Puzzle Cataloguing

[Paradox]

G'day fellow puzzle nutters!

For some reason (possibly temporary insanity) I decided that I would really like to put together some kind of catalogue for my puzzle collection. Just to keep track of what I have really.

The problem is I don't really know what to include or how to go about it.

Is there an easy way to include pictures? Would I want to include puzzle information such as designers & manufacturers, or just the basics like price bought at?

Does anyone here already have a catalogue of some form for their own collection?

[bluesign2k]

I have an excel spreadsheet which has every one of my puzzles, the day I bought it, how much it was, how much the shipping was, what the exchange rate was, the effective cost if I bought more than one in one shipping etc... I don't include pictures, but there are links to Puzzle Place if it exists there. It then calculates how much I spent on puzzles each month... helps me to limit myself (believe it or not). It also includes who I bought them from... and then makes pretty graphs of who's the biggest puzzle pushers are etc.

Beware though... you may *think* you've spent a lot on puzzles, but you'll have no idea until you catalogue them

[kev1n]

Hi Oli,

I decided in a moment of madness that I wanted to catalogue my collection and also learn how to use a mobile database.
For this reason I used Handbase for iPad and managed to get all my info into that and designed quite a nice looking tabbed form for it. There are 2 bad sides to Handbase: Firstly putting pictures into the database is a real kludge and requires multiple fields (at least it does store referenced pointers rather than the actual picture) and it also distorts pictures that are not exactly the same proportions as the picture box you create. I edit almost all my pictures to keep the file sizes down and isolate the puzzle from surroundings and so the aspect ratio varies from pic to pic! The developer does not have any particular plan to fix this! The second issue is that getting data out to a desktop version is really clunky - they have a desktop version which is horrible and exporting elsewhere is also not fun (especially if you have a Mac).

I am planning on creating a FileMaker pro advanced version too but this will be some time - it is a very powerful database and would be perfect for this function. It is also possible to keep standalone versions for people without the app but I can only do this for Mac people with my version. MS access is an alternative but I only use this at work and try to avoid it as much as possible!!

If you are interested then I may well get on with it sooner rather than later but it usually takes me a good few weeks to design and tweak a new database.

[kev1n]

Here are some pics of what my iPad database looks like:

Basic list view in portrait (with a number of selectable filters at the bottom):


The rest are in Landscape orientation - Individual puzzle view first tab:


Further info tab:


Pictures tab:


It is quite easy to make something that looks nice but really hard to make it all hold together well in every tab. All the tabs etc and lines have to be drawn individually and moved for every single tab AND for every single filter!! It takes ages to set it up how I like it!

[Paradox]

Wow! Very very nice Kevin!

I wasn't considering having anything that complex for my catalogue, I was going to go more towards what Chris said. But I have to say the look of your version is definitely swaying me in that direction.

Another related question; It easy to know the price of a puzzle based on what you paid for it, but what about estimated value? I'm a bargain hunter, so many of my puzzles are worth significantly more than I paid for them. I'm guessing something like this would be far too hard to actually implement though due to the ever-changing market for puzzles that we have at the moment.

[kev1n]

I wasn't considering having anything that complex for my catalogue, I was going to go more towards what Chris said. But I have to say the look of your version is definitely swaying me in that direction.

Thanks!
It is really only worthwhile doing it like this if you are really interested in showing your database/collection to others OR you want to learn about database design (as I did)! To minimise storage space and to make it more easily searchable/groupable, you should avoid having too many text fields - you should have adjacent tables with lookup data and reference them. There is very little text in my database. The downside? It is a hell of a lot of work!

Another related question; It easy to know the price of a puzzle based on what you paid for it, but what about estimated value? I'm a bargain hunter, so many of my puzzles are worth significantly more than I paid for them. I'm guessing something like this would be far too hard to actually implement though due to the ever-changing market for puzzles that we have at the moment.

Obviously a live lookup for this would be impossible (too many places to check) and very difficult to have enter the database automatically. But it would be very easy to put a "Market value" field in with another containing a link to the appropriate auction/shop page. This would be quite useful for insurance purposes so I may just add this soon!

I still think a desktop version is the best way to go but I do like my iPad version so I would need to work out whether an import or synchronisation would be possible!

[bluesign2k]

I've been tempted to write a PC based application using database for a while to use as an excuse to learn how to use databases (I usually work just with processing large datasets or system control interfaces). I just need to finish off some other projects first to make the time to do it.

Oli - if you want a blank copy of my spreadsheet I'm happy to send it over if you want something to start you off with? Its not polished at all, but it does the job.

[AFKAN]

If anyone wants some help with their database design just shout

I am a DBA after all (and I taught Microsoft Access for 10+ years before that)

[kev1n]

If anyone wants some help with their database design just shout

I am a DBA after all (and I taught Microsoft Access for 10+ years before that)

That's excellent Graham!!! How could us amateurs turn down a pro when they offer their services like that??

You have just volunteered to design a full featured database with nice frontend for the whole forum!!
Rather than go with Access which is limited to the PC - why don't you do us a proper SQL database which we (really you!) can port over to various operating systems!

You would need to add in the ability to work with various photo cataloguing systems too like Lightroom, iPhoto, Aperture or folders as well as have the ability to connect to past auction sites for puzzle value updates.

If anyone has any further requests for Graham to implement in this wonderful new system that he has promised the whole forum that he will set up in just a few days/weeks time then post all requests here!!

[Paradox]

Chris, would you mind sending me a blank copy of your spreadsheet please?

Even if a polished puzzle database turns up eventually I still think it'll be easier for me to transfer it across from a spreadsheet. The hard part will be going through all my puzzles one by one and looking up the relevant info the first time anyway.