Subject:
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Re: PaB Inventory On-line for the iPhone
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:30:52 GMT
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In lugnet.general, Michael Shiels wrote:
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How easy can we make it for someone to update this data?
I work with quite a few stores, but honestly getting a full run down on parts
is hard, if it was easy enough/brought in some extra business for the stores,
I could see them maybe updating it??
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When I first got the idea for this project, I was standing next to the PaB wall
at the Orlando LIC with my wife’s iPhone in my hand. At the time, I was in the
store gathering information about what’s on the wall for a commercial project
our group just received -- we need to know what parts were up on the wall, what
was our color palette we could work with, and what was our supply of basic brick
was at the time. And I thought to myself, “wouldn’t it be neat if I could just
use my iPhone, flip through a list of parts, and have this inventory right at my
finger tips. And just think, it wouldn’t be too hard to be able to update that
inventory (pretty quickly) from my iPhone.”
So with that in mind, this project emerged, with those two thoughts: a simple
inventory list, and an easy way to update the inventory from a mobile device
(with a web-browser). I didn’t want to have to write something down, go home
and enter that information into the computer, but to be able to do it there from
the store....
Another aspect that made this project cool, a few of our LUG members had phones
that you could surf the internet with... even though I live the closest to the
LIC, I don’t go in every day... or week. But I’ll hear about so-and-so was in
the store last weekend and I missed out on some really great parts. We all
would have a habit of hitting the store, finding something cool on the wall, and
then sometimes calling other members to let them know about it... or not. So in
the back of my mind, I thought if you made the interface for updating the
inventory simple enough, maybe members might do it & the rest of us would know
what was new up on the wall.
Now going forward, it shouldn’t be too hard to update inventory... I’ve been
working on some site enhancement since I first announced iPaB: adding a RSS
feed; the ability to sign-in/sign-off the web-site; coming up an admin strategy;
adapting BrickBuildr for the iphone; adding webclips; David was kind enough to
send me part data within a few days and in-turn I quickly got them into the
database; and have been working on the back end to allow trusted users to edit
PaB inventory.
Once you sign-in, you’ll be able to select your store, hit ‘order by wall
order’, you’ll be shown a list of parts based on the X,Y coordinates. You’ll
visually compare this list of parts against what’s up on the wall. Next to each
part (or think of it as a container) you’ll be giving the option to edit the
container.
Like David said, somewhere between 60-75% off the wall stays about the same...
if you have a 1x2 blue brick in a container & just got a shipment of 1x2 blue
bricks, the tendency is replenish parts to the same container,... sometimes
inventory gets ‘spread out’ to help fill in holes if PaB inventory in the back
runs low... so sometime you end up with 1x2 blue bricks in 2 or more
containers... but for the most part, the only time when you need to edit a
container is when the container has gone empty and is filled with new parts or
from stock in the backroom to make the wall not look so barren.
With that said, updating the inventory (once it’s been initially entered)
shouldn’t be too hard to keep updated on a regular basis.
Now that I’m about 90% done with the back end, what I’m planning to do with the
next store we bring on-line -- I’ll enter into the database a bunch of empty
containers set to the X,Y coordinates of the wall. Then turn the ‘admin’ loose
on updating the wall, and working with that individual on how to make that
process easier.
Right now, there 100-odd parts to choose from within the database. I didn’t
feel like there needed to be every part from the LEGOpedia in the database.
However, if there’s a part on the PaB wall that’s not iPaB’s current inventory,
I’ll have add it manually.
Every color is in the database, but the site only shows you the more common
colors -- even though light orange would be a cool color to have up on the wall,
I’m not holding my breath to see if parts in that color to show up on the wall.
So unless someone from California wants to add inventory from Legoland...
Anyway, it’s he same with part categories -- all of them have been entered into
the database, but the site is only showing you a smaller, more common subset.
For those interested, here’s my road map for the web-site for now:
- Finish up the back end for editing inventory.
- Improving navigation around the site... showing only 7-10 items at a time to cut down on scolling.
- Cleaning up buttons & graphics to be more compatible with other web browsers.
- Improve the look of the web-site for when iPhone users turn the web-site from portrait to landscape view.
- Take more suggestions & make improvements.
And like you, Michael, I’d be interested in seeing if this makes a difference in
PaB sales for stores, now that this information is out there... David, I didn’t
know your store still had red round castle windows... I’ll have to put an order
in. ;)
--Mike.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: PaB Inventory On-line for the iPhone
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| (...) Sorry to respond to my own post, but there's a few more thoughts I had... I want to keep iPaB's information up-to-date and accurate; I really DON'T want to cause issues for LEGO retail stores. I can see LEGO retail stores getting phone calls (...) (17 years ago, 11-Apr-08, to lugnet.general, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: PaB Inventory On-line for the iPhone
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| How easy can we make it for someone to update this data? I work with quite a few stores, but honestly getting a full run down on parts is hard, if it was easy enough/brought in some extra business for the stores, I could see them maybe updating it?? (17 years ago, 11-Apr-08, to lugnet.general, FTX)
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