Detail log

I haven't forgotten about this project. I've just been so swamped at work, the last thing I have been wanting to do is come home and do more.

This weekend I decided to scrap the project and started over with a new framework. I've got the registration, login, customer entry and car entry completed and the project is coming along nicely. I just need to add the detail entry and give it a simple design for the time being, then I will get it posted up shortly.

Sorry it has been taking so long, I just wanted to fill you guys in on where it's at.
 
lgtspecb said:
> LG, I would appreciate a DB if you don't mind, i'm open to anything that helps me keep track.

No problem, just keep in mind that I would be doing it in my free time (there is not much of it these days) so it could take a bit. Hopefully I could have it working by the end of the month.

> I would love to have customers name, address, email and phone
> Description of car (possible photo) work done, hours spent and products.

All no problem. For photos I could either allow any number of photos up to a size limit, or I could put an interface in to load the images directly from picasa, flickr, or any photo service with a public api.

> I would also love to have an inventory type setup for products.

Not. sure what you mean here. You want inventory management system to define your products and then select products from that when you enter a new car into the log?

I think it would be great to make the detail logs public so others can view the products and process used (not your customers information though). I might consider making it so you can toggle it to be public or private but I think if i'm giving the service away for free, the users can give back to others by making the information public.

I'll get started on this, so everyone just add your comments and wish lists here.
Click to expand...


you are touching on something i have been trying to do for a friend i was helping...

create a database of working combos, nuances of those combos, and perceived results and comments... as a professional, perhaps adding time and product used (with a scale) could add some small value to pricing and what not, and atleast product tracking for an inventory of sorts...

where i faltered was i eventually had so many things listed i havent decided how to present it... i was thinking grading the compounds from 1-10 or 1-5 or 1-4, or some means that can be used from brand to brand, but the pad factor came in, and in reality, the info is presented in the name itself most of the time, and for the products i would buy again, there is no reason to change...

what people could benefit from is a lsp guide, such as what glazes work under what sealants, what works over certain sealants, and the goofy products that are use in many ways...
 
orionz06 said:
you are touching on something i have been trying to do for a friend i was helping...

create a database of working combos, nuances of those combos, and perceived results and comments... as a professional, perhaps adding time and product used (with a scale) could add some small value to pricing and what not, and atleast product tracking for an inventory of sorts...

where i faltered was i eventually had so many things listed i havent decided how to present it... i was thinking grading the compounds from 1-10 or 1-5 or 1-4, or some means that can be used from brand to brand, but the pad factor came in, and in reality, the info is presented in the name itself most of the time, and for the products i would buy again, there is no reason to change...

what people could benefit from is a lsp guide, such as what glazes work under what sealants, what works over certain sealants, and the goofy products that are use in many ways...
Click to expand...
At the moment, in the interest of getting it up quickly, there will not be any kind of product management. I will have time spent, material cost and amount charged to start with. Description of the detail (which will eventually become the show & shine for public viewing) will be done using a virtual editor very similar to the editor here for posting reply's. There will also be a private notes section for anything relevant to the detail that you do not wish to be public.

At first launch, images will need to be hosted off-site and linked in through the editor, but image hosting is a definite and will come very shortly. You will be host your images there, then link to them from AG.net :). Since this is a free project, I will need to limit the number of images to like 10 1024x768 pics or something unless I serve ads or take donations.

I am open to suggestions for product management and tracking, but I imagine a lot of people handle this quite differently. After I get the initial site up and running, it is something that can be looked at if there is enough demand. Individually listing each product used and its effectiveness could become quite complex as there is a lot of variables at play here. What product and pad? DA or rotary? Speed? How much product was used? How many passes? Was the polish worked in all the way? Users comfort level with said product? Did you step up or down with either pad or polish? Etc. I'll revisit that after a while to see what can be done.

This is a site for you detailers to keep track of your customers, cars and details, and a site for others to see your work and learn from your details. There will be public comments, ratings, product reviews, and you can search for details by car type, make, model and color. Each registered detailer will be able to opt-in to get their profile listed in the business directory which acts as a mini-site, with contact info and links to your details. This can help customers find and compare local detailers. I would like to find a site sponsor to offer product giveaways for monthly detailling challenges and top rated details (maybe Meghan would be interested?).

As long as you guys use it, and give me recommendations for improving it, it will be a great portal for detailers and customers.

I'll give more updates as it unfolds and I am aiming to do a small launch this coming weekend.

And you you ipod/iphone and other smartphone users, you can always access it from your phones. I think a mobile version of the site will be in the works before long.
 
you see the complexity that i stopped at...


what started as a simple thing to help someone became riddled with variables and dilemmas...



but the jist of it is use this : list of products : on _____ car with ____ pads and this is the result PIC


almost like a show and shine... in fact, one could develop a generic template post for show and shine to use even... standards like wash, prep, clay, compound-pad-speed, polish-pad-speed, and other standards like amount used (relate to coin size or lines/circles on pad) and area size worked...


it opens up big time...
 
Emile said:
Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to keep it simple.

Use QuickBooks 2009 or Quicken or one of those small business management software suites to organize the entire business would be the next step.

I am thinking that Microsoft Access may fall somewhere in between the first and second suggestions, but it's so not user friendly it is hard to recommend.
Click to expand...

MS Access is really powerfull. If you take pics of your detailed cars Access may be the program you would want. Think of it as a database and not a spreadsheet.
 
orionz06 said:
you see the complexity that i stopped at...


what started as a simple thing to help someone became riddled with variables and dilemmas...



but the jist of it is use this : list of products : on _____ car with ____ pads and this is the result PIC


almost like a show and shine... in fact, one could develop a generic template post for show and shine to use even... standards like wash, prep, clay, compound-pad-speed, polish-pad-speed, and other standards like amount used (relate to coin size or lines/circles on pad) and area size worked...


it opens up big time...
Click to expand...
Well when I get product management in, the product db will be public to any registered user. Then they can add their own products to it. Modifications to existing products initially might be on the honor system, or by email request, but a voting interface for changes would be cool. Once the database is created, you would be able to select a product and add it as a step to the detail. From the front-end, users would be able to search not only by make, color, etc, but also by product. So for example "show me all details where Klasse AIO was used on a Yellow 2006-2008 Corvette". This part is not tough.

All products in the db would be available to rate. At the product level, you could rate and review each product you test and could say stuff like "DGPS really makes red pop", or "SIP will make black look black again" in the comments. As far as relating product effectiveness to a particular car programatically, I am at a loss since it is so subjective and really depends on experience. Maybe that stuff is better left in the detailers notes.
 
with the experience portion you could leave access only to you, and accept updates to control them, or leave it public and edit as you deem necessary... that is also where i ran into trouble...

example being the skill/experience vs product...


ive found a lot of newer people purchase XMT swirl removers based on price and have less luck.. by the time they have gained experience, they move on to say menzerna, and the skills shine with a great product, and the XMT doesnt get the credit it deserves (although the menz i think is better) make sense?
 
Just an update, I made a lot of progress last night. Registration, Login, Adding Customers, Cars and Details is now completed. I just need to add some searching, sorting and paging to each of the table views, fill in the terms of use, privacy policy and faqs, give it a basic design, run a final security scan and it will be ready for initial launch. I have decided that I will allow you to toggle a detail as browseable or not. This goes against the whole free mantra, but if you want to keep a detailed log of your personal cars, or you have customers that you see frequently with just a wash & wax, you won't necessarily want to have every single one viewable and taking up space in your profile and it will clean up the search results on the front-end when I get there.

First launch will be pretty basic, but atleast it will give you guys a tool to use and you can start populating it with content and giving me recommendations to improve it.

Target for second release will be image uploads, product management, and streamlining the addition of a detail. Right now it is a 3 step process: 1: define your customers, 2: add cars to your customers profiles, 3: log a detail for each car. I would like to be able to go directly in to add a new detail and create a new customer, car and detail all in a single step. Plus any recommendations you guys have of course.

I just want to assure everyone that security is my primary focus and yours and your customers information will be highly protected. I am not a professional detailer, and I have no interest in becoming one. I have nothing to gain from storing your customers data. I am however a professional web application developer and an enthusiast detailer. The site is hosted in a secure hosting environment on a dedicated server, SSL is used for the entire user area, and sensitive information is encrypted in the database. I constantly scan for potential XSS and SQL injection vulnerabilities and other common web based attacks. All of this ofcourse will be covered in my Privacy Policy, I just wanted to make sure there are no concerns.
 
Well, after working the entire last 2 weekends (ok, so i stopped to wash the car, eat a few times and tour two wineries), and staying up until at least 1:30 a.m. every morning working on it. The site has been tested in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera. I have conducted usability testing with 3 test users. All code has been tested and validated and all security checks have passed. I am ready to tag the code as release 1 and post it. Only problem is, I am still waiting for the domain and email. Hopefully the DNS gets set up is the morning so the domain starts resolving and email starts working.
 
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Seems like i'm talking to myself these days, but DetailLog (it needs a better name) is live.

DetailLog: The first online auto detail management software

This is just an initial beta launch, i've got lots of additional features and optimizations in mind, and the current layout is just something I threw together very quickly. Please send questions and comments to [email protected]. Thanks guys, I hope you enjoy it.
 
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I just logged in, man that is really great, I put a test in and seems to do everything I could ask for. I can't begin to thank you enough. I think once others start to use this they will see how absolutely beneficial it is!
 
Thanks I'm glad you like it, after all it was your need that kicked the project off. I've only been working on it for a week, and there is still so much I want to add to it to make it a really useful tool.
 
Thanks , thats nice . Will be helpful to me in keeping up with customers and my own fleet .
 
Thanks guys for the feedback, so far the response has been great. There were 10 registrations yesterday besides myself and my testers, and it looks like a few more are joining us today.

I did a small update today to fix a bug that was found during testing yesterday and to display some security messages at login that were on my maybe list for version 1, but didn't have the time to do earlier.

Unless any new bugs are found, I am going to take a break for a few days before I get started on the next round of features.

Thanks again for all the positive feedback and I really hope you guys enjoy using it. I am glad to be able to offer my services to fill the need.

Also, just a quick tip. The searching is pretty advanced, it uses a drill down method to help you easily find customers or cars if you have a very large inventory. It will only display the criteria that differ between the items listed in that view. To further refine your search just enter additional criteria and click the 'Search' button. If you find yourself lost or don't see the car you are looking for, click the 'Clear Search' button to reset the view.
 
So there have been a few minor upgrades over the last two weeks, such as a new homepage layout, a few ie6 compatibility fixes, and under the hood stuff you guys wouldn't care about such as unblocked search engines and what not.

Today I did a major posting. Image uploads are done (really slick interface), basic product management, implemented google maps api instead of just an external link, even more improvements to the searching and general layout/usability stuff.

The product database is a community maintained database. Products you put in there will be visible and editable to everyone else, so be kind, use full common names, not abbreviations like #901, #7, ONR, SIP, and check if something exists before you add something. It is pretty open right now, with a small userbase I trust you guys to do the right thing, but eventually I will lock it down so edits to existing products will need to be voted on. Currently, once a product is assigned to a category it cannot be un-assigned because someone might already be using it in their details. There is still a lot of work to do on this part, so let me know if you have ideas. Also, there are very few categories right now so I will be expanding that over the next couple days.

There is also a demo mode now. Login with the user 'demo' and password 'demo123', to try it out without registering. The demo user cannot update the account details or edit the product database, and images uploaded will not be accesible from outside the site.

Enjoy, and as always, feedback is welcomed.
 
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