get started here?

What we are trying to do here:

We have a live CSV file on a remote server (read only) and we can access it through the link provided by the Association.

This is the example content of the CSV:

;;7. krog - sobota 24.11.2018;;;;
1185;M1158;PRO Volley;FužinarSijMetalRavne;0:3;20:25,22:25,20:25;

We would like to display it in a table in a Joomla module in a similar way as shown in the screenshot (the screenshot is from the Association, they are using the same source).

Thanks!

Answer 1

From a quick search on the Joomla Extensions Directory, there are at least a couple of extensions that look like they will display information from an external CSV source:

Tabulizer (from €24)

"Tabulizer provides all the functionality to read data from various sources (typed plain text, Excel and CSV files, Web/HTML pages, RSS Feeds, Database Queries/Tables) and present them in various formats, such as responsive tables, graphs, charts, galleries, event calendars, etc"

ARI Data Tables ($15)

"Can load data from CSV files (can load remote CSV files)"

"Provide possibility to render plain HTML table based on data from CSV file or database. Display of this table can be customized with help CSS"

Unfortunately neither of these are free but they are probably quite affordable compared to the time it would take to code your own solution.

Answer 2

CSV Improved is really powerful and you can import into Joomla content articles, K2, and others: https://csvimproved.com/

Answer 3

Start by reading Developing a Basic Module documentation to familiarize with module structure.

Assuming you don't need AJAX updates, helper function like this would work:

defined('_JEXEC') or die;

use Joomla\CMS\Filesystem\File;
use Joomla\CMS\Http\HttpFactory;
use Joomla\Registry\Registry;

class ModExampleHelper
{
    public static function getData($params)
    {
        // Source URL not set.
        if (!$params->get('url'))
        {
            return array();
        }

        $file = JPATH_ADMINISTRATOR . '/cache/mod_example/' . md5($params->get('url'));

        // File exists and is fresh.
        if (File::exists($file) && filemtime($file) > microtime(true) - $params->get('refreshInterval', 60))
        {
            return json_decode(file_get_contents($file));
        }

        // Some servers may block requests without user agent.
        $options  = $params->get('userAgent') ? new Registry(array('userAgent' => $params->get('userAgent'))) : null;

        // Retrieve the data.
        $response = HttpFactory::getHttp($options)->get($params->get('url'));

        // Check that response is valid.
        if ($response->code === 200 && $response->body)
        {
            // Save data based on CSV structure. This could be configurable.
            foreach ($data = str_getcsv($response->body, "\n") as $key => $row)
            {
                $data[$key] = str_getcsv($row, ';');
            }

            // Save new data to file.
            File::write($file, json_encode($data));

            return $data;
        }

        // Retrieving data failed, return data from old file.
        if (File::exists($file))
        {
            return json_decode(file_get_contents($file));
        }

        return array();
    }
}

Call the function in main file:

$data = ModExampleHelper::getData($params);

And display the table in the template:

<table class="table">
    <?php foreach($data as $row) : ?>
        <tr>
            <?php foreach($row as $cell) : ?>
                <td><?php echo $cell; ?></td>
            <?php endforeach; ?>
        </tr>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
</table>