I had no illusions that it was coming back Jim. It would be nice to find something with similar functionality. What's being discussed here is a web based app, I'm not sure I would be willing to buy into that. I'm an off-line, it's my data, kind of person. 
I would say speculative at best. 
TrainTracker was sold to a company that never did much with it. I believe the same developer created TrainMinder. He made a lot of promises but failed to deliver ( yearly price updates for one) After several years of no support or updates, he started to advertise in the TCA publication. Several people filed a complaint against him and TCA quit letting him advertise in their magazine.
Never saw anymore from him.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:I had no illusions that it was coming back Jim. It would be nice to find something with similar functionality. What's being discussed here is a web based app, I'm not sure I would be willing to buy into that. I'm an off-line, it's my data, kind of person.
John,
I'm sort of in the same boat and am not entirely comfortable with the paradigm shift "to the cloud". By the same token there are advantages to it. Like having access to the data across multiple devices (PC, Phone, Mac, tablet, etc) without having to worry about keeping data in sync. or (more importantly) backed up. One of the reasons I want to go through the exercise of an inventory is in case of fire or other loss where the computers are also gone. This feature would make it easier.
I understand the desire for privacy. I wouldn't want someone to use my data to target me for ads or for any other purpose. While I think our data really wouldn't be that interesting to a hacker, the easy way to address privacy concerns would be to encrypt the data on the hosting server (keyed to the user) and employ standard secure connections for network traffic.
I suppose we're just chatting and speculating unless the OP returns but I find it interesting to hear what the "market" would want in such an application.
Yep, it's looking less and less like this is going to happen in any case, so I'm still in the hunt for a decent inventory application.
Hello John, I agree with you about having your own data that is not available to anyone else. I have an iMac and I purchased the iDatabase app and created my own libraries of my books (about 1500) and my model railroad equipment (not so many pieces).
John, if you find something please let us know.
Think I previously posted this here, but will post again in case you missed it:
I looked at several inventory programs and none of them contained everything I wanted. The more I looked the more fields I found I wanted in my database.
So not finding any one with all the fields, I created my own Microsoft Access database. It's not the cleanest database I as I never figured out hot to populate some fields based upon another field's data so I think mine is called a flat database as opposed to a "relational" database where you use tables to populate fields.
Here's the fields each record contains (some fields are blank as that information is not available to that item):
Seq # ( created this database so I could sort based upon other spreadsheets I have)
Cat No
MA (this is either blank or an "x" if I've added the record into the Access database)
Description
Color(s)
Series / Set
Manufacturer
Scale
Group (my own categorization of my items)
Road Name Code
Road Name Description
Road Logo
Reporting Mark
Category (primarily based upon the "Yard Office" categories)
Type (primarily based upon the "Yard Office" types)
Min Curve
Length
Built (if shown on the item - primarily rolling stock)
Status (typically UIB indicating "Used in Box" I never use new as all my items have some run time - although most is minimal run time)
Config (typically RRU - Ready To Run)
Years Cataloged
MSRP
Purch Date
Sold by
Purch Price
S & H / Tax
Calc. Total
% MSRP Purch Price
Item Condition
Best Value (Greenberg or MITrains)
% MSRP Best Value
CY Greenberg Value
% MSRP CY Greenburg Value
MITrains Value Date
MITrains Value Price (MITrains is no longer available so these numbers are based upon the date in the previous field)
% MSRP MITrains Value Price
Qty
Box Type
Box Cond
Images (up to 8; can be expanded))
Notes (unlimited length)
Here's my input screen (like I said, it's not a clean as it could be but it works for me!):
I am willing to share my Access database with anyone that wants it. I will upload it to Dropbox and send you the link as it's approx 570 MB in size. All I ask is that when you receive it, you remove all MY items.
Attachments
Images (1)
Have you guys tried Yard Office, I use it to keep my inventory and it has a lot of features.
@FECRailroaddog posted:Have you guys tried Yard Office, I use it to keep my inventory and it has a lot of features.
I have (tried Yard Office). It's one of those I looked into. I liked his categorization and types of rolling stock and other items. I'm using his table with some additions I made myself for my category and type fields.
Those of you who understand relational databases should take a look at Filemaker. I have found it to be MUCH easier to use than Access. A good inventory program has to be a relational database, not a flat file. Access will do relational databases, but I never attempted it in that app.
I've done a lot of code writing in Filemaker. The system that we use at OGR to manage our advertisers and the placement of their ads in each issue of the magazine is something I wrote in Filemaker Pro. Here is the main page:
Just having the database is not enough. You also have to write code (scripts) to automate the tasks associated with how you want to ENTER and SEE your data. That's what all those yellow buttons are for on the AMS screen above.
You would not need the latest version of Filemaker to write an app for train inventory. I am still using Filemaker Pro Version 13 in that app shown above. The current version is 19.3.
