I looked into doing this a while ago and eventually settled on Snipe-IT. I set it up and put some time into logging a bunch of my parts. But honestly it just becomes such an overhead in terms of adding things and keeping it up to date. I've gone back to just having a rough idea in my head of what's where.

Keen to see what you come up with though 😀

Shadzilla wrote on 2024-09-16, 18:25:

I looked into doing this a while ago and eventually settled on Snipe-IT. I set it up and put some time into logging a bunch of my parts. But honestly it just becomes such an overhead in terms of adding things and keeping it up to date. I've gone back to just having a rough idea in my head of what's where.

Keen to see what you come up with though 😀

Snipe-IT looks to be a whole other level of product from this 🤣. It looks like an absolute beast of a platform. What I am building is more "quick-and-easy for the general hobbyist", so it may not be right for what you have going on. But who knows where it will go. I should also let you know that it is a desktop app. Most of the reason why I went that direction is so that I won't be responsible for anyone else's data, since I am solo on this (for now). I just couldn't find anything else that fit perfectly with what I wanted, so I figured I'd just build my own. I am planning on making it super portable though, and who knows, I may be able to add some form of web interaction through cloud accounts that people set up on their own.

I would definitely love to hear if there is any kind of feature that I could add that would make the management itself a bit easier, so if there is anything you can think of once I put it out there, please do let me know. Right now it is pretty bare-bones, but I have a lot of things I'd like to add that shouldn't be too hard (i.e. barcode and qr tag support). I will probably be listing the roadmap in the repo.

Cataloging and Asset Tracking with a Wiki | Tech Tangents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7IXsc3N1Fk

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-09-16, 18:49:

Cataloging and Asset Tracking with a Wiki | Tech Tangents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7IXsc3N1Fk

Yeah I had seen this. I love Shelby's work. Thank you for sharing that. I actually sent him an email last night to see if he might be interested in what I have been building.

I'm using an Excel sheet. It suffices my needs pretty good, and it can run data queries for you too, so I can easily locate whatever specific thing I'm looking for.

To keep track of what I have on different storage media, I have used for years Cathy (http://rva.mtg.sk/) simple and functional, because in the end, what it does is a capture of a folder and all its subfolders, you can do it also with network drives, as I use several computers connected in a network, it is very convenient to find what computer is what I want. Whenever you search for something, the program searches the entire catalog of captures, so it is very convenient and useful.

wbahnassi wrote on 2024-09-16, 19:13:

I'm using an Excel sheet. It suffices my needs pretty good, and it can run data queries for you too, so I can easily locate whatever specific thing I'm looking for.

Nice ingenuity. You should share that. I'm sure a lot of people would prefer a tool that they already know. Believe it or not though, I don't know how to get very fancy with Excel like that 🤣. I just never needed to learn it like that. I am more at home with databases and sql queries, etc.

Hoping wrote on 2024-09-16, 19:18:

To keep track of what I have on different storage media, I have used for years Cathy (http://rva.mtg.sk/) simple and functional, because in the end, what it does is a capture of a folder and all its subfolders, you can do it also with network drives, as I use several computers connected in a network, it is very convenient to find what computer is what I want. Whenever you search for something, the program searches the entire catalog of captures, so it is very convenient and useful.

I was thinking about doing something similar with this. I have a kind of hierarchy that I have defined with the way my folders are organized, such that right now at least the platform can be ascertained from the path. Almost did this with the company that created the software, but pulled up a bit short of doing that. Still, it did give me the idea to build something similar, to where collections can be imported in from the file system directly. Just haven't had a chance to build it in yet.

🤣 my parts lists are mostly in Notepad text files. Excel is not hard to use, just never got going with it for my parts purposes.....

I've been working on the same myself actually since I could not find anything out there that was self hosted. The most important for my project is:

- Database driven to avoid issues with reusing content across pages.
- Easy to upload multiple images(even from using the website on a cellphone) with automatic thumbnail creation
- Images stored on server in such a way they can be browsed through a logical folder structure (this to make it easier to copy/share/backup images)
- Optimized for self-hosting on your personal NAS

I should think a collection tracking app would be of interest to many a hobbiest not just those into computers.

I've 2 google spreadsheets one for hardware and one for software.

The Hardware one has the fields
Type: (ISA Sound, PCI Sound, SATA HDD, IDE, HDD, etc
Device: eg AM 586 133 ADZ
P/N:
S/N:
Location: If it's in a PC I will put the PC name, or simply stored.
Price:
Notes:

Software is more aimed at the system specs like what version of Direct X is required, sound hardware supported, Release date, etc.

Benefit of having online copies is I can quickly check things while at work and logged in at vogons 😉

Been rejecting candidates for years, best thing I have come across for what I want now is the database in MS Works 2.0 for DOS.... so thinking about having that on a real or hosted DOS machine and jumping onto it over the network via TINY when necessary, or VNC if it's hosted in a gui window.

Are ya noticing the self hosted theme running strong here. Complete list of types of cloud I like, BTFS.

Lots of good info here. Thanks all. I'm glad you all are sharing what you currently use. It helps me gauge whether the stuff I had planned is needed. Sounds like most is, and may some isn't. It seems lots of people have really just had to roll their own solutions. Not sure there is an overwhelming need for this software I am building, but it sounds like there may be a handful that will use it, which is good enough for me. Should I just post the link in here when I am ready, or would it be more appropriate to post in the Release Announcements forum? I haven't done a lot of posting here as you you can tell. Wanna make sure I follow the house rules.

Ok, just in case anyone else reads this post, I have created a release announcement located here Collective v1.0.0 - Collection Tracking Software.