Shipbucket

I was talking to tim and ace on the IRC earlier. Ace was describing a system of controlling the parts sheets using Excel, and so I started talking about a system I could probably design that would run on the Shipbucket home page. This would be a system that would use a MySQL database to sort and store all the parts. This would mean that parts could be searched and sorted on the homepage, and would also mean that we could sort them by nationality, year in service, time period, etc. It really depends on your requirements.

I like this idea because 1) it gives me a chance to test myself creating something with PHP and MySQL, and 2) it would mean that the parts sheets could be easily sorted, updated, and kept alive rather than a bunch of sheets in the subforum.

Vetted users would be given credentials to login and modify the existing parts.

Any thoughts?

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

+1 from me.

It would make looking for the latest parts a lot easier.

Now, there's one more thing: the database could also potentially keep track of ships. This would mean that we could tie the systems shown to the ships that show them through the database.

This would mean that uploading sessions would take thousands more hours to do though, unless another method is devised.

Unfortunately I am not a talented-enough programmer to really bring this to fruition. I think for the first steps I will stick with just parts control.

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

I like this idea, as currently locating parts is in my opinion unnecessarliy complex, having to dig through the main site, then check all the threads in the subforum to see if it has been added/updated. As for ships, I think some standardization of the file name system would work better than working on the same system as parts.

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Worklist

"If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done." ~Ludwig Wittgenstein

It is not something I'd have the skills or interest to tackle myself, and it sounds a good way forward; so yes, my 100% backing

Interesting. Certainly worth a try in my opinion.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Excellent. My next question: how much information do we want to store for each part? It can be as simple as "drawing, name, nationality" or as complex as "drawing, name, nationality, time period in service, caliber, band" etc. It really depends on the requirements of the community.

This system could be searched and sorted using any type of filtering system you've used on a website. Right now, I don't have the programming expertise to implement multi-criteria searching beyond a few steps, but I think I could figure it out if this feature is required. As I said before my expertise lies with design, user interfaces, and database, rather than hardcore programming and development.

I'm not convinced that this system is necessary for ships -- I've always been of the opinion that it's peoples' responsibility to figure out what systems are in use themselves and not to have it handed to you on a silver platter. Besides, putting every ship in its own entry would be a nightmare to say the least. I could definitely think of how to do it though, and could probably manage the actual programming and database design if this feature is demanded.

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

So If I understood it correctly, it would require people who draws the parts to give all the data to someone to upload them into mainsite, and then upload differently the information? Not to mention that most of the parts are actually allready drawn.

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Shipbucket mainsite, aka "The Archive"
New AU project "Aravala"

The system as I have envisioned it will work like this:

1. You go to a page on the SB.com website and login like you would any website. I would create credentials for this login, and the administrators could provide credentials to anyone who wants to help with parts management. For now, I imagine that these people would be Gollevainen, TimothyC, Acelanceloet, Hood, and a few others who manage the parts sheets.

2. You would then click on an "add part" link and be taken to a form. In this form you name it, fill in any other information, and submit the file for upload. I would place in a hard requirement for .PNG images under 50kb or so to make sure that no JPG nonsense gets added.

3. Once a part has been added, parts administrators could then click on any added part and have the "edit" option visible. This would allow them to update the name and other information as well as upload a new part to replace an older one. I might be able to create an option to keep old versions on hand but I don't see the need for that.

4. Parts administrators will also have the option to delete parts from the database.

This will not require any extra work for Gollevainen unless he wants to start cataloging the parts on the site himself; I imagine that this can be more than taken care of by our eager parts sheets contributors.

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

This would be a superb addition.