Parts DB Site

Hey All,

With the influx of new members, (and the influx of their first
question: is there a list of parts i need?) I've decided to dust off
the old objects site. I'm re-purposing it as a Parts DB instead of a
community oriented site... i think the forums / wiki fill that nice
quite nicely.

Instead, it will simply be a list of parts, suppliers for those parts,
and most importantly it will be able to generate a recursive list of
parts so we can point someone at a 'master parts list' that they can
then use to purchase whatever is needed. its not quite done, but its
much simplified, so i'll be able to get it done and working within two
weeks.

also, one of the features that would really rock would be a feature
that allows you to embed the parts lists into an external website
(such as our wiki). it also will feature links to the object wiki,
etc. so that things will be nice and easily cross referenced. it also
has super easy data export (xml, JSON, etc) so if i fall off the face
of the earth you wont be locked into the software.

i took the liberty of adding parts.reprap.org which now points to it.
check it out, but remember there are definitely some missing parts
(lol!)

~Zach
_______________________________________________
Developers mailing list
Developers@reprap.org
[reprap.org]

On Monday 26 March 2007 21:13, Zach Hoeken wrote:
> Hey All,
>
> With the influx of new members, (and the influx of their first
> question: is there a list of parts i need?) I've decided to dust off
> the old objects site. I'm re-purposing it as a Parts DB instead of a
> community oriented site... i think the forums / wiki fill that nice
> quite nicely.
>
> Instead, it will simply be a list of parts, suppliers for those parts,
> and most importantly it will be able to generate a recursive list of
> parts so we can point someone at a 'master parts list' that they can
> then use to purchase whatever is needed. its not quite done, but its
> much simplified, so i'll be able to get it done and working within two
> weeks.
>
> also, one of the features that would really rock would be a feature
> that allows you to embed the parts lists into an external website
> (such as our wiki). it also will feature links to the object wiki,
> etc. so that things will be nice and easily cross referenced. it also
> has super easy data export (xml, JSON, etc) so if i fall off the face
> of the earth you wont be locked into the software.
>
> i took the liberty of adding parts.reprap.org which now points to it.
> check it out, but remember there are definitely some missing parts
> (lol!)
>
> ~Zach
>
I'm concerned that this overlaps the functionality of our objects website and
the RepRap documentation websites without provided new functionality we
couldn't proved with the original websites.

Nevermind that I need to reboot the objects website which has been dead in the
water for a month or so now.

-Sebastien
_______________________________________________
Developers mailing list
Developers@reprap.org
[reprap.org]

heres the difference: the parts db is simply a listing of the
components broken down into what makes up what. think the parts lists
that are on say the universal board page. it will contain the name
of the object, an optional short description, links to its detail
pages (objects.reprap.org), subversion, etc.

the main meat of the parts db is simply to tell people what the
objects consist of, and where you can buy them. until the day in the
distant future when the machine can fabricate all of its own parts,
people will still need to buy something to get started. even then
they will still need to get supplies. this is a way to get that data
into a db so we can have a nice, easy way to present it, and also
allow others to do useful things with the data.

you cant do anything very useful with a formatted table in a wiki...
that is not a scalable solution. this will allow us (and others) to
list suppliers, and also have a nice breakdown of what each part of
the project consists of.

if you're talking about the objects.reprap.org site, its a really good
solution. that is where most information should live on each object,
especially if its fabbable (sp?) if you're talking about the plone
site... well i'm not familiar with that and dont know how easy it is
to create custom db stuff with it. i do know i'm intimately familiar
with PHP + MySQL so I can crank out this site pretty easily. plus it
will keep me out of Adrians hair while he finishes up Darwin to the
point where he can send out part kits.

~Zach



On 3/26/07, Sebastien Bailard wrote:
> On Monday 26 March 2007 21:13, Zach Hoeken wrote:
> > Hey All,
> >
> > With the influx of new members, (and the influx of their first
> > question: is there a list of parts i need?) I've decided to dust off
> > the old objects site. I'm re-purposing it as a Parts DB instead of a
> > community oriented site... i think the forums / wiki fill that nice
> > quite nicely.
> >
> > Instead, it will simply be a list of parts, suppliers for those parts,
> > and most importantly it will be able to generate a recursive list of
> > parts so we can point someone at a 'master parts list' that they can
> > then use to purchase whatever is needed. its not quite done, but its
> > much simplified, so i'll be able to get it done and working within two
> > weeks.
> >
> > also, one of the features that would really rock would be a feature
> > that allows you to embed the parts lists into an external website
> > (such as our wiki). it also will feature links to the object wiki,
> > etc. so that things will be nice and easily cross referenced. it also
> > has super easy data export (xml, JSON, etc) so if i fall off the face
> > of the earth you wont be locked into the software.
> >
> > i took the liberty of adding parts.reprap.org which now points to it.
> > check it out, but remember there are definitely some missing parts
> > (lol!)
> >
> > ~Zach
> >
> I'm concerned that this overlaps the functionality of our objects website and
> the RepRap documentation websites without provided new functionality we
> couldn't proved with the original websites.
>
> Nevermind that I need to reboot the objects website which has been dead in the
> water for a month or so now.
>
> -Sebastien
> _______________________________________________
> Developers mailing list
> Developers@reprap.org
> [reprap.org]
>
_______________________________________________
Developers mailing list
Developers@reprap.org
[reprap.org]

Zach Hoeken wrote:
> heres the difference: the parts db is simply a listing of the
> components broken down into what makes up what. think the parts lists
> that are on say the universal board page. it will contain the name
> of the object, an optional short description, links to its detail
> pages (objects.reprap.org), subversion, etc.
>

Do you think that could just be done on the existing wiki?

_______________________________________________
Developers mailing list
Developers@reprap.org
[reprap.org]

well, thats basically what we're doing right now... except with the
wiki its not in a database. since its not in a database, we have to
do everything manually. we have parts lists for various parts of the
system (extruder, boards, etc) scattered across each various page.
thats fine for us, since we generally know whats going on and have
been buying these things piecemeal anyway.

however, for someone who is new... myself included, the top thing they
ask is: is there a master parts list? and we're always like... ummm,
its scattered across the wiki. its a daunting task to have to take
responsibility and read all the various pages to find out what you
need.

plus, if we ever want to re-format those pages or do something else
with it other than use it on a wiki, theres nothing we can do other
than do it all over by hand. with this system we can just put all the
product and relationship data into a DB and then have it be
automatically cross referenced, etc. we can easily generate master
parts lists. we can even do cool things like generate parts lists
based on what country you are from, what suppliers you prefer, etc.
there will also be functionality for people to share knowledge on
suppliers and price, so we will be able to easily have a running total
cost of the project!

of course for things like boards and fabbed parts, we'll just be
putting in the reprap project as the supplier. also, it will support
things like alternative parts... so we can handle both english and
metric things =)

this shouldnt create any more work for anyone, other than myself.
once its up and running the system should need minimal maintenance.
i'm more than willing to do that myself. the lower the barrier to
entry is for people on this project, the more successful it will be.
and i'm serious when it comes to the success of this project

~Zach

On 3/27/07, Simon McAuliffe wrote:
> Zach Hoeken wrote:
> > heres the difference: the parts db is simply a listing of the
> > components broken down into what makes up what. think the parts lists
> > that are on say the universal board page. it will contain the name
> > of the object, an optional short description, links to its detail
> > pages (objects.reprap.org), subversion, etc.
> >
>
> Do you think that could just be done on the existing wiki?
>
> _______________________________________________
> Developers mailing list
> Developers@reprap.org
> [reprap.org]
>
_______________________________________________
Developers mailing list
Developers@reprap.org
[reprap.org]

Fortunately I have little hair...

I am about to do a frightening thing - freeze some parts of the design
(except for correcting actual mistakes), and create a timetable of
what's to be done up to the release of RepRap 1.0 "Darwin". I'll do it
at [reprap.org]

Zach's parts database should link in very nicely with that.

I think that it is complementary to objects.reprap.org (as Zach
indicates below). Objects is ultimately far more wide-ranging, in that
it will have vacuum cleaners and garden trowels and sandals in. The
database is for RepRap itself to start with, but is obviously scalable
to deal with any bought-in parts needed for all those other reprapped
objects.

--

Best wishes

Adrian

Dr Adrian Bowyer
[staff.bath.ac.uk]
[reprap.org]

Zach Hoeken wrote:
> heres the difference: the parts db is simply a listing of the
> components broken down into what makes up what. think the parts lists
> that are on say the universal board page. it will contain the name
> of the object, an optional short description, links to its detail
> pages (objects.reprap.org), subversion, etc.
>
> the main meat of the parts db is simply to tell people what the
> objects consist of, and where you can buy them. until the day in the
> distant future when the machine can fabricate all of its own parts,
> people will still need to buy something to get started. even then
> they will still need to get supplies. this is a way to get that data
> into a db so we can have a nice, easy way to present it, and also
> allow others to do useful things with the data.
>
> you cant do anything very useful with a formatted table in a wiki...
> that is not a scalable solution. this will allow us (and others) to
> list suppliers, and also have a nice breakdown of what each part of
> the project consists of.
>
> if you're talking about the objects.reprap.org site, its a really good
> solution. that is where most information should live on each object,
> especially if its fabbable (sp?) if you're talking about the plone
> site... well i'm not familiar with that and dont know how easy it is
> to create custom db stuff with it. i do know i'm intimately familiar
> with PHP + MySQL so I can crank out this site pretty easily. plus it
> will keep me out of Adrians hair while he finishes up Darwin to the
> point where he can send out part kits.
>
> ~Zach
>
>
>
> On 3/26/07, Sebastien Bailard wrote:
>> On Monday 26 March 2007 21:13, Zach Hoeken wrote:
>>> Hey All,
>>>
>>> With the influx of new members, (and the influx of their first
>>> question: is there a list of parts i need?) I've decided to dust off
>>> the old objects site. I'm re-purposing it as a Parts DB instead of a
>>> community oriented site... i think the forums / wiki fill that nice
>>> quite nicely.
>>>
>>> Instead, it will simply be a list of parts, suppliers for those parts,
>>> and most importantly it will be able to generate a recursive list of
>>> parts so we can point someone at a 'master parts list' that they can
>>> then use to purchase whatever is needed. its not quite done, but its
>>> much simplified, so i'll be able to get it done and working within two
>>> weeks.
>>>
>>> also, one of the features that would really rock would be a feature
>>> that allows you to embed the parts lists into an external website
>>> (such as our wiki). it also will feature links to the object wiki,
>>> etc. so that things will be nice and easily cross referenced. it also
>>> has super easy data export (xml, JSON, etc) so if i fall off the face
>>> of the earth you wont be locked into the software.
>>>
>>> i took the liberty of adding parts.reprap.org which now points to it.
>>> check it out, but remember there are definitely some missing parts
>>> (lol!)
>>>
>>> ~Zach
>>>
>> I'm concerned that this overlaps the functionality of our objects website and
>> the RepRap documentation websites without provided new functionality we
>> couldn't proved with the original websites.
>>
>> Nevermind that I need to reboot the objects website which has been dead in the
>> water for a month or so now.
>>
>> -Sebastien
>> _______________________________________________
>> Developers mailing list
>> Developers@reprap.org
>> [reprap.org]
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Developers mailing list
> Developers@reprap.org
> [reprap.org]


_______________________________________________
Developers mailing list
Developers@reprap.org
[reprap.org]

awesome!!

like adrian said, this website is a complement to the objects wiki...
the idea here is that the bulk of the information about a certain part
is stored on the wiki, and this DB simply stores relationships between
parts and also supplier information.

wiki's are great for collaboratively editing content... they suck for
storing relational data.

i also want to create an embeddable script that will allow you to put
copy and paste an auto-updated parts list into your site. that would
allow the best of both worlds =)

~Zach

On 3/27/07, Adrian Bowyer wrote:
> Fortunately I have little hair...
>
> I am about to do a frightening thing - freeze some parts of the design
> (except for correcting actual mistakes), and create a timetable of
> what's to be done up to the release of RepRap 1.0 "Darwin". I'll do it
> at [reprap.org]
>
> Zach's parts database should link in very nicely with that.
>
> I think that it is complementary to objects.reprap.org (as Zach
> indicates below). Objects is ultimately far more wide-ranging, in that
> it will have vacuum cleaners and garden trowels and sandals in. The
> database is for RepRap itself to start with, but is obviously scalable
> to deal with any bought-in parts needed for all those other reprapped
> objects.
>
> --
>
> Best wishes
>
> Adrian
>
> Dr Adrian Bowyer
> [staff.bath.ac.uk]
> [reprap.org]
>
> Zach Hoeken wrote:
> > heres the difference: the parts db is simply a listing of the
> > components broken down into what makes up what. think the parts lists
> > that are on say the universal board page. it will contain the name
> > of the object, an optional short description, links to its detail
> > pages (objects.reprap.org), subversion, etc.
> >
> > the main meat of the parts db is simply to tell people what the
> > objects consist of, and where you can buy them. until the day in the
> > distant future when the machine can fabricate all of its own parts,
> > people will still need to buy something to get started. even then
> > they will still need to get supplies. this is a way to get that data
> > into a db so we can have a nice, easy way to present it, and also
> > allow others to do useful things with the data.
> >
> > you cant do anything very useful with a formatted table in a wiki...
> > that is not a scalable solution. this will allow us (and others) to
> > list suppliers, and also have a nice breakdown of what each part of
> > the project consists of.
> >
> > if you're talking about the objects.reprap.org site, its a really good
> > solution. that is where most information should live on each object,
> > especially if its fabbable (sp?) if you're talking about the plone
> > site... well i'm not familiar with that and dont know how easy it is
> > to create custom db stuff with it. i do know i'm intimately familiar
> > with PHP + MySQL so I can crank out this site pretty easily. plus it
> > will keep me out of Adrians hair while he finishes up Darwin to the
> > point where he can send out part kits.
> >
> > ~Zach
> >
> >
> >
> > On 3/26/07, Sebastien Bailard wrote:
> >> On Monday 26 March 2007 21:13, Zach Hoeken wrote:
> >>> Hey All,
> >>>
> >>> With the influx of new members, (and the influx of their first
> >>> question: is there a list of parts i need?) I've decided to dust off
> >>> the old objects site. I'm re-purposing it as a Parts DB instead of a
> >>> community oriented site... i think the forums / wiki fill that nice
> >>> quite nicely.
> >>>
> >>> Instead, it will simply be a list of parts, suppliers for those parts,
> >>> and most importantly it will be able to generate a recursive list of
> >>> parts so we can point someone at a 'master parts list' that they can
> >>> then use to purchase whatever is needed. its not quite done, but its
> >>> much simplified, so i'll be able to get it done and working within two
> >>> weeks.
> >>>
> >>> also, one of the features that would really rock would be a feature
> >>> that allows you to embed the parts lists into an external website
> >>> (such as our wiki). it also will feature links to the object wiki,
> >>> etc. so that things will be nice and easily cross referenced. it also
> >>> has super easy data export (xml, JSON, etc) so if i fall off the face
> >>> of the earth you wont be locked into the software.
> >>>
> >>> i took the liberty of adding parts.reprap.org which now points to it.
> >>> check it out, but remember there are definitely some missing parts
> >>> (lol!)
> >>>
> >>> ~Zach
> >>>
> >> I'm concerned that this overlaps the functionality of our objects website and
> >> the RepRap documentation websites without provided new functionality we
> >> couldn't proved with the original websites.
> >>
> >> Nevermind that I need to reboot the objects website which has been dead in the
> >> water for a month or so now.
> >>
> >> -Sebastien
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Developers mailing list
> >> Developers@reprap.org
> >> [reprap.org]
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > Developers mailing list
> > Developers@reprap.org
> > [reprap.org]
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Developers mailing list
> Developers@reprap.org
> [reprap.org]
>
_______________________________________________
Developers mailing list
Developers@reprap.org
[reprap.org]