| Author |
 Replies: 19 / Views: 4,975 |
Page 2 of 2
|
|
|
|
Valued Member
 Canada
124 Posts |
I wanted to keep the excel spreadsheet feel with filters by using the grid view and filters on the left. Adding embeded images, unlimited notes and other history tracking details just made it that much better.
Thanks! :)
|
|
Valued Member
United States
146 Posts |
What I think would be cool is if you could link it somehow to current values so you could have a total value of the collection. Not that value is the most important thing but I think it would be nice to be able to track how much it goes up over time. Also a graph showing the increase or decrease over time. I am not a computer guru so don't have the foggiest on how it would be accomplished.
|
|
Forum Dad
 United States
24177 Posts |
Quote:
Pictures are stored in the databse and not on the local hard drive so there's no links to get broken if the pictures move DB will get big very quickly, and performance will suffer. There's a reason most setups only store the location of the image and not the image. |
|
Valued Member
Canada
124 Posts |
I considered the performance issue when I was planning it out. Currently the database sits on a linux box dedicated for this one database. The linux box has no other DBs on it and only runs mysql and apache (for the web interface).
It's currently got just over 400 coins, up to 4 pictures per coin and there's no performance change since I added the first coin. I've been keeping an eye on the server and it's doesn't show any signs of struggling so I think I'll be good in that area. :)
|
|
Valued Member
Canada
124 Posts |
Quote:
What I think would be cool is if you could link it somehow to current values so you could have a total value of the collection. Not that value is the most important thing but I think it would be nice to be able to track how much it goes up over time. Also a graph showing the increase or decrease over time. I am not a computer guru so don't have the foggiest on how it would be accomplished. I'm already tracking the history of the coins individually and as a collection. Every time I make a change to a coin in the inventory the current coin value is saved. Every time the program exits it adds up the value of all coins (purchase price, high and low values). Eventually I'll write a second application that will be the "reporting" program to graph out the values and such. I could easily add a field to show the current values but I've already compiled "read only" versions of the program for family members and I don't want to make it too easy for them to see value information. :) |
|
Valued Member
United States
129 Posts |
Hey tiker, what's the application written in? I'm a programmer by trade and have considered doing the same thing. A suggestion, like bobby mentioned, the DB has potential to get big and cause performance problems. Since you already have a dedicated box for this application, why not just store the photos on there in a known file structure?
|
|
Valued Member
Canada
124 Posts |
I originally started writing it in VB4 (don't laugh) but then upgraded to VB6 for better binary streaming through the ODBC driver. I do think that some time (way off in the future when I have more time to spare) I'll write a new application in C++ or Delphi.
The reason I didn't use the file system is I'd need to setup a second connection to the server (through samba or whatever) to access the files or I'd need to write a server side application to fetch the files and stream the image data back to the client. I run the application from various places, at home, from the office, from my home in the US which is just over 600 miles away from the db server, etc. Opening Samba ports on my firewall to the outside world isn't the safest thing to do so I'm not going that route and I needed to get something working sooner than later because the program I was using was corrupting it's database.
At this point I've got over 750 coins moved over (not all have images) and there's still no issues with performance. The database queries run as fast as they did when I put the first coin in. If at some point in the future I do see a performance problem with the DB then I'll write something to export the image data to files on the file system.
Edited by tiker
12/08/2009 3:36 pm
|
|
Valued Member
United States
129 Posts |
Very cool. If you're going to rewrite at some point, I'd go C# instead of C++ basically the same syntax, but you get features that you'd enjoy. IF you can do it in C# you might be able to use silverlight and run it as a website from your server box. Then you can do all kind of fun things :)
|
|
Valued Member
Canada
124 Posts |
I'll look into C# and silverlight then. Thanks. :)
|
|
New Member
United States
4 Posts |
Tiker:
Are you planning on selling your coin collecting database? I really like what you have. I'm just beginning to collect coins and your database seems to fit my needs.
|
|
Valued Member
Canada
124 Posts |
I had thought about making a version that uses a .mdb database file to release but I have decided not to.
Reason being is anything that's released typically requires a certain amount of time invested to maintain, update, fix problems, add new features, etc. I honestly do not have the time to invest into those types of things if I did release or sell it. It would just end up like other applications out there and I don't want to add to that "take your money and run" market.
I may release the code and say you're on your own with it but I'd have to clean it up first.
|
|
New Member
United States
4 Posts |
Tiker:
I like it as it is and will take my chances if you were to release it. I don't know if you can send me a private message on this forum or not. If you can't, I will send you me email address.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2669 Posts |
If you release it under the GPL License (open source), you may end up with a few contributors who could help clean things up/add features/fix bugs. Just an idea  |
|
Valued Member
Canada
124 Posts |
cbrczar:
Right now the software connects to my home database server through my home internet connection. It runs fine for myself but if others start using it my home internet would get slower and then I'd have to fix that. Do you have a mysql db running that you can setup to host the data for the application? If not then it'll need to be converted first.
I was thinking GPL as well. There will be several changes to make it use a local database file (.mdb or SQLLite) before it can be done. I do have to check the license of one object I did not write - it's a type-ahead text box used for a few fields. (Type in "CA" for a country and it searches a table for all countries starting with CA and gives "CANADA" and "CAMBODIA" as clickable choices.)
Last thing is it's not exactly finished in it's current state. I do have to manually go into the database to make some changes that I haven't coded for in the application.
Give me some time to figure out the whats and hows. :)
Edited by tiker
01/16/2010 11:30 pm
|
|
Valued Member
United States
129 Posts |
IF you release the source code, let me know. It'd be fun to tinker with :)
|
|
Page 2 of 2
|
Replies: 19 / Views: 4,975 |
Page 2 of 2
|
First Page
Posted 11/18/2009 07:19 am
