CellarTracker PSA

WINE TALK
1

Just FYI, a planned outage late tonight for some small UI upgrades (deeper changes under the cover): Release Notes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you have a burning need to get at your cellar data between midnight and 4am EDT please download a copy to Excel now: Exporting Data - CellarTracker Support" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The changes are all about simplifying the whole model behind bottles/purchases/consumed, as it has always been a bit awkward/fragile/confusing both in the UI and under the covers. The changes were actually driven by requirements for the new site, but they are getting pre-deployed on CT now since they touch a lot of the guts of the database.

(When the new site comes along you will be able to use it in parallel with the current CT for a couple of months so that you guys don’t skin me alive before I can get all of your feedback. So I will be sussing out ALL database changes and getting them done under the covers, make sure that current CT plays nicely with them etc. And no, I don’t have an exact ETA on the new site yet. Once these changes are live and working well I will be working to flesh out my schedule for the new site. A lot of the work has been done, but I got sidetracked with the Marketplace for a little while. Back in action big time now.)

2

Looking forward to the new UI, Eric.

Will it be done before My Wines?

[rofl.gif]

3

A bookie would have to be drunk to take such bets.

4

My Wines is supposed to ship this month based on what I have heard. (Bob mentioned 9/1 a while back too.)

At one point I was tempted to try and ‘rush’ my UI upgrade out to pre-empt MyWines and other efforts, but I realized that the best thing is for me to do a bit of extra work on the current site so that I can do a parallel deployment and get a couple of months feedback without forcing anyone to use the new UI. In other words, acting like a market leader and ignoring some of the competitive pressure, listening to what all of you guys have to tell me etc. No one likes change in technology, and as confident as I am about my new site I just need to take a deep breath and not rush etc.

5

My wines will ship at the same time Joe Wilson and Obama become friends!

6

I’ll undrink to that!

[welldone.gif]

7

Cheers to you Eric!! If it’s not worth doing right, then it’s not worth doing at all! [welldone.gif] [winner.gif]

8

OK, I got a late start at 10pm (dinner guest who was around longer than expected) but then ran ahead of schedule and had the site back up by 1:30am, worked out some minor kinks for the next 75 minutes. Heading to sleep now.

I suspect I may have some questions, as the UI has changed a bit. The key thing to know is that there is no longer a distinction between adding bottles or adding purchases. It is all the same thing. Anyway, I look forward to questions in the AM or let me know if you see any issues.

Thanks!!!

9

Love the ‘un-drink’ button. If it could only be so in certain cases…
Or maybe implement a ‘re-drink’ - now that would be invaluable.
[thumbs-up.gif]

10

Yes, I am getting many jokes about virtual versus actual…

11

ditto. there’s been a couple times I “presumed a wine consumed” only to find it later. the “un-drink” option makes this situation a lot easier to deal with. thanks, Eric! [thankyou.gif]

12

Very good. I found that a confusing distinction.

13

Ken, now your purchase list should look a LOT cleaner, since the 1 purchase per bulk import record had shredded your purchases up. In the new system those coalesce automatically.

14

Very cool!

Does the purchase connect to the consumption now? If I bought some bottles at Store A and some more at Store B, can I indicate that a consumed bottle is from Store A without having them stored in separate locations?

15

The site has always allowed you to attach purchase data to consumed bottles, but, I can’t recall, did we import consumption data from the RPWACM software for you? An artifact of the way that software exports and the way my bulk import works is that purchase data for those consumed bottles doesn’t come in.

Now, speaking in terms of freshly entered data on the site, let me explain the new model. Basically you have bottles. A bottle can be pending delivery, in stock or consumed, and each bottle can toggle between those three states easily. Each bottle can also have an associated store, price, size, purchase date, delivery date and purchase note. Collectively these are the “purchase fields”. The system looks at the "purchase fields for each wine and synthesizes a summarized list of purchases. It does do a little special logic around the pending/in-stock/consumed bottle state as well and treats pending bottle as a separate purchase for easier management.

What you can do now on the EDIT BOTTLES screen for a wine is to select any bottles, click the EDIT button and tweak any of the purchase data. Then things will group automatically based on common purchase data.

16

A needed change Eric, thanks. Is this in response to some of the things you’ve had to clean up for me? blush

17

Oh yeah, it’s all about you, James!

18

Yes.

Thanks for the info.

19

I don’t recall what I have had to cleanup for you. (Other than all of the very helpful reports of misplaced tasting notes from other users.)

20

Eric, I am loving the Vinfolio integration. I just sold my first wine ever, a 2004 KB Kanzler. I put it up for sale along with most of my other KB’s. $160!!! That’s a nutty price for this wine, imo, though there has been a previous sale at $250!!! I am more than happy to get $160 minus 20% for this wine. I can turn this into some wines that I really like. I live in SF, so getting the wines to Vinfolio is easy. Thanks for setting this up-- it really lowers the threshold for selling wines that you discover you don’t really like all that much.