On Wednesday, 14 November 2018 12:40:46 GMT Ralph Corderoy wrote: > So if you've five widgets, two of them Condition=rusty, is that two > rows? What columns come together to make a unique row rather than one > that should be merged into another? I'd group those together rather > than slot Quantity in between, say.
I had to think about this to understand what you meant by your question. At the moment Condition could have several entries; New or Used is the most common, but Needs Assembly also appears (for example, Pis can come bare or with pre-assembled headers). When you talk about rows, do you mean rows in the spreadsheet or rows in the database (is there such a thing)? In terms of the GUI, we would want some kind of dropbox to select the condition I expect. If not it could be simply a plain text entry. (There won't be many Users (at least at first).) > Is Location brief enough to be entered consistently? Or should there be > a table of locations with precise descriptions, each with a unique ID, > either numeric or mnemonic, with the database or code enforcing each > Item row uses a valid Location ID? For this one the answer is much the same as for Condition. > Do you want an audit trail so history can be examined to know who made > what changes and when? Handy when something's gone awry between theory > and reality due to the Pilferers of Wimborne. If the system you're > using doesn't provide it, then you can implement it yourself with tables > recording the changes. Wouldn't it be nice :-) Maybe, but we certainly won't need it at first. > Have you considered Google Sheets instead of your LibreOffice > spreadsheet? Access from a web browser. Data stored centrally, > handling multiple editors. Not sure about its history tracking. Google > Apps Script allows custom menu items, etc., by writing Javascript that > runs on Google's machines. Never used it, mind. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Apps_Script > https://developers.google.com/apps-script/ > And there's quite a few articles about using Google Sheets as a simple > database. Yes we have discussed this and might fall back on it (initially at least) if creating the full-blown database proves too time consuming. We could also transfer the data in Google Spreadsheets into a proper database later. > Otherwise, like Keith, I was going to suggest http://flask.pocoo.org/ > given your acquaintance with Python. For your small needs, SQLite would > be adequate and that's what Flask's tutorial uses. > http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/1.0/tutorial/database/ Flask is probably the most attractive route for us because ultimately we want our Visitor GUI to display current and historical results, stored in a database for the Visitors to marvel at :-) We had decided some time ago (after you suggested its affinity with Python for another application (which is still not started)) to use it for that purpose. > Your type of need keeps occurring. Clive had something similar a year > or two ago. It does seem like a *good* web implementation of > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperCard would do, from what I've read > about it, but I don't know of one. Yes there have been a number of quite powerful tools over the years and I have some nostalgia for 4th Dimension on a Macintosh in the early 90s. I don't think it was ever made online capable, but the user interface was superb. Microsoft tried to copy it with Access, but they never achieved the same performance and ease of use. They did kill off 4th Dimension though. My team colleague, who suggested the use of a database for the Inventory, also used this tool during the same period that I did. At the end of the day, this idea is probably for the 'Wouldn't it be nice if' book. I'm sure it's doable, but there is a limit to what a couple of volunteers can achieve (especially when one was a hardware engineer and one a systems engineer and both are heavily tied up with hardware development and its associated control software. However, the Inventory would probably be most useful now rather than later, whereas the Visitor GUI isn't much use until we have a working system! The Inventory could be brought to the fore sooner in the end. Currently we are working on a new Level Sensor with I2C interfacing and a Gate Valve with positional feedback. These are looking pretty good at the moment. -- Terry Coles -- Next meeting at *new* venue: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-12-04 20:00 Check if you're replying to the list or the author Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
