Cigar Tracking Software
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ScottU
Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 194
Hello all! So through my days at the forum I see that most people are using Excel to track their cigars, etc. Over on cigarobsession.com I see that he's listed a couple pieces of software that were mediocre at best.
Because I love to program, I've been thinking about creating a cigar tracking program and just wanted to get you guys input on it.
So... is this something that you guys would use? Are there specific features you would like to see in it? Lets get some brainstorming going here if you guys think you would use it...
Scott
Comments
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I would use it. I currently use Cigar Register but find it cumbersome and buggy.
Features I'd like to see. Database entries colored based on ratings. In an excel file I used to highlight sticks I rated red for a poor rating, an orange-ish color for okay, and Green for good. To me this indicated whether or not I'd purchase the stick again. red - never, orange - if i got a good deal, green - definitely would purchase again. Sticks would be only be rated on an overall basis on a 10 point scale. Entries would be for brand, line, name, size (inches), ring gauge, rating, and notes.
The biggest drawback/annoyance to the Cigar Register software is that when you are in the cigar database you can't hit a letter and automatically go to the first cigar of that letter. The built in searching function aren't good and don't work the way one would expect.
I'm sure I can think of more ideas later. -
A feature I would include is something I do in Excel. I have a tab titled "Favorites" where I list the cigars I've smoked that got the best rating, and what size, wrapper etc. they were. Then I usually go through all the cigar websites I shop at and find which one has them for the lowest price.
Not a vital feature, but somewhere to put that info in the program sure beats skimming through the internet Favorites list for 5 minutes. -
Yes, I would use it. I just started tracking my sticks. I tried cigar register, but to cumbersome and not intuitive at all. Now I am using the Mobile Stogie app on my Itouch and it is very easy and somewhat intuitive. Defintely room for improvement there. If you need beta testers, count me in.
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I would definitely use it, and would love to do a review when you get it done! So far nothing is near perfect that I have found, unfortunately.
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Excellent! I started working on it last night and have a good start on it. The first few releases will be more for getting the main concept down - then I will focus on the design (so basically it will be rather primitive to begin with) Function before beauty, right? It probably will take a short bit for the first release, because I run my own business I usually work 70-80 hours a week. When the time comes, I will be needing a few people to help me test if anyone is interested let me know. Thanks for the input, and positive feedback, lets keep it rolling!
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I will help test when the time comes if needed. Just let me know.
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where's duty? he's like the nerd around here...
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So lets get some community involvement here (ccom cigar tracker?) When you guys put your cigar into the database, what all information do you want to have? Currently I have
ID
Type
Size
Date Purchased
Purchase Location
In Humidor(Suggestions for this heading would be nice, just a reference for those of you have multiple humis)What else would you guys like to track? Also, to jdoris and brc, you guys can absolutley help test. Thanks!
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Any chance you would be able to find somewhere to maybe pull a picture of the band from the internet or at least be able to insert a picture that you take yourself? It would sure beat the heck outta throwing them all in a plastic bag and pressing them.
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The only thing I can think of that people might like is Purchase Price.
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Wow, this sounds like a great idea! I currently use CigarRegister but it is quite cumbersome. It takes forever to search for a cigar in the database and the search feature is crap. Also, it takes too long to add a cigar to the database. It's little things like the fact you can't use TAB between fields, but it's annoying and doing it on a laptop touchpad sucks. Have you decided on a GUI yet? Would there be a way for you to include a LiveUpdate feature? That may be asking alot, but that would be AWESOME. This is probably a stupid question but I am just curious, what are you going to use for the database? I am not sure what the makers of Cigar Register use, but it's quite buggy and slow...(probably MS Access..LOL) jk. I am also in the IT field and would love to test your software... Just an FYI...I was kinda thinking of a concept in my head for a cigar tracker, I was thinking of making something that resembled a Cigar Register book. For exmaple, when you execute the program, instead of Outlook 2003 interface (such as CR) it opens up like a book with pages in it where you can enter your cigar data.
Each cigar would be grouped together with a frame and you just click a field, enter your info and tab down till your done. Maybe also have a spot where you can cut and paste a pic (such as a cigar label) too. Once the page is full, it turns the page. And instead of trying to include every little thing people would track, I would just make my fields customizable. That way people can track whatever they want. Maybe having a sound effect such as a page turning would be cool too.
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In addition to date purchased, something that kept track of how many days a certain cigar has been in the humi would be awesome. To me, the little details are just as important as the main features. Also, maybe a "Wish List" type page? I know I'm not the only one with a big ol' list of cigars I still want to try.
I'll help test this baby out too when it's ready! -
I will definatley address the ability to Tab between fields. As far as the GUI goes, the first couple of releases will be quite ugly. Once the functionality is working smoothly and 100% I will work on making the GUI better.
I was looking at different databases yesterday, I will probably be running DBase. It's open source which means free (which is good for me!) The auto update will definatley go in my idea pad, but wont be until later releases.
The abililty to add a picture of the band/cigar is something I will look a little deeper into.
Regarding the Days in humidor, the current plan is on the checkin screen, wou will enter your purchase date, then when you actually check your stock, it should automatically caclulate based on your computers time/date. So it will always give you that info in real time.
I finished up all of the interface last night, it is extremely ugly, but now I can start working on the database side of things and hopefully get a release out relativley soon.
Any good suggestions for a name? -
a name? hmmm...that might take some time, gonna have to think about that one.
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ScottU:I will definatley address the ability to Tab between fields. As far as the GUI goes, the first couple of releases will be quite ugly. Once the functionality is working smoothly and 100% I will work on making the GUI better.
I was looking at different databases yesterday, I will probably be running DBase. It's open source which means free (which is good for me!) The auto update will definatley go in my idea pad, but wont be until later releases.
The abililty to add a picture of the band/cigar is something I will look a little deeper into.
Regarding the Days in humidor, the current plan is on the checkin screen, wou will enter your purchase date, then when you actually check your stock, it should automatically caclulate based on your computers time/date. So it will always give you that info in real time.
I finished up all of the interface last night, it is extremely ugly, but now I can start working on the database side of things and hopefully get a release out relativley soon.
Any good suggestions for a name?
Cigar Radar -
I actually like that one gene. Lets get a pot of names going!
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Cbase *Edit too many other things named CBase How about Cid (Cigar Inventory Database)?
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I like Cigar Radar...mostly because I couldn't think of any good ones myself.
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I'm liking CID as well. Two for the running!
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Virtual Humi? or My Virtual Humi...
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Seegar. Get it... SEEgar... See your cigars. Okay, I'll stop. :-)
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My name vote goes to "The Smoke Files"
In the program, include an area to note specific smoking conditions, i.e. temperature and RH of humi when the stick is pulled, temperature and other weather conditions where you're going to smoke, what you've had to eat or drink, etc etc. More often than not, these conditions greatly affect the way a certain cigar smokes, and it can be a completely different experience between two of the "exact same" cigars. also, a weather and humidor condition monitoring feature would be nice. give the ability to note temp and RH of the humidor, and ambient temp and RH and log it for reference. then you'd be able to track it by date, and see how the weather outside affects the humidor.
perhaps i'm grasping at straws... i dunno. the name is good though i think. -
oooooo, that's catchy brc. Reminds me of H.A.L.brc81:Cbase *Edit too many other things named CBase How about Cid (Cigar Inventory Database)? -
I've been playing around with "Mobile Stogie" for the Itouch/Iphone. Pretty intuitive. I'd love to something similar for home PC
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This sounds like an awesome idea cant wait to see what it looks like. Will this work on macs because all the cigar inventory things that i have tried only work for pc.
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How about the old "i" variation? Works for Apple... - iSmoke - iStogie - iStick and the list goes on...
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Its funny you mention that... About a year or so ago I decided to do the same thing... I wasn't happy with any of the options out there so I started hacking away at a nice C# app with full blown SQL backend (intended for use with MSDE of course). I had some pretty grand ideas for it at the time...ScottU:Hello all! So through my days at the forum I see that most people are using Excel to track their cigars, etc. Over on cigarobsession.com I see that he's listed a couple pieces of software that were mediocre at best. Because I love to program, I've been thinking about creating a cigar tracking program and just wanted to get you guys input on it. So... is this something that you guys would use? Are there specific features you would like to see in it? Lets get some brainstorming going here if you guys think you would use it... Scott
After a few thousand lines of code I asked around on a couple of forums to gauge interest and got the exact opposite response as this... Basically nobody really showed any interests. Life took over and other (i.e. paying) projects took over and it dropped off to the sidelines and has never been touched since...
Not sure how much you've got done, but in an effort to maybe help save you a little work, here's a rough sketch of the database layout and some of the features I wanted to include... It's not a complete picture by any means, a lot of it was in my head, but it might at least give you some ideas.
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Inventory:
Inventory_ID
HumiID
received
BrandID
StoreID
country
strength
color
wrapper
binder
filler
size
shape
MSRP
cost
Notes
StatusID
Status:
Status_ID
name
Colors:
Color_ID
name
Strengths:
Strength_ID
name
Countries:
Country_ID
name
Wrappers:
Wrapper_ID
name
Binders:
Binder_ID
name
Fillers:
Filler_ID
name
Sizes:
Size_ID
name
Shapes:
Shape_ID
name
Brands:
Brand_ID
name
factory
website
email
phone
Stores:
Store_ID
name
website
email
phone
Humis:
Humi_ID
SeasonDate
size
name
model
MSRP
cost
HumiData:
Data_ID
HumiID
temp
humidity
notes
date
Trades:
Trade_ID
TraderName
Description
SentItems:
SentItem_ID
TradeID
InventoryID
ReceivedItems:
Recitem_ID
TradeID
InventoryID
Journal:
Journal_ID
InventoryID
Pre_WrapperScent
Pre_FootScent
Appearance
Pre_WrapperNotes
Pre_FeelNotes
Pre_TongueNotes
Pre_FlavorNotes
Smoke_FlavorNotes
Smoke_StrengthNotes
Smoke_FeelingNotes
Smoke_HeatNotes
Smoke_DrawNotes
Smoke_FinishNotes
Other_Notes
ConstRating (1-10)
FlavorRating (1-10)
BodyRating (1-10)
BurnRating (1-10)
OverallRating
Overall_Adjust
Overall_AdjustNotes
date
Print sheet for "away" smokes so it can be transcribed when back at software
It will keep track of your humidors... When they were seasoned, how much they were purchased for, etc...
It will also of course keep track of your inventory of sticks... Which humi they are in, when they were bought, all the info on the stick itself, the msrp, your purchase price, etc...
Likewise it will also keep a journal of all your smokes... Keeping track of your details on the smoke, i.e. construction, flavor, burn, impression, misc notes, etc... Each of the categories will also have a rating you can assign which will generate an overall rating of that smoke... It will also generate and print out a hard copy version of the journal (by page as each page is completed) which will also contain a spot to tape the band to, etc...
It'll keep track of trades as well... Who you traded with, what was traded, etc...
Then of course it'll have reports that can be generated... For example, you could generate a report that showed msrps and what you paid to show how much money you've saved by buying deals, etc... You could generate a report on a single type of stick which would average all your rating details... Or do the same, but the rank all of your sticks... generating a "Top 5", "Top 10", "Top 20", etc... Perhaps a report that will show aging on all the sticks, etc... That kinda stuff...
Humi tracking data (temp/humidity) etc...
Include a "Timer" that will chime every 60 seconds. This can be enabled by new cigar smokers to help them learn about how often the should drag.
Include a "pop-up" flavor wheel diagram to make it easier to describe certain flavors while entering info. ---------------------------- -
rusirius:
Its funny you mention that... About a year or so ago I decided to do the same thing... I wasn't happy with any of the options out there so I started hacking away at a nice C# app with full blown SQL backend (intended for use with MSDE of course). I had some pretty grand ideas for it at the time...ScottU:Hello all! So through my days at the forum I see that most people are using Excel to track their cigars, etc. Over on cigarobsession.com I see that he's listed a couple pieces of software that were mediocre at best. Because I love to program, I've been thinking about creating a cigar tracking program and just wanted to get you guys input on it. So... is this something that you guys would use? Are there specific features you would like to see in it? Lets get some brainstorming going here if you guys think you would use it... Scott
After a few thousand lines of code I asked around on a couple of forums to gauge interest and got the exact opposite response as this... Basically nobody really showed any interests. Life took over and other (i.e. paying) projects took over and it dropped off to the sidelines and has never been touched since...
Not sure how much you've got done, but in an effort to maybe help save you a little work, here's a rough sketch of the database layout and some of the features I wanted to include... It's not a complete picture by any means, a lot of it was in my head, but it might at least give you some ideas.
---------------------------------------
Inventory:
Inventory_ID
HumiID
received
BrandID
StoreID
country
strength
color
wrapper
binder
filler
size
shape
MSRP
cost
Notes
StatusID
Status:
Status_ID
name
Colors:
Color_ID
name
Strengths:
Strength_ID
name
Countries:
Country_ID
name
Wrappers:
Wrapper_ID
name
Binders:
Binder_ID
name
Fillers:
Filler_ID
name
Sizes:
Size_ID
name
Shapes:
Shape_ID
name
Brands:
Brand_ID
name
factory
website
email
phone
Stores:
Store_ID
name
website
email
phone
Humis:
Humi_ID
SeasonDate
size
name
model
MSRP
cost
HumiData:
Data_ID
HumiID
temp
humidity
notes
date
Trades:
Trade_ID
TraderName
Description
SentItems:
SentItem_ID
TradeID
InventoryID
ReceivedItems:
Recitem_ID
TradeID
InventoryID
Journal:
Journal_ID
InventoryID
Pre_WrapperScent
Pre_FootScent
Appearance
Pre_WrapperNotes
Pre_FeelNotes
Pre_TongueNotes
Pre_FlavorNotes
Smoke_FlavorNotes
Smoke_StrengthNotes
Smoke_FeelingNotes
Smoke_HeatNotes
Smoke_DrawNotes
Smoke_FinishNotes
Other_Notes
ConstRating (1-10)
FlavorRating (1-10)
BodyRating (1-10)
BurnRating (1-10)
OverallRating
Overall_Adjust
Overall_AdjustNotes
date
Print sheet for "away" smokes so it can be transcribed when back at software
It will keep track of your humidors... When they were seasoned, how much they were purchased for, etc...
It will also of course keep track of your inventory of sticks... Which humi they are in, when they were bought, all the info on the stick itself, the msrp, your purchase price, etc...
Likewise it will also keep a journal of all your smokes... Keeping track of your details on the smoke, i.e. construction, flavor, burn, impression, misc notes, etc... Each of the categories will also have a rating you can assign which will generate an overall rating of that smoke... It will also generate and print out a hard copy version of the journal (by page as each page is completed) which will also contain a spot to tape the band to, etc...
It'll keep track of trades as well... Who you traded with, what was traded, etc...
Then of course it'll have reports that can be generated... For example, you could generate a report that showed msrps and what you paid to show how much money you've saved by buying deals, etc... You could generate a report on a single type of stick which would average all your rating details... Or do the same, but the rank all of your sticks... generating a "Top 5", "Top 10", "Top 20", etc... Perhaps a report that will show aging on all the sticks, etc... That kinda stuff...
Humi tracking data (temp/humidity) etc...
Include a "Timer" that will chime every 60 seconds. This can be enabled by new cigar smokers to help them learn about how often the should drag.
Include a "pop-up" flavor wheel diagram to make it easier to describe certain flavors while entering info. ----------------------------
R U Serius !?!?!? -
You did/put a lotta effort in that --to damn bad no one was interested-sounds like a good thing...
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Any updates on this? Sorry if I'm missing something obvious.
or is Cigar Register/Excel still the best bet?
