How to fetch HTML created via a Forena report and store it as a node?

Question

I'd like to automatically (Rules) copy some HTML into a node . The HTML comes from a Forena report (already as an HTML document), created by the Forena module. In the Rules module I couldn't find anything exactly fitting.

It might be possible to develop a small module that fetches the Forena report (using some of the available Forena hooks) and create a node from it.

But is this the easiest way to go? It feels a bit like a detour, maybe I'm just overlooking some module or feature which can do that task?

Answer 1

You can have a look to the module "Feeds". It's aim is to provide a way to import content (node, term...) from CSV File, XML...

You can also specify interval between two importation. So you won't need rules.

Answer 2

From the Forena project page: use Feeds to create nodes using Forena data blocks and/or reports. In other words: Forena can be used as a feeds importer (= to enable Feeds to go read from al kinds of database tables, external databases, etc. which Feeds out-of-the-box does not support). And Forena comes with various hooks to use Forena from within another module.

For more details about Forena, 2 types of documentation are available:

• Community documentation, which includes a child page Video demos and tutorials containing a link also about using Forena to import data and reports based on data as drupal nodes (that video even demonstrates the creation of charts, so not just tabular reports).

• Documentation that comes with Forena, which you can access right after install and enable of the module. Checkout the demo site for an online example of the current:

  • Forena documentation - use the link 'Reporting documentation' or visit relative link /reports/help.
  • Forena samples - use the link 'Reporting samples' or visit relative link /reports/samples (these samples are fully functional, so make sure to experiment a bit with it, such as the drill downs available on the SVG Graph sample).

The 7.x-4.x version also includes an amazing (I think) UI for either creating your reports (the WYSIWYG report editor) and/or for creating your SQL queries (the Query Builder).

Here are some variations of the external databases part mentioned above:

1. Using a SQLite instead of MySQL database: the Forena samples actually get shipped including a (Tiny) SQLite database. Go check it out in the demo site: the data shown there are data contained in the sampledb, which is in SQLite format.
2. Forena comes with a full suite of Supported database connections ... such as MySQL, MS SQL, Oracle, Postgress or any PDO compliant variation.

Disclosure: I'm a co-maintainer of Forena.