Home Inventory Database

superscaper

I was thinking recently of creating a database for my possessions. Eg make, model, serial number, photos, scans of receipts, cost, value etc. I've had a look at off-the-shelf software and seems a bit inflexible. So why not make the database myself without the extra cost. Thought it'd be useful to know exactly what I own (insurance etc) and serial numbers would be useful in case of theft etc. Making it myself would also give me the ability to add any additional features I want or come up with after I've already made the basic database.

-Some of the thoughts I had include:

-Maybe having (keyword) tags in the records rather than categories since there may be lots of overlap with categories.

-Subdatabases (?) of collections, eg I wouldn't want a stamp collection with individual stamps strewn across the general database (I'm not a philatelist, just an example, not that I've got anything against philately, equal rights for all lifestyles )

-Also (and this may just be a future feature to add on and not urgent) a barcode field to search upcdatabase.com/barcodepedia.com. For that matter just a general amazon search to get details for items.

-Maybe an add-on subdatabase for information I wouldn't want to lose such as all my usernames and passwords, passport, credit card, banking info. Obviously this would need to be secured somehow if it's worth doing at all.

I've already got collectorz.com databases for my dvds, cds, games and books so I could probably export them and import them into this general database.

Now for the disclaimer bit, I've not actually built a database since my school/acorn days. Back then I even made a couple for fun (just remembered I did one on Star Trek episodes, just one perfect example of my teen out-of-control rebellious hell-raising youth :rolleyes: ).

So any thoughts or ideas at a level of databases for thickies? Has anyone else made an inventory etc?

cwoodham

Its not quite what you are looking for but I use InfoMagic which is basically a personal information manager to store a lot of my data. Its not a database but a freeform organiser which allows me to add all kinds of stuff. I have it set up as a number of documents labelled Home, Sport, Websites, Books, Contacts, Recipes, Where, Lists, eBay, Self, Forums, etc, etc and am adding to it on a daily basis. You can have any number of documents with any titles. The documents are just text format so if the program ever goes belly up, I can easily read the data with NotePad, Word, etc. I can paste all kinds of stuff straight into it. If you add a website its clickable and the site opens in your browser. All the documents are searchable from within the program (and also from within a desktop organiser like Copernic).

I've had it for 5 or 6 years now and the amount of info I've accumulated is huge. I have to say the Where folder is a real advantage as I often forget where I put things away for safe keeping! So long as I have put this info into the program I can find the stuff again. You have to be fairly disciplined to enter the details in the first place but I think its worth it.

I have to say that along with Mailwasher its the most useful utility on my PC. There is a free trial version but I have the full version which I see is $28.95 now. Dont think it is being developed as the version I have has been around for years. However it does everything I need, loads in a couple of seconds and I havent come across any bugs. It includes a Scheduler which I dont use as I have another program doing this.

I think it should do most of what you need without the rigid structure a database imposes. HTH

superscaper

Thanks cwoodham, I'll definitely give it a go. Looks like I'lll be able to use the data I enter in other packages if I decide it isn't for me. I definitely like the idea of it being more freeform.

Maybe that is what I'm looking for: A freeform personal information manager that's database based.

wolfman

Sounds like quite a nice project.

Grab a copy of something like MySql, or Sql Server Express (both free). Sql Server, combined with .Net provides a very powerful platform.

With regards to design, just create different tables for each of the possession types. For example, Movies (for dvd's etc...), Music (music cd's etc...) and so on.

Then created an ObjectKeyword table, and a Keyword table. Put all the keywords in the Keywords table and use the ObjectKeyword table to store the relationship between the keyword and the object.

Movies
- MovieId
- Title
- Year
....

ObjectKeyword
- ObjectId (ie the MovieId, or MusicId etc...)
- KeywordId

Keyword Table
- KeywordId
- Keyword

superscaper

Thanks wolfman, any good books you'd recommend for visual studio expres, sql, .net etc? I know there's probably "online resources" but I've always liked having a book I can take away and read.