Sortable database with pictures?

NecroJoe

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I'm not really sure where to start looking for ways of doing this but I'm sure it's something painfuly simple (hopefully)...

I want to make a sortable spreadsheet/database type thing with images, and sortable atributes. It either needs to be an MS Office format or something that can be easily opened at work. It needs to display thumbnails, or user-sized images.

What the best way of going about this?

Excel would be the easiest as far as the data aspect, but it sucks at showing images. It either slows to a crawl, or doesn't sort them properly, since they aren't "within" the cell. I know I could put the image in a pop-up "comment" but there's no thunbnail shown unless you mouse-over, which isn't condusive to the quick-search I want it to be.

Any thoughts?

I have Excel & Access if any of those will help.


Basically, I want to compile a listing of my favorite and frequenty-specified furniture, with multiple sortable descriptors, so i can just go in and say "I want a lounge chair, raised, swivel, tablet arm, modern, and between $1000 and $1500 list" and be able to sort by all of those different attributes, which would have been filled in in their own seperate columns. It needs to at least have a thumbnail, if not a full-res image pop-up on mouse-over.

Something that looks...something like this:
Capture-13.jpg


Any information/direction would be helpful!!
 
Microsoft Access would be best for that me thinks. I believe you can set a field for photos.
 
Any reason against a simple HTML table with some JS sorter?

With Excel you could use the regular sort/filter column headers with a column of links to the images.



Edit: Sort :)drums:) of like this: http://files.armedcats.net/n/na/narf/2012/03/25/table.zip
You could use stuff like Excel to generate the inner content of the table to avoid having to write HTML yourself, just save an excel sheet as HTML and copy out the inner part of the table I guess.
 
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Microsoft Access would be best for that me thinks. I believe you can set a field for photos.

I'll have to learn Access then. I had a feeling that might me the answer. I've had it for years, but never even opened it. :p

Any reason against a simple HTML table with some JS sorter?

Only that I had no idea that was a thing. I just googled "html javascript sorter" and came up with a couple links that seem like what I'm looking for kinda. Like...I can sort them in order by their characteristics, but I can't make it only show me the ones that have certain characteristics. Like, I can make it sort by manufacturer, but then I would have to scroll through the whole list (or Ctrl + F) to find the manufacturer grouping I was looking for. I'm going to have likely hundreds and hundreds of lines as I'll need dozens of examples of dozens of types of combinations of characteristics.

I'm sure the other way is an option, but I haven't stumbled across it yet.

With Excel you could use the regular sort/filter column headers with a column of links to the images.

Yeah, that's what I started making. I even have it set-up so that a mouse-over opens the images...
http://www.mrexcel.com/mec05031500.jpg

I really need it to have the images visible, and printable, though.

Edit: Sort :)drums:) of like this: http://files.armedcats.net/n/na/narf/2012/03/25/table.zip

You could use stuff like Excel to generate the inner content of the table to avoid having to write HTML yourself, just save an excel sheet as HTML and copy out the inner part of the table I guess.

Thanks for that!

I thought that might be a way to do it...still not 100% there, but as close as I've seen!

Thanks!
 
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Can you do that with multiple variables? Like, I want it to only show me Teknion Swivel Chairs with Tablet arms...but I don't want to see Teknion fixed chairs with Tablet arms. Will it just keep narrowing down the results as I move across and select from the drop-down options? The example on that page is a very small sample, and I can't tell if it wil do what I need based on their samples.

Guess I need to learn some JS, then, huh? :shock2:
 
That seems like it could work. Ideally it would need to auto populate options into the drop-down choices as they are entered into the database. Seems like it might...

It's 300 vendors and 1,300 manufacturers and each one has hundreds of products, so getting the "full list" wouldn't be possible. :p I am just looking to make a database for myself of commonly-needed options so i don't have to spend a day and a half every time someone wants something I know I've spec'd before, but can't remember the specific project (which is the way everything needs to be organized, currently.) At most, I'll save images to a folder in our network drives so I don't need to depend on the manufacturer to keep their links active.

Boss: "Scott, this client needs 10 options for guest/cafe chairs, with arms, seats made of wood and with metal sled bases that go for $200-400."
Me, ten seconds later: "BAM! Here you are."
Boss: "Their budget just got slashed. Now they want plastic seats."
Me, in no-time-flat: "Bippity-boppity, BAM!"
 
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If you have the lists available somewhere filtering/sorting through a couple million entries is no problem, you just need to migrate to a proper database - that'd likely be too much for a naive JS implementation.

The bigger task is to keep such a large database up to date / correct.


If your boss has the moniez I could forward him to one of our sales people to specify and later build such a system :D
 
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*laughs* Yeah, likely not. :p

Since right now we "shop" through websites and *gasp* PRINT catalogs and have have to work off memory or notes in our notebooks or saved emails/pdfs. :)

Thanks again, dude.
 
It's 300 vendors and 1,300 manufacturers and each one has hundreds of products, so getting the "full list" wouldn't be possible. :p
With those kinds of numbers, you should probably think about MSSQL or MySQL rather than Access.
https://www.mysql.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/editions/express.aspx
Access may technically get the job done, but I've always thought it kind of blows.

Boss: "Scott, this client needs 10 options for guest/cafe chairs, with arms, seats made of wood and with metal sled bases that go for $200-400."
Me, ten seconds later: "BAM! Here you are."
Boss: "Their budget just got slashed. Now they want plastic seats."
Me, in no-time-flat: "Bippity-boppity, BAM!"
I'd suggest starting with the "meat" of the problem:
  1. Input the data in a database.
    You can input data in Excel or text and use import functionality to get it in the database.
    For the images, you can either store their locations in the database, or you can store the content of the images themselves in the database.
  2. Then use SQL queries to search for the answers you're looking for.
    (Basic SQL isn't that difficult to learn.)
  3. Only then worry about making it easier to use or more presentable.
    You can use Excel to run queries against the database, but HTML will work as well.
    One other option may be something along the lines of SQL Reporting Services.
 
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Whew...that seems like overkill for what I need. It seems like it would be great if I already had a lot of information in a uniform format.

Since I'll be starting with only 20 items and slowly adding to it as I find items in catalogs and online that I like, it seems like the best course of action is to continue building it in excel since it seems like that could be exported into several other format options, and it's something that I am familiar with and can print of it, while I look into seeing what JS and Access can do.

Thanks y'all!
 
He he, I'm not going to have EVERYTHING in there. It would be even more than that if that were the case, because 300 Vendor * 1300 manufacturers * the number of products they make. :p

I'm just looking to keep a record of the ones we use most, and the ones I like, so I don't have to keep re-looking things up, and possibly forgetting some solutions to problems I've already solved. My entire spreadsheet will have, maybe 500 entries at most, and so far I'm at 35, and just adding as I go along.

Thanks for everyone'e help!
 
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