Help design my book inventory tool

[Shadowraven]

just curious which site are you using?

Shelfari.  Was recommended by somebody else on this board.

[mistyd107]

looks great can't wait for the final product

[NogDog]

Added delete functionality.
Fixed a bug in associating an author with a book.

[geoffthomas]

Looks fine.
Did not try to add - didn't want to clutter up your DB.
Is this intended to be an on-line app when you are done?

[NogDog]

Looks fine.
Did not try to add - didn't want to clutter up your DB.

Clutter it up all you want (just realize that for now any data entered is temporary and won't be on the live version). Besides, I need more entries in order to test the pagination.

Is this intended to be an on-line app when you are done?

Yes, though it will definitely have a feature to download your list as a CSV file so you can import it into a spreadsheet or such (or just keep as a back-up file), and may eventually have a facility for uploading into it from a CSV file, but the latter will likely be down the road a bit.

[Gryphon82]

Hi NogDog,

The application seems simple and very user-friendly.  I did notice the text next to the Author field says (First, Last [middle suffix]), while above it says (last, first [middle and/or suffix]).

Also, it would be nice to be able to indicate different editions you might own within one entry.  Some of my favorite books I have a paperback to read and a HC to collect or just look pretty... and now that I have my new K2, I may get a Kindle Edition eventually.

Keep up the good work!

[Rasputina]

I started using librarian pro and love it. Especially the fact that it has an auto fill in feature using Amazon so I can just search by isbn, author, title, keywords...whatever and once I choose from the search results everything shows up on it's own. Including the cover art. Even better, I can create my own database for anything to track inventory. But the cover art really sells me. http://www.koingosw.com/products/librarianpro.php

[NogDog]

Hi NogDog,

The application seems simple and very user-friendly.  I did notice the text next to the Author field says (First, Last [middle suffix]), while above it says (last, first [middle and/or suffix]).

Thanks.

Also, it would be nice to be able to indicate different editions you might own within one entry.  Some of my favorite books I have a paperback to read and a HC to collect or just look pretty... and now that I have my new K2, I may get a Kindle Edition eventually.

Keep up the good work!

For now that can be supported simply by adding the same book again with different (or even the same) attributes, keywords, and/or comments. I probably won't change that unless there is a big demand for something different, as changing would require some non-trivial design changes (not necessarily huge changes, but stuff I'd rather not mess with at this point if not necessary).

Thanks for your help.

[NogDog]

I started using librarian pro and love it. Especially the fact that it has an auto fill in feature using Amazon so I can just search by isbn, author, title, keywords...whatever and once I choose from the search results everything shows up on it's own. Including the cover art. Even better, I can create my own database for anything to track inventory. But the cover art really sells me. http://www.koingosw.com/products/librarianpro.php

I have worked on some stuff for grabbing data from Amazon, but it may be awhile before I try integrating it. (I'm not sure how consistent they are at formatting author names, which could be a bit of a hurdle as I specifically want to keep the last name separate for sorting/searching purposes.)

[suicidepact]

Looking forward to giving this a try once I get a moment. Thanks NogDog!

[NogDog]

Need some opinions....

For the inventory listing, I'm considering some different ways for users to edit information about a book in their list.

1. Click on an "edit" icon that will display a page (or a pseudo-window) more or less the same as the "add book" page, with current, editable values pre-filled, and with a "Change" button to submit the desired changes.

2. Make each changeable field in the listing editable, with an "Update" button/icon that would apply any changes made for that item.

3. Similar to 2, but instead of having an "Update" button, any time a field's value is changed, it automatically sends an update request to the application (just for that one field).

("Changeable" fields will probably be everything except Author and Book Title.)

Let me know if you have any preference(s) or have thought of some other choice that you would prefer

================

Secondly, would you like a rating field for each list item (e.g. a 1-5 star sort of thing)? If so, how important would it be to you?

[mistyd107]

Personally I like the idea of fields updating automatically when a change is made, but the other options sound good to.  As for a rating system it would be nice but not absolutely necessary.  It would be something I use at times and not at others

[marianneg]

Need some opinions....

For the inventory listing, I'm considering some different ways for users to edit information about a book in their list.

1. Click on an "edit" icon that will display a page (or a pseudo-window) more or less the same as the "add book" page, with current, editable values pre-filled, and with a "Change" button to submit the desired changes.

2. Make each changeable field in the listing editable, with an "Update" button/icon that would apply any changes made for that item.

3. Similar to 2, but instead of having an "Update" button, any time a field's value is changed, it automatically sends an update request to the application (just for that one field).

("Changeable" fields will probably be everything except Author and Book Title.)

Let me know if you have any preference(s) or have thought of some other choice that you would prefer

I like option 2, but only if it said something (eg., do you want to save or discard changes) if you had changed it and attempted to leave the page.

Secondly, would you like a rating field for each list item (e.g. a 1-5 star sort of thing)? If so, how important would it be to you?

It would be nice, but not essential.  Perhaps allow the user to define the scale?  Eg., 1-5, 1-10, A-F, etc.

[NogDog]

I've added the "Edit" functionality. I decided to open a new editing page for this, as it's simpler for me for now. I can always change it later if it popular opinion is that it's too cumbersome or whatever. Could use a little testing on this aspect if anyone's bored.

[geoffthomas]

The app seems to be working pretty good.

Only problem was that in the registration process there is the "repeat these characters" thingy.
It never worked, caused an error, but completed my  registration anyway.
Hmmm.

[NogDog]

The app seems to be working pretty good.

Only problem was that in the registration process there is the "repeat these characters" thingy.
It never worked, caused an error, but completed my  registration anyway.
Hmmm.

Thanks for the info, though I was actually expecting you to use the testing account: user = "tester" password = "NogDog".

I will be looking at the user registration stuff soon, though, as that needs to be solid before I clear the DB and start a real "beta". Next on the docket though is sorting and filtering options for the listing, and outputs for printing and saving to spreadsheets (CSV file).