textarea column type

Shows as multiline edit in edit/insert dialog

datasette/default_column_types.py

@@ -76,6 +76,12 @@ class JsonColumnType(ColumnType):
         return None
 
 
+class TextareaColumnType(ColumnType):
+    name = "textarea"
+    description = "Multiline text"
+    sqlite_types = (SQLiteType.TEXT,)
+
+
 @hookimpl
 def register_column_types(datasette):
-    return [UrlColumnType, EmailColumnType, JsonColumnType]
+    return [UrlColumnType, EmailColumnType, JsonColumnType, TextareaColumnType]

datasette/static/table.js

@@ -792,12 +792,15 @@ function valueToEditText(value) {
   return String(value);
 }
 
-function shouldUseTextarea(value) {
+function shouldUseTextarea(value, columnType) {
+  if (columnType && columnType.type === "textarea") {
+    return true;
+  }
   if (value && typeof value === "object") {
     return true;
   }
   var text = valueToEditText(value);
-  return text.length > 80 || text.indexOf("\n") !== -1;
+  return text.length > 80 || /[\r\n]/.test(text);
 }
 
 function rowEditValueType(value) {
@@ -835,7 +838,7 @@ function createRowEditField(column, value, isPk, columnType, index, options) {
   var controlWrap = document.createElement("div");
   controlWrap.className = "row-edit-control-wrap";
 
-  var control = shouldUseTextarea(value)
+  var control = shouldUseTextarea(value, columnType)
     ? document.createElement("textarea")
     : document.createElement("input");
   control.className = "row-edit-input";

docs/configuration.rst

@@ -1102,9 +1102,9 @@ These configure :ref:`full-text search <full_text_search>` for a table or view.
 ``column_types``
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
-You can assign semantic column types to columns, which affect how values are rendered, validated, and transformed. Built-in column types include ``url``, ``email``, and ``json``. Plugins can register additional column types using the :ref:`register_column_types <plugin_register_column_types>` plugin hook.
+You can assign semantic column types to columns, which affect how values are rendered, validated, transformed, and edited. Built-in column types include ``url``, ``email``, ``json``, and ``textarea``. Plugins can register additional column types using the :ref:`register_column_types <plugin_register_column_types>` plugin hook.
 
-Column types can optionally declare which SQLite column types they apply to using ``sqlite_types``. Datasette will reject incompatible assignments. The built-in ``url``, ``email``, and ``json`` column types are all restricted to ``TEXT`` columns.
+Column types can optionally declare which SQLite column types they apply to using ``sqlite_types``. Datasette will reject incompatible assignments. The built-in ``url``, ``email``, ``json``, and ``textarea`` column types are all restricted to ``TEXT`` columns.
 
 The simplest form maps column names to type name strings:
 
@@ -1119,6 +1119,7 @@ The simplest form maps column names to type name strings:
                   website: url
                   contact: email
                   extra_data: json
+                  notes: textarea
       """).strip()
     )
 .. ]]]
@@ -1135,6 +1136,7 @@ The simplest form maps column names to type name strings:
                   website: url
                   contact: email
                   extra_data: json
+                  notes: textarea
 
 .. tab:: datasette.json
 
@@ -1148,7 +1150,8 @@ The simplest form maps column names to type name strings:
                   "column_types": {
                     "website": "url",
                     "contact": "email",
-                    "extra_data": "json"
+                    "extra_data": "json",
+                    "notes": "textarea"
                   }
                 }
               }

docs/plugin_hooks.rst

@@ -1092,7 +1092,7 @@ Column types are assigned to columns via the :ref:`column_types <table_configura
                 config:
                   format: rgb
 
-Datasette includes three built-in column types: ``url``, ``email``, and ``json``.
+Datasette includes four built-in column types: ``url``, ``email``, ``json``, and ``textarea``. The ``textarea`` type is an editing hint that causes Datasette's insert/edit forms to use a multiline ``<textarea>`` control for that column.
 
 .. _plugin_asgi_wrapper:
 

tests/test_column_types.py

@@ -494,6 +494,7 @@ async def test_builtin_column_types_registered(ds_ct):
     assert "url" in ds_ct._column_types
     assert "email" in ds_ct._column_types
     assert "json" in ds_ct._column_types
+    assert "textarea" in ds_ct._column_types
     assert "nonexistent" not in ds_ct._column_types
 
 
@@ -510,6 +511,10 @@ async def test_column_type_class_attributes(ds_ct):
     assert email_cls.sqlite_types == (SQLiteType.TEXT,)
     json_cls = ds_ct._column_types["json"]
     assert json_cls.sqlite_types == (SQLiteType.TEXT,)
+    textarea_cls = ds_ct._column_types["textarea"]
+    assert textarea_cls.name == "textarea"
+    assert textarea_cls.description == "Multiline text"
+    assert textarea_cls.sqlite_types == (SQLiteType.TEXT,)
 
 
 def test_sqlite_type_from_declared_type():
@@ -941,6 +946,7 @@ async def test_set_column_type_ui_data_includes_applicable_types(
         "options": [
             {"name": "email", "description": "Email address"},
             {"name": "json", "description": "JSON data"},
+            {"name": "textarea", "description": "Multiline text"},
             {"name": "url", "description": "URL"},
         ],
     }
@@ -949,6 +955,7 @@ async def test_set_column_type_ui_data_includes_applicable_types(
         "options": [
             {"name": "email", "description": "Email address"},
             {"name": "json", "description": "JSON data"},
+            {"name": "textarea", "description": "Multiline text"},
             {"name": "url", "description": "URL"},
         ],
     }

tests/test_table_html.py

@@ -942,6 +942,7 @@ async def test_table_insert_action_button_and_data():
                             "permissions": {
                                 "insert-row": {"id": "root"},
                             },
+                            "column_types": {"body": "textarea"},
                         },
                     },
                 },
@@ -993,6 +994,7 @@ async def test_table_insert_action_button_and_data():
         assert created["default"] == "datetime('now')"
         assert created["has_default"]
         assert body["value_type"] == "string"
+        assert body["column_type"] == {"type": "textarea", "config": None}
     finally:
         ds.close()