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Beta testers wanted for online logbook (Read 11707 times)

heelhookofglory

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Beta testers wanted for online logbook
July 27, 2015, 11:14:18 am
I'm building a new online logbook. Nothing huge, just a simple logbook. Basically, as a developer-by-trade I love learning new languages and frameworks. At the moment I'm pretty immersed in Laravel, an awesome PHP framework. I find that I learn best when building something, so, I'm building a new online logbook.

It's starting out with very basic features for simply logging routes and you'll be able to import data from a CSV. I'll be adding new features as my knowledge of the framework grows.

I'm launching a beta version this week and I'm looking for a few testers to give it a go and feedback. I want it to be useful to people and to be a good logbook so critical feedback will be important.

If you want to try it out then let me know and I'll ping out some emails (and post here) later in the week.

Paul B

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Apart from the obvious duplication of effort, it'd be amazing if there was another logbook system online (rather than just UKC) that grew into a crags / route database due to logbook activity.

cha1n

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I'd only consider switching from ukc logbook if there was some sort of script I could run to extract my existing information from their dbs. How possible is this?

peewee

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I'd only consider switching from ukc logbook if there was some sort of script I could run to extract my existing information from their dbs. How possible is this?

You can export your logbook to a .csv file so could use that to import into the new database.

cjsheps

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+1 for UKC "backwards compatibility". I could see the CSV thing working, but it may take some explaining to the less computer-savvy user.

On a related note, one million wad points for whoever makes a nicer interface for uploading climbs to 8a.nu. 

remus

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I'd only consider switching from ukc logbook if there was some sort of script I could run to extract my existing information from their dbs. How possible is this?

You can export your logbook to a .csv file so could use that to import into the new database.

I've played around with this. It's doable but a bit painful as the data requires a fair amount of clean up. In particular getting good grades out is quite hard work as UKC give crag moderators a lot of options as to which grading system they use. It's also quite hard working out what style a given route is (trad, sport, boulder etc.) as it's not included in the .csv extract (though I have a strong suspicion UKC have this data available internally).

heelhookofglory

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Yep that's why I've included the import CSV option as I knew it would be important to be able transfer data from one to another.

Quite right about the grade stuff. At the moment it gets written to the DB purely as a string of characters but I'd like to build a way to convert these into actual grades for data sorting and charts. It's definitely on the todo but will take a bit of trial and error to get it right.

Adam Lincoln

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Ill happily test it Steve.

heelhookofglory

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Cheers, Adam, I'll send you a message when it's deployed. It will only be basic to start off with but I'm keen to get people involved in the early stages so we can all shape it to how we want it.

SEDur

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Hi Steve,
I would be happy to give you some time!

heelhookofglory

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I'll DM you the details.

nai

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Be keen to help out too.

Will Hunt

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I'm interested.

iain

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Me too

heelhookofglory

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Cheers guys. Details sent.

heelhookofglory

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In terms of features what would be more important, generally speaking?

1. A solid crag database allowing users to select from existing data / add to existing data.
2. Training features using entered data to show progress toward goals and objectives.

Not that both have to be mutually exclusive.

For the cyclists, think Strava -vs- Training Peaks. Strava being more social-orientated whilst TP is more geared toward the serious athlete with stacks of data.

SEDur

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I would expect that the broader community would find a routes database more useful.

I would be interested to see a good 'benchmarking' system if you did the training side of things.
For example; A user could add a benchmark 'MilitaryPress5%BW', at session periods 10m, 30m, 1hr. And compare the data across a number of sessions, but also relative to an opposing exercise to work towards muscle balance. Though you would have to add more detail to the benchmark in the first instance i.e. muscle groups, overload variables etc.

heelhookofglory

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Thanks SEDur. Yes I think the training side would be a minefield of complexity.

Duma

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From the "outside" (don't have a logbook) I would have thought a routes/crag database would be essential if you're looking for wider uptake

heelhookofglory

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Thanks for everyone who has provided feedback on the early stages of Logbook app, it's really appreciated and will help me build an app that is useful to us all.

Updates

CSV Import and My Ascents

After asking people about what is important to them in a logbook, most people (in fact pretty much 100%) said that a solid crag database would be top priority. Obviously running an import feature into an existing crag database requires a lot of validation checks to be in place so I've just disabled the import for now until the crag database is set up properly. The Log New Ascent feature will be back once I've added some other bits.

Crag Database

You can now add new areas and crags. This is still in progress and will soon include routes, ascents and indoor walls (useful for training, NICAS/NIBAS). I expect this work to be complete pretty soon as it's simple enough. I'll then restart the work on the import feature.

Existing Data

I've flushed the database with the latest updates as the database schema has changed quite a lot with addition of the crag database so you will have to create a new account to give it a try. A bit of a pain, I know. In the future I'll try to keep migrations as updates rather than new database creation but I can't promise anything at this stage!

Have a go!

If you want to give it a go and provide some feedback then DM me and I'll set you up.

heelhookofglory

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#20 Re: Beta testers wanted for online logbook
September 03, 2015, 05:44:54 pm
For those who have test access I've added some dummy data and ran some minor updates so you can have a play without adding data each time the DB gets refreshed. We now have areas, crags, routes and ascents. Next up is getting the import to work with the new data models.

heelhookofglory

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#21 Re: Beta testers wanted for online logbook
December 02, 2015, 08:39:56 am
Still working on data imports. UKC have changed the format of their data export slightly so I'm wondering if it might be a better idea to supply a template file and have users slightly amend their data to match the template. A bit of a pain for users but it does make it more sustainable.

Thoughts?

ashtond6

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#22 Re: Beta testers wanted for online logbook
December 02, 2015, 09:29:38 am
I'll help if you need one more

I think the template option is best, as it wouldn't take very long to shuffle into your columns

slackline

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#23 Re: Beta testers wanted for online logbook
December 02, 2015, 10:22:18 am
Still working on data imports. UKC have changed the format of their data export slightly so I'm wondering if it might be a better idea to supply a template file and have users slightly amend their data to match the template. A bit of a pain for users but it does make it more sustainable.

Thoughts?

Most people won't bother because they'll think its too much work for them to do ("Why doesn't it 'just workTM"), or simply won't be arsed doing it.

Perhaps just keep the existing template you use to import, and update as and when UKC tweak things and allow users to select the format in which they are uploading with the default being the most current.

This is of course a ballache for yourself, but without making it as simple as possible for users I doubt user uptake will be too high.

heelhookofglory

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#24 Re: Beta testers wanted for online logbook
December 02, 2015, 01:44:20 pm
Most people won't bother because they'll think its too much work for them to do ("Why doesn't it 'just workTM"), or simply won't be arsed doing it.

Unfortunately I think you are probably right. I'll see what the consensus is after a few more responses.


Latest Updates from today:

Users can now import from Excel.
Routes and crags get created from imported logbooks.
Refactoring and unit tests.

EDIT: No point keeping this in private alpha anymore so for those who want to give it a try, here's the URL:

http://logbookapp.co.uk

Just be aware that I do flush the DB quite often as I'm still improving the schema so don't put too much work into using it.
« Last Edit: December 02, 2015, 01:52:12 pm by Steve Perry (Pezz) »

heelhookofglory

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Latest Updates (2 Mar 2016):

Updated Laravel to 5.2.
Added route auth guards.
Minor layout refactor.

highrepute

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Hi Steve,

I've tried to upload my logbook but just get the whoops error. Formatted it as described and removed all climbs except one and still no luck. For example

name   grade   style   partners   notes   date   crag
Be Somebody or be Somebody's Fool   f7A+   Sent      Class   28/Feb/16   Curbar Edge

slackline

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I've tried to upload my logbook but just get the whoops error.

Ditto, edited in LibreOffice and saved as .xls.

heelhookofglory

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Thanks guys. I've just issued a fix for that.

I'm no longer chunking the import in batches of 250 so we might see issues with this such as timeouts on larger files and the plan is to re-incorporate the chunking method, but I just wanted to get it working again in the short term.

Thanks for the heads-up.

There is also some strange happenings with date formatting when the exported UKC date contains a '?' for an unknown day/month/year. I'm working on this but just FYI.

heelhookofglory

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#29 Re: Beta testers wanted for online logbook
November 17, 2016, 11:02:00 am
Just an FYI that I'm picking up the dev on this side project again after a rather hectic year working on stuff that pays the bills :)

 

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