Adilas.biz Developer's Notebook Report - All to All - (121)
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Time Id | Color | Title/Caption | Start Date | Notes | |
Shop 11381 |
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Recording Notes | 9/5/2024 |
Recording notes from earlier this week (9/3/24 to 9/5/24). Then back working on the dynamic placeholder values for the adilas label builder app. See attached for a 6-page document of what some of the dynamic placeholder values look like. Not the easiest reading, but it will help out the developer who is working on the adilas label builder app. |
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Shop 11380 |
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Code review with Bryan | 9/4/2024 |
Code review with Bryan. Small fix for the mini scan cart. Pushed up code to data 0 for testing. Going over Bryan's plan for some QuickBooks API socket fixes and changes. We talked about building out a scratch file vs just coding the new changes. It would be nice to check things without having the hassle of doing the full API back and forth stuff. Back working on the dynamic list of placeholder values for the adilas label builder. |
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Shop 11317 |
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Meeting with Steve | 8/15/2024 |
Meeting with Steve. Some of these are random notes as we were jumping from subject to subject. That's how we roll. It's kinda fun. - Tracking a lot of stuff (that's what people need). Some will, some won't, next. It may sound harsh, but we kinda need to approach things with that attitude. Some people will play... and some people won't play along. We will help those will let us and keeping looking for those types of clients. - We are chasing so many things. Lots of opportunity and we have already built tons of stuff. Some of it was/is still flapping in the wind. We are picking up the pieces that we can. - The sales process just takes time. - Talking about some new settings on subs (child inventory or sub inventory packages). One of them is automatically taking inventory from or out of the next sub (auto open the next one, if needed). - Taking about the new settings and the look and feel that we did for the mini scan cart. Horizontal form with accordion type sub sections. - Every one of these companies have different business practices - so many variables. - There are already some bulk tools to close sub packages. - Talking about what the clients want to gain by using our platform. - We (meaning adilas and our clients) are making decisions about who we are (we keep it pretty tight vs super loosie goosy). - Light talks about MVP options. Minimal viable product, plan, person, etc. - Talking about investments and/or investments. There is a need for a plan and being and staying efficient (efficiency) for this money that gets invested. Stick to the plan and make it happen. We are in a paradox - having money or having clients with needs. - One of our problems (internally is) one-liners... - We give out a project based on a one-liner... It really needs more planning, requirements, timelines, budgets, project management, planning, scheduled reviews, etc. Some of our developers can handle the one-liner project name and run with it and others keep falling off the wagon and we have to pick up the pieces. Sadly, it comes down to processes and documentation. We really need more of this. We are just so busy... we have to find the time and make it priority. - We have pieces that are obsolete (older or not being used), at the time they were make it or break it situations for our customers or potential clients. At some point we need to do some sweeping of the floor and clean-up spots where we have just replicated code over and over again. There will end up being some projects just to help with moving of functions, pages, and other efficiency stuff. - Changes in the technology cycles and what is available and required. We were talking about Adobe and other companies. - This was for me, sometimes I wish that I could live on a virtual island and just build the stuff that we want and need (uninterrupted time). Imagine, what would that be like without all of the crazy hustle and bustle, demands, and requirements. That sounds great, but if you fully bail out, you will miss the boat. You almost have to stay in the trenches. - We can really help multi-locations stores that need our functionality. This is kinda funny, but we have to dumb down the frontend because we have a super deep backend. Other companies have a slick frontend but don't have a deep backend level. - We are trying to do real-time problem solving. - ROI (return on investment) - We were reviewing some of our older projects... the adilas label builder, changes to sub inventory, discount engine, etc. We cycle through version after version. Eventually, we have to re-do things (with a plan or the right person in place). - Our clients are just expecting us to do their research and maintenance for them. Ideally, we need to off-load some of that back on to the clients. - We are almost like a sponge (they just throw things at us) and we take it. - We are seeing more and more clients that really need enterprise level pieces. - There also seems to be a trend dealing with crazy levels and needs out in ecommerce land. You need good inventory control in order to sell online and do special functions. - People don't even know what we have (backorders, etc.). - Education and maintenance - those two are topics that run deep and really go hand-in-hand. A long time ago, I heard that good education and maintenance are sometimes better than new features. That is so true... however, it is easy to get lost in the whirlwind of new features. Education and maintenance are a huge key to sustained success. - Going over possible disconnects between hardware/software/middleware/etc. For example: We have a client that bought a new deli scale that prints out barcodes and custom labels. Then, they, our clients, just expect it work. So many variables... we just have to real-time problem solve. Getting everything to work together can be a challenge. In a way, we are consultants for our clients - what do you need to do for your business. At the end of the meeting, we did a small work session to build out some new settings for sub inventory rules. Steve and I were working together. Half building, half training type session. Good stuff. We modified about 5 pages including a new default page, the setting page, the action page, and a couple of pages that help push the settings into the session scope (stored login and settings per user). ToDo: On sub inventory... we would like to add part_id, part_category_id, and sub_inventory_attribute_id to be recorded per sub inventory record - that would be super cool and could really help speed things up. Future project to circle back around on... eventually :) |
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Shop 11310 |
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Meeting with Cody | 8/12/2024 |
Jumped on with Cody to look at his progress on the adilas label builder (version 3 or v3). We built a new view/print page (just the shell) and then talked about image uploads. We also looked at some existing image reports and look-ups that are in the system. We setup a time to work on Wednesday to help push the project forward. |
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Shop 11297 |
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Working with Cody | 8/6/2024 |
Working with Cody on the label builder integration. We had to work on his local install of the adilas files (development environment) for a bit. We had to replace files, setup permission, pull tables across, etc. Somewhat of an ordeal (hour and a half of messing with it). We then got him logged in and able to see the code from our adilas label builder branch (v3 or version 3). He then started working on the page to get it to work. I was going to switch over and start working on the label homepage and what it looks like. I ended up just watching him work and providing some light feedback on layout and style stuff. He is going to keep working on it and we'll get back together first part of next week. Once he gets going, he moves. It was fun to watch. |
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Shop 11296 |
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Working with Cody | 8/5/2024 |
Working with Cody. Trying to get the version 3 adilas label builder to a point to be used (going from new scratch pages to real live pages). Small work session for a couple of hours. We did some database update stuff to help control the version numbers. Then retrofitted the old code to be v2 (version 2). All of the new code will be v3. We then started to build a new label builder homepage. We got a couple of wrapper pages setup and started the process to pull in the new code. Good progress for today. |
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Shop 11289 |
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Meeting with Steve and Cody | 8/2/2024 |
Meeting with Cody. He was showing me new mouse wheel zoom features, keyboard input (+ key, - key, and arrow keys), app types (like customer or parts), scroll (space bar drag or translating), find and replace dynamics, etc. took a bunch of screenshots. See attached. We then started talking about small to do list items and small tweaks that we can add. Talking about other needs for the adilas label builder (version 3 or v3).
Steve joined us. Intro between Steve and Cody. We were generally talking about interfaces and custom drawing needs (restaurants, campgrounds, warehouses, custom interfaces) - being able to draw the interfaces and then wire them up (links, buttons, searches, filters, actions, etc.). Tons of other needs out in ecommerce and throughout the whole system for more JavaScript type needs.
We, Cody and I, did a demo of the new v3 adilas label builder. I did a small demo and pitched a few things based on my screenshots. Then Cody did a version of the demo (live playing with the objects). Light back and forth and talking about features, advantages, and benefits of the new design.
Switched over to a request email from a client and how to help with those pieces (changes and new development). This is for the frozen yogurt place. We talked about locking down the POS (point of sale system), showing saved carts (mini queue for saved quotes/orders), simple customer interactions (search by phone number or enter as a new customer), show loyalty points, and showing what is in the cart (second customer facing screen). Lots of ideas.
After that, I showed a demo of the new discount homepage and where things are at there. We talked about plans and what not. We are going to build out the simple pages for the cart and then keep working on the discount stuff. Making progress.
Steve had to bailout to get on a demo with a client. Cody and I setup some times to work together next week on integrating the new label builder into adilas. Great meeting. |
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Shop 11283 |
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Meeting with Cody | 7/26/2024 |
Meeting with Cody to see his progress on the adilas label builder. He can now dynamically replace things (text with database values), change images on the fly, and show one or more canvases for printing. Making some great progress. He was stuck there a couple of days ago.
He ended up making a super small scratch file to work on some fetch stuff for JavaScript URLs (web or directory paths). That little scratch file was huge and opened up a door for him to include the things that he was learning and doing into the bigger application. That is awesome. We chatted about the value of those little self-contained scratch files and how much they help in the learning process. If you build everything, all together, you can get lost by all of surrounding pieces. Sometimes that small focus is so important.
Towards the end of the meeting we talked about next steps. I got him app type id's for the 12 main player groups and we talked about making labels specific for each of the main 12 player groups. We will start with customers and parts for the first two player groups that get the new labels. |
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Shop 11210 |
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Meeting with Cody | 7/18/2024 |
Meeting with Cody to look at his progress on the adilas label builder. He can show the image (label) on a different page now. We ended up working on the different submit buttons (view label, save, save and exit, and just plain exit). We made a few changes and then started to look into what it will take to make the labels dynamic (data driven) vs static (as they are built). We made some small plans and played with doing some string replacements (dynamics). Cody is going to work on it and see what happens. Basically, using an existing saved label or saved content, we will change the content, re-render the label (image) and then show the new label with changes. In theory... it will work. As a note, the adilas label builder already exists. This is just a whole new take on it to add a bunch of functionality and change the interface. It should be pretty cool once we finish things up a bit more. |
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Shop 11173 |
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Meeting with Cody | 6/26/2024 |
Meeting with Cody. He is playing around with some concepts for the adilas label builder. He has made some major changes since yesterday. He can do both boxes and simple text fields. He can move them around (drag and drop) and nudge them (little arrow keys to change the x and y coordinates). Each new element creates its own inputs (form fields). Those inputs stack up and create an accordion type interface (visual display). He can remove elements, change their stacking (front to back), etc. It's looking good. Still just in scratch (play) mode. I also showed him the existing database (for labels), how we are storing things, a small intro into the 12 main player groups, and how eventually, we will need this label builder to be able to create dynamic or data driven labels. I hope that I didn't overdo it (overwhelming him), but I wanted to show him where it was heading and going.
As of right now, he is going to play with straight JavaScript until we run into a need for other technologies. Sounds like a good plan to me. |
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Shop 11172 |
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Meeting with Cody | 6/25/2024 |
Meeting with Cody to check out his progress on the adilas label builder. He is playing with a JavaScript Canvas and getting interactions to show back and forth on a small webpage. He is mostly going to be playing with the JavaScript side and I will help with the backend connections. I sent him some video references on the adilas label builder. I spent a little bit of time looking over the videos that we have on file for the label builder. I thought that this one was a fun one, showing where we are heading (video link - 5 minutes - promo video for the adilas label builder - next steps). |
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Shop 11186 |
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Meetings and prep work | 6/25/2024 |
Bryan had some questions on the QuickBooks API connections. Just looking around a bit. Lots of OAuth stuff. Back and forth, back and forth. Small graphic fix for Shari O. and the adilas internal email stuff. Emails and follow-up. Non-compete for Cody Apedaile. Prep work on the adilas label builder app. |
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Shop 11163 |
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Meeting with Cody | 6/20/2024 |
Meeting with Cody to see his progress on his website project. He is building a small story book website for a practice project. His code and ColdFusion is looking good. He is getting it. We then talked a little bit about jQuery, AJAX, and how to cross JavaScript with ColdFusion. I showed him a few examples and hopefully got him on his way. I would really like to use him on our adilas label builder project, if Steve will allow it. |
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Shop 11155 |
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Meeting with Suzi and Sean | 6/19/2024 |
Meeting with Suzi and Sean over a GoToMeeting session. We were going over the adilas label builder. We have an existing piece but it needs some major upgrading. Here are some of my notes... It sounds like it's pretty painful from the user side. - In the current label builder - on step 2... help show the width and height on the label drop-down. Also use smaller decimal. - On step 4, the label is so small... they would love to see it bigger (zoom to scale) - When editing, the top 5 fields need to be editable. These are the name of the field, the height, width, the _x and _y positions (where on the canvas the fields starts). - Be able to see it while you are doing it, be able to save it while you are doing it. Currently, you have to make an edit, switch modes, then save it, then go back. - When going from page to page, it isn't saving the new changes. You have to almost make a change, go save it, make a change, go save it. If you try to have it do too much at a time, it gets lost. - She (Suzi) has to go back, go back, go back... very frustrating. - She is recommending that people don't even use it. The current label creation tool is that bad. They (she and Sean) are building out the labels, showing the people, and not showing them the actual tool. They are taking on the hard part in order to save frustration. - She has seen some demos that have really nice label building tools. - I have a bunch of notes from past brainstorming sessions - dealing with wish lists for the adilas label builder. I also have some document on my local computer from some brainstorming sessions with Cory, talking about next steps on the label builder. - She has also seen other tools that are really hard to work with for label building (other products). You really need a way to connect the database to the label builders. - They are wanting full colors, static text, dynamic text, QR codes, barcodes, horizontal text, vertical text, graphics, data driven value, etc. - Snap to grid... both yes and no options. Along with that... a nudge (using arrow keys) would be super helpful. - Suzi was talking about how at another company, they used Adobe Illustrator (full on graphics program) to do super custom layouts. - They need ability to do super small text (font size) - They may even need round labels, not just square or rectangle labels. - The current decimal level is way out there... like 10 or 20 decimal points. We just need to format things, for a visual for the end user. - Some of our competition has some really fancy label builders. No idea on the price tag, but there are some sweet label builders out there. - Not just simple labels... they are looking for super fancy labels... full color, full gloss, full layout options, etc. - Suzi has a number of samples of fancy labels, if we need them as samples. - Sean and Suzi were talking about the cost of labels - pros and cons of going with preprinted logos. It depends on what things change and how often you need the label options. - Both Sean and Suzi have used it (the current label creation tool) but it is painful. - The work has to stick... every time. It's way to fidgety. - Be able to zoom in and out. - Add a save button on the show grid layout step. - They want to combine step 4 and 5 - do it all on one page. - They want to be able to add a custom label size... be able to enter perfect width and height. Currently, you can pick from a bunch of single labels (presets) or a huge list of Avery sheet labels. They would like options to enter custom labels (sizes and dimensions). - Be able to switch between inches and centimeters. - Be able to align elements, copy elements, paste elements, etc. Easier for the end users. - The barcode text needs to be able to scale (font size of the bars) - we need to be able to fit a 24 character barcode on a 2" label. - Instruction and education (writing and on video) on where to access the labels - for each type - customers, invoices, PO's, and items. - Be able to work easier with subs (parts) and sub packages (parent/child inventory). |
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Shop 11158 |
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Research on MVP plans | 6/17/2024 |
Looking into a short MVP list for ship A. See element of time # 9934 in the shop for more details and a smaller list. Here is an abbreviated version... - in-store credits - $10K - coupons - internal and ecommerce - $15K - adilas label builder - round 2 - $40K - standardize merchant processing - $20K (in progress) - revamp shopping cart - $40K (in progress) - time and scheduling - vertical time view - internal and ecommerce ready - $40K - discount engine - $20K (in progress) - smart cart engine & logic - $30K - rework sub inventory - $40K - planning & flex - $30K |
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Shop 10098 |
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Adilas Time | 6/1/2023 |
New transition today. I popped onto the morning meeting because that is what I normally did. I let the guys know that I wasn't going to be doing that any more. Sean was on the meeting and we chatted for a bit. By way of an update, he is doing great working with the dynamic adilas label builder. He is also willing to do some checking out of what our competitors are doing and providing me some competitive research. Nothing too huge. John joined the meeting, and we were looking at some mock-ups. We would like to allow our users to interact with options to setup their own space, look and feel, etc. We would also like to do some early prototyping. Get it out and in their hands. Even things like settings for click vs hoover and other simple choices that affect their space (what they do and use - their space, their flow). We already have a bunch that we have paid for and haven't been able to use it yet. We have a ton of R&D stuff that Jonathan Wells did in Adobe XD for fracture, adilas cafe, and a new shopping cart. A picture is worth a thousand words. Dramatize it, push up XD docs from Chuck on the content server. We have done tons of really good R&D. Let's use that. This is how we are going to get fracture up and going and off the ground. John and I talked about trying to centralize all of the data and assets. I have a bunch of it. We have pushed up a bunch to the adilas content server. We also still have quite a few assets and raw authoring files with the guys/gals who made them - Jonathan Wells, Chuck, Russell, Marisa, etc. As part of our discussion, John was showing me some of the projects that he worked on for school. He's got business design docs, pitches, proposals, flow charts, etc. I'd like to tap into some of those planning and system scope documents. Not necessarily for his project, but more for what we could do for our projects. Once again, show them don't tell them. That is huge and reoccurring theme. Show them, don't tell them. Here are some other notes from our meeting: - We could make some awesome customizable dashboards - Realtime data on what is going on (tables, graphs, charts, and quick aggregates), help them see everything without overwhelming them. Full visibility. - "Show them" and then do it over and over again. - Talking about dream salaries between John and I. Where would you like to be, salary wise? - Keep idea farming - that's what we do - Shari O. joined the meeting. She loves to do some gaming. I'd love for her to come up with some ideas on how to turn adilas and the daily work into a game of sorts (the game of business). Shari O. said that she could do some light research and maybe come up with some ideas. As we were talking, she said that she changes games based on moods. That's good information. We may want to come up with something similar - what mood are you in? Ok, let's play that way. This is just a dream right now. I'd like to see where it goes. - Keep gathering things together. Eventually, we will make our own world. - More ideas for the application and/or system - education mode, game mode, nuts and bolts mode (just get it done - speed mode). - More talks with Shari O. about Facebook groups, other social groups, having meetings, setting up schedules, and giving people power to run what they want to do. Make the whole thing a team effort. |
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Shop 10089 |
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Adilas Time | 5/29/2023 |
Today is Memorial Day. Not many people on the morning meeting. Both Steve and Sean jumped on and were working on labels. Sean was prepping things for a demo and Steve was trying to be his cheerleader. The current label builder needs a little bit of loving, but it does work, and it does a good job. You just have to know what you are doing. We just need to tweak a few things to make it ready for the masses. Sean had a few ideas that he wanted to make sure got on the wish list for the adilas label builder. He's been putting in some good time there lately. My opinion, but Steve is a great salesman. Even to us, internally, as part of his team. I can't tell you how many times I would have quit, walked away, or given up without his cheerleading and salesmanship charisma. It's pretty awesome. Sean came on the meeting with his tail between his legs (getting virtually beat-up by the label builder) and Steve sent him away ready to give the demo. That's pretty awesome! One of the problems was that the adilas label builder uses a lot of JavaScript which is a client-side scripting language. That means, depending on which browser and which version, the code could act or react differently. That makes it tough. As part of this little exercise, Steve and Sean were popping in and out of a number of browsers to see where it worked the best. Most of us, me included, would have tested it in one browser and then passed a verdict - it's good or it's in need of some love. |
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Shop 10080 |
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Adilas Time | 5/25/2023 |
Sean and I going over labels and the adilas label builder. One of the topics that came up, once John popped on was dealing with raw assets and IP (intellectual property). We really want to work on gathering the info, assets, logos, drawings, original art work, text, copy, etc. all in one place. That would be awesome! John and I then talked about some of the challenges of using pre-built themes and then being able to print things out nicely. There is different code to show things on the web and it changes when you try to print it. Anyways, just going over ideas and options. As we make changes, it requires some of our users and clients to redo their SOP's (standard operating procedures). These are their instructions and what not. If you start changing things, then all of the sudden, the instructions don't match what is being seen and/or displayed on the screen. It causes confusion and a disconnect. We also spent some time talking about requirements that are pressed upon us and how sometimes we feel like the little red hen (story of a red hen who offers yummy bread to her friends, but no one wants to help plant the seeds, harvest it, grind it, and then bake it). Along the lines listed above, dealing with showing and printing web pages and mobile ready applications. Sometimes we build things for normal desktop applications and then people want to use them on mobile apps or mobile devices. It can be challenging. The last conversation of the meeting was dealing with lite versions or light versions. Basically, talking about the concept of adilas lite or a scaled down version or versions. Good stuff! |
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Shop 10092 |
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Adilas Time | 5/24/2023 |
Sean and I going over the adilas label builder. He was requesting a smaller grid layout, options to zoom in on the smaller labels, and better save options. He had lost some work because he wasn't pressing save enough. Maybe automate that. Anyways, we pulled up some code and were looking around for the variables to control the grid layout and grid sizes. We tweaked some things out and pushed up the new code. He was working behind the scenes to make sure that everything was working. Small little microburst on the label builder. |
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Shop 10090 |
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Adilas Time | 5/23/2023 |
Sean and Steve were on the meeting talking about the adilas label builder. They would like to create a simple label homepage. They were also talking about other smaller homepages or landing spots. Things such as the gift card homepage, loyalty points homepage, label homepage, and other industry specific homepages. |
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Shop 9926 |
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Adilas Time | 3/30/2023 |
WordPress was down and this caused our main website to be down. I contacted Chuck via text, then a phone call. Sent emails to Wayne with some instructions and suggestions from Chuck. Trying to get things figured out. Luckily, you could bypass the main website and do a direct login by changing the URL (web path) to the login page. Jumped on the GoToMeeting session and was having audio problems. Cory had some questions about the adilas label builder and getting images pulled in. Kelly needs some sub inventory reports. Some of that gets pretty dynamic and pretty deep. After that, John and I talked about our WordPress site and getting our stuff off of an outside content management software package, WordPress. We couldn't get ahold of either Wayne or Chuck to get help. We need to get some documentation from both or have John help with that documentation. Our eventual goal is working towards standardizing and using best practices for all of our developers. Constant processing of pivoting, updating, and changing to fit and fill our needs. Chuck was able to meet with me and I jumped back on the GoToMeeting session. John jumped back on as well. We were trying to fix the WordPress stuff for our site. Chuck was helping John try to navigate to a certain file folder and make some changes. We kept running into issues. Cory jumped on and we made a quick fix for her on a cross corp invoice to PO transaction (special cross corp page). Once we finished that up, back on with John going over plans and what not. |
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Shop 9931 |
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Adilas Time | 3/29/2023 |
Cory jumped on and had some questions about the adilas label builder. I got her pointed in the right direction. Both Sean and John checked in as well. Other than that, it was a pretty quiet morning. I did emails and started to record some notes from the past few days. |
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Shop 9934 |
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Adilas Time | 3/21/2023 |
Sean, Shari O., Michael, John, and I were on the morning meeting. We all checked in and said what we were working on. After that, we all either left or went on mute and worked in the background. Shari O. had to take a tech support call and Sean was waiting to chat with her once she was finished. John had some flex grid tie-in questions. I was doing some research on MVP's and past data that we had recorded for what we wanted in some of our MVP (minimal viable product) stuff. Here is a short MVP list that I'm thinking about - for the record, we already have some of this, we just need to refine it and make it watertight: - Special accounts and in-store credit - We already have loyalty points, and round 1 for gift cards. Eventually, we would like to do in-store credit, vendor credits, punch cards, and other ones. The next biggest need is for the in-store credit stuff (in my opinion). - Round 2 on gift cards - We've been gathering ideas and wants and needs - Coupons and promotion codes - clear out and through ecommerce and internal shopping carts - Take Calvin's adilas label builder to the next level - we've already done some planning and prep work there - Standardize the merchant processing options - We have like 9 different integrations. Here's my next goal, pick one, make sure it flows from start to finish and is super simple. I want to do normal sales, pre-auths, captures, tips, refunds, voids, and reoccurring payments, etc. We have to be able to do manual key (like ecommerce mode), swipe, chip/EMV, and tap to pay hardware integrations. I want to do and offer all of the merchant processing functions. I was thinking that we could do a big push and try to get all hooked up with Datacap and then let them handle all of the different hardware pieces and different merchant gateways. That's my thoughts right now. - Revamp the internal shopping cart, my cart favorite buttons, and general look and feel. I would love to head towards the fracture project - we have a bunch of R&D on where we want to go with that. There are tons of other things on my list, but that is my quick MVP list for right now. |
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Shop 9394 |
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Review Kelly label quote questions | 9/12/2022 |
Cory and I going over the quote for the upgrades to the adilas label builder. Cory had the quote open, we talked about each line item, and she asked some questions from a meeting with Kelly. Small demo on the automated budget settings for the bike shuttle company. We also talked about testing and tech support demands. |
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Shop 9266 |
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Meeting with Chuck | 9/7/2022 |
Chuck joined the meeting. Cory was still on from the last meeting. She quickly reported to Chuck about the video for the adilas label builder that he had done. Cory had showed it to kelly and had gotten some good feedback. After that, Chuck and I talked briefly about 3D printing and building in supports for more complex projects. This was just for fun. We got into a small session and talked about financials and available hours, based on projects and budgets. We hopped into the system and looked around. After that, Chuck and I spent some time looking at his new code for the working with time page for elements of time. Lots of layout and UI (user interface) changes. It is looking good. Big lift and Chuck is adding tons of new code to help with the layout and such. He is somewhat experimenting with different layouts and formatting options. I thought that it was looking good. The last topic of the session was dealing with maintenance costs going between the older classic code and the newer snow owl look and feel theme. Some of our pages are doubling due to the amount of code to handle both versions and/or themes. Once again, a maintenance deal - hidden costs. |
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Shop 9332 |
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Steve, Cory, Brandon-Catch up on projects and updates | 9/6/2022 |
Steve and Cory were talking about looking up projects in bit bucket (code repository stuff). Being able to check on commits and branches. They were then talking about different industries and how they are financing some of their developments. Lots of games that people play and how do we fit into that mix. While Steve was still on with us, Cory was reporting in on some meetings that she had had with Kelly dealing with the adilas label builder and sub inventory attributes. Both of those subjects seem to be heating up a bit. Our current goal is to focus and try to get some small victories (projects being done and across the finish line). Cory and I spent some time going over projects. We talked about the need to test everything. Even small stuff. We have had it bite us before. Next, Cory and I looked into a possible bug in some settings. We looked and looked and couldn't see anything quickly. We may have to jump in deeper, when we get a chance. Shari O. popped in and had some questions about getting a new internal email server. Our current solution has been giving us some problems lately. We don't change any code on our side and it works great, all of the sudden it will be down, and without any changes on our side, it all of the sudden starts working again. Kinda crazy. Shari O. calls it the gremlins or email gremlins. As a side note, later in the meeting she popped back in to let us know that it was working again. Random. Wayne joined the meeting and got Cory and I up to speed on a few things that he is trying to work on. Performance tweaks. Cory and I then started going over her list of possible projects, quotes, and estimates. - Need quotes for inputting sub attribute data all at one time upon PO creation (start with build page) Along the way, we were talking about options and settings that relate to the concepts of the data assembly line, recipe/builds, showing subs in the packaging and production pages, and managing recipe/build output better. Lot of talk about bulk edit tools for sub inventory attributes, batches, phasing, sub locations, and moving subs along a known path or virtual assembly line. Dealing with the data assembly line concepts, I was telling Cory how we setup both rules and assignments for smart group buttons (tiered pricing buttons). I was mentioning that we could use something similar to help setup and do the mapping between elements of time, sub phases, sub locations, sub groups, and monitoring the progress of certain things. We need the rules (what or how to do things) and the assignments (who or what to connect or monitor). Using the two pieces in combo (rules and assignments) we could then have the computer and/or system help us monitor progression and progress. They are good at that, they just need instructions and the who, what, when, how, and why and they can do those jobs over and over again. As we keep rolling more and more towards the concept of fracture (future adilas project) I would really like to keep working on the data assembly line concepts and using rules and assignments to get the correct flow and mapping in place. I see that as important as we keep going forward. |
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Shop 9340 |
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Finish label maker quote | 8/31/2022 |
Meeting with Cory to go over the quote line items for the adilas label builder. We made a small Word document and added in all kinds of notes, verbage, and estimates on hours for each section. That document was sent to Cory via email and also uploaded inside of adilas for that label builder project. We also did some training on adding media/content to sub inventory items. Lastly, we went through some older notes and tried to make sure that we have/had all of the MVP requirements. Productive meeting and making good progress. |
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Shop 9373 |
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Working with Chuck | 8/30/2022 |
Meeting with Chuck and going over layout and display options for the "working with time" page (part of the elements of time section). That page has tons of dynamics and was built as a mini prototype for what we want fracture to do and be. Basically, the page uses templates and then either hides, shows, uses dynamic naming, aliases, incorporates settings, permissions, and even eventually sort order and display order. This "working with time" page was built in 2011 but has pieces that we want to do and use throughout the whole system once we move to the fracture level. Ask Brandon for more info on the subject. Chuck and I were going over design options. We brought up the current page in a simple mode, a medium mode (settings and data), and then in an advanced mode (more settings, more data, and more dynamics). We were drawing pictures and running things through fake mock-up ideas. The page has to be able to handle all of the different possible combinations of settings, templates, defaults, subs of time, flex grid tie-ins, and other dynamics. Each section will end up being in a container of sorts to help with web ready responsive design (mobile friendly). Lots of talk about nav, standards, and where we are heading. The other major variable is how much data is tied to a single element of time. It is just a quick virtual post-it note, an appointment, a project, a timecard, a vacation booking, or clear down to a dispatch level event? Elements of time are very diverse. The amount of data could be huge or super small per element of time, based on the template and the settings and the amounts of sub info or subs attached to the main element of time. At the end of the meeting (last 10 minutes) we flipped and talked about a small bug that was found and reported to Chuck and also his new promo video for the adilas label builder. |
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Shop 9374 |
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Reviewing a promo video from Chuck | 8/30/2022 |
Reviewing a small promo video from Chuck dealing with the adilas label builder. The video is about 5 minutes long and pitches the adilas label builder project and what we want to do with it. |
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Shop 9345 |
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Label demo from Charles | 8/29/2022 |
Chuck's label demo went for about 45 minutes, then we rolled into a meeting with Wayne and then right into a second meeting with just Steve and I. Here are a few notes. - Chuck was going over the new adilas label builder or label maker design. He was doing both a verbal and visual walkthrough of the prototypes screens. Light back and forth on feedback and ideas. It's looking good. He will be doing a final video here in the next couple of days. - Wayne had some questions on parts, parent/child items, getting part quantity counts, and part status fields. Going over code and database stuff for a project that he is working on to get rid of duplicate parts or items. - Steve and I talking about budgets, direction, maintenance, and priorities. We were brainstorming on ideas such as meeting with the guys every week for an hour to help them out and get an idea where they are at. Getting things done. Sometimes our guys get distracted. We know what to do but we aren't doing it. If our guys need help, they need to get ahold of us. As we delegate, we then need to inspect what we expect. Small chat about managing techniques. |
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Shop 9264 |
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Meeting with Chuck | 8/24/2022 |
Small session with Chuck going over the adilas label builder and his new prototypes and mock-ups. Light back and forth on ideas and suggestions. We talked about doing a video and mini campaign to help raise funds for the adilas label builder. Other talks about internal and external fund raising. Putting the power in their hands (our clients). This could be funding options, tools, create, update, modify, delete, and use as needed. The more tools that we provide and let the users use them, the better our product becomes. We talked about doing an internal pitch and pitching our ideas to Steve as well. If we get his buy in, that helps the whole project fly and it gains access to other networking and funding options. Lastly we went through some ecommerce stuff to help Chuck with his project to help with the client facing scheduling project. We are making progress on all fronts. Good stuff. |
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Shop 9317 |
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Recording Notes | 8/16/2022 |
Recording notes, both here in the shop and some subs of time out in the main adilas.biz account. We are trying to track time from all of our guys and gals and put it in one place. I have more freedom out here in the shop world vs inside of adilas. I'll keep recording things out here as part of the developer's notebook and then put some summaries into the main adilas world (system). working on the last couple of days. It is amazing to see how much changes just in a few days. The whole thing (app and/or system) can flip and roll and move, faster than we can even keep up with it. It's pretty crazy! Spent half an hour doing emails and reviewing mock-ups from Chuck. His new mock-ups are prototypes for the new adilas label builder app. |
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Shop 9202 |
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Brandon and Cory review label maker | 7/27/2022 |
Work session on Calvin's custom label builder. I took a bunch of notes. Cory and I were doing a virtual tool beat-up drill and pushing on the adilas label builder - prototype. John was in the background working on his own projects. At the end, he and I talked a little bit about the code and what kind of backend needs will come into play as we dive in deeper on this project. We have spent over $20,000 on this project but it still needs a little bit more. Trying to figure out what it does and what we want it to do. Good session. |
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Shop 7901 |
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Phone call | 6/2/2021 |
On the phone with Calvin going over the upcoming conference and touching base on the online label builder project. He is really swamped right now with a project for his son. As soon as he surfaces again, we'll get him going on things that we want and need for the online adilas label builder project. |
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Shop 7857 |
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General | 5/1/2021 |
Sent an email out to Calvin and Chuck dealing with the online adilas label builder and some new changes that were pushed up. It is getting closer but still needs a little bit of work. After that, I spent the rest of the time prepping files to switch primary web sites and homepages. Changing thousands of links from www to data0 sub domains. Lots of water under the bridge (years and years of development). |
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Shop 7862 |
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Online adilas label builder | 4/28/2021 |
Going over the online adilas label builder app that Calvin made and adding in some navigation, spacing, and helpful hints and tips. Removed the flash interface options from the chooser page and pushed up files. I'm sad to loose the flash interfaces. They were some of my favorites. Oh well, on to bigger and better things! |
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Shop 7668 |
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Brandon and Steve deep dive projects-TBD | 4/22/2021 |
Doing some planning for an adilas event and pitching the ideas to Cory. Fixing a small bug and pushing up some new files. After that, Cory and I were going over the project queue and talking about the different projects. We also did a small preview of the adilas label builder (new code that was launched). It still needs some loving, but it is at least up and live (still hidden, but live). |
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Shop 7505 |
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Adilas Time | 4/22/2021 |
There were a bunch of guys and gals on the morning meeting. They were talking about custom labels and we decided to look and take a sneak peek at the online version of Calvin's adilas label builder. We just had Chuck make some upgrades and changes to the look and feel of the label builder. We pulled it up and let everyone get a sneak peek. It needs a little bit of loving, but I would give it a 90% or completion rating. Looking good. Nothing a few more hours can't fix. We also talked about some new JavaScript functions and how to use them globally across the whole system. Lots of input there. We also had a few fixes that we pushed up online for a couple of pages. That is what we do, constant refinement. The last thing that we did as a group was some general training and a small Q&A session with those on the meeting. We have a great team! |
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Shop 7557 |
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Meeting with Chuck | 4/21/2021 |
Chuck was reporting on some projects and progress. He is doing some research on some tasks that have been assigned out to him. He is also checking on external hooks for custom PHP (open source server-side scripting language). If the PHP hooks and custom code doesn't work, we can always roll back on the existing Adobe ColdFusion code that is already in place. As a side note, Adobe ColdFusion is a server-side scripting language like PHP, ASP.net, Ruby, and others. Chuck also reported on some other main website tasks that he is working on. After that, we switched gears and started going over the web version of the adilas label builder. Chuck has been assigned to give that section a new facelift and make it look better. The developer had already released it, but it didn't look very nice. This was a small makeover. We jumped in and fixed a few things (path stuff). Looking better and better. Chuck is also reskinning and redesigning a custom dashboard for a client that sells LED lights and light packages. Constantly re-tweaking small little pieces of the puzzle. |
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Shop 7665 |
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Working with Chuck | 4/15/2021 |
Chuck and I got in on the adilas label builder - reskin and facelift project. We were getting lost, due to how deep the dependencies were (what files have to be called and used and in what order). We decided to go in a slightly different route to avoid all of the dependencies and stacking options. I think that it will help the project get finished quicker and be less painful. After that, Chuck and I spent the rest of the meeting going over deployment plans for the new customer facing webpage that Chuck has been working on. We are getting closer and closer to getting that things launched. It looks pretty cool, from what I've been able to see and preview. |
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Shop 7554 |
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Meeting with Chuck | 4/14/2021 |
Calvin joined Chuck and I on a GoToMeeting session. We were looking over the web version of the adilas label builder project. Calvin has completed his part for round one, and Chuck is putting a facelift or skinning it, to make it look good. We broke a few things while trying to make it look good, so we pulled in Calvin to see if he could help us re-fix them (a color picker and his dynamic input values). We'll get it all working before we launch it. Good session with both Chuck and Calvin going back and forth, trying different things, and looking up assets and code pieces. We made some to do list plans and then we got into some light training. Good meeting. |
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Shop 7664 |
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Working with Chuck | 4/13/2021 |
Chuck and I met and did a session on the new web version of the adilas label builder. Chuck has been styling things out and working on style and CSS changes. We got stuck on some advanced jQuery and JavaScript changes. We ended up calling Russell and pulling him in to help with the debugging of the jQuery libraries and dependencies. It gets supper deep, very quickly. Lots of checking outside assets and options. |
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Shop 7663 |
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Working with Chuck | 4/12/2021 |
Met with Chuck for about 15 minutes. We drew out an overview of the invoice due date project. There are two phases there. One is the actual invoice due date portion. The other is using API socket connections and checking those invoice due dates on login to see if there are any outstanding invoices and then warn/prompt the users (our clients) for action, if needed. Basically, a way to chase down monies owed and accounts receivables. Chuck and I did a small session on the web version of the adilas label builder that Calvin has been building. Chuck is reskinning it and making it look nice. Emails and paying bills, after Chuck popped off the meeting. |
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Shop 7559 |
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Meeting with Chuck | 4/7/2021 |
Chuck joined the meeting and reported on the new website. We went over a few things, small requests and I told him that I really liked what I was seeing. We spent a good 40 minutes talking about and drawing out our roll out plan. There are still a few gaps, but it is getting tighter and tighter. Our goal is to keep all parties informed and take baby steps to get it all up and online. The main parties are: Chuck and web site crew, Wayne and John on the servers, me and the developers (changed and/or prep stuff), and our clients. The goal is to keep all 4 parties up to date and ready for the next steps or phases. After talking about the web site, Chuck and jumped into some other smaller projects that are on his to do list. We looked over the web based version of the adilas label builder. Chuck is skinning some of the pages and pieces. At some point, Chuck and I want to go back and take the drag-and-drop functionality we added for one of our clients (custom code) into other areas inside of the system. There are lots of places that could use that kind of attention. As a funny side note, Chuck and I got to talking about OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) tendencies with designers and developers - certain layouts, way we structure code logic, variables, naming convention, whitespace, and other quirky things that we do. It either is OCD and/or bordering right on the edge of OCD. Kinda funny. That's what makes us good at detail level things. |
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Shop 7517 |
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Projects | 3/24/2021 |
On a GoToMeeting with both Calvin and Chuck. Calvin has released some code to us for the web version of the adilas label builder. It works and is live, but we wanted to give it a little look-and-feel lovin before we released it (letting everyone know). Chuck will be do the re-skinning job on the adilas label builder. We met and recorded a small portion. Basically, we went over what we wanted and needed and some finer details of the label builder project. See attached for the recording. After that, I jumped back on trying to catch-up and record meeting notes, emails, uploading videos, etc. |
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Shop 7530 |
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Projects | 3/22/2021 |
Phone call with Calvin going over over some details about the web version of the adilas label builder. I merged in some code for him and pushed it up online. We are going to use some of the existing permissions for label building to tie the new web version in with the main adilas.biz system. We will also get Chuck involved to help with a small face lift for the new web version. After talking with Calvin, I then called Cory and we did some planning and coordination on different projects. |
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Shop 7523 |
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Projects | 3/18/2021 |
Debugging the web version of the adilas label builder with Calvin. Recording notes form post-it notes to the developer's notebook - elements of time entries. |
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Shop 7479 |
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Adilas Time | 3/18/2021 |
On a meeting with Wayne and John. We were looking at stuff on the content server. We were checking into FTP options, database stuff, server-side logging, and API socket connections. The content server mostly sits there and serves up files and media/content pieces. However, as we keep pushing things forward with Calvin and the web based adilas label builder, we are using the content server more to help with the processing of those pieces. Anyways, things are moving more in that direction. |
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Shop 7629 |
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Working with Calvin | 3/17/2021 |
On a Zoom session with Calvin working on the web version of the adilas label builder app. We were trying to get some logging going and having a database issue on the content server. We also were having issues with the API sockets on the content server because it couldn't connect to the database. |
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Shop 7594 |
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Working with Calvin | 3/16/2021 |
Working with Calvin on the label builder web interface code. We merged in 25 new files to help with the web version of the adilas label builder app. It isn't quite ready for full web use yet, but getting closer. The older adilas label builder app was a Windows only app. This new version will be available over the web for any and all users. We are excited to get it to the next level. This project has cost us a pretty penny but hopefully it will be well received and used by lots of users. |
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Shop 7532 |
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Projects | 3/16/2021 |
1-2 pm - Performance review with Mike and other developers. We met for an hour. We had a couple of the developers report on some of their projects. We had Eric, Bryan, Alan (Cory did it for Alan), and Steve all report on projects that are underway. Good meeting. We will be doing these follow-up and progress meetings every week. Schedule is yet to be determined. See attached for the meeting notes. 2-3:15 pm - Steve, Cory, and I got on a meeting with Calvin, going over the progress on the web version of the adilas label builder. He, Calvin, did a demo for us and we took some notes and asked some questions. We are getting closer and closer. There will be other versions and pushes on this project. It is amazing to see how much it takes to get something going. It then takes even more to keep it going. There are constantly new ideas and new perceived needs and wants. After Calvin left, Steve, Cory, and I kept talking about other pieces of the puzzle. We see a need for frontend users (simple interface that is already setup and ready to go). We see an increased need for a middle-end or medium level developer/user (slightly more complex interface to setup the simple interface - settings, permissions, custom stuff). The last or other level would be the backend or behind the scenes level. There may be some other levels, but for sure front, middle, and backend users and developers. Very interesting. We are going to be pitching some more ideas to certain clients - we are pretty good at going from project to project and building and lining things out. We would like to keep going with that and try to capitalize and monetize those ideas and values. |
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Shop 7521 |
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Projects | 3/8/2021 |
Spent an hour with Calvin on a demo/review of the web version of the adilas label builder. It is really coming along. Calvin built a fully functional Windows version of the adilas label builder a couple of years ago. We are now getting closer and closer to having a fully functional web version of that same (similar) tool. That is awesome. It's been fun to watch the progression. I wish it happened faster, but it is still super cool to see the progress. After that, I was doing emails, paying bills, checking on funding options, and talking with Eric about some aggregation options for sales tax totals. |
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Shop 7390 |
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Projects | 2/24/2021 |
Zoom meeting with Calvin going over setting up a fake or simulated content server on his local environment for the adilas label builders project. After that, I ended up on the phone with Eric talking about funding, funded projects, code review and code reviewers, and other project management type tasks. Calvin called a couple more times as well, quick questions and answers. Trying to help automate things where possible. Recording notes and doing emails. |
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Shop 7381 |
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Projects | 2/22/2021 |
Helping Bryan over a GoToMeeting session with a payment process and some of the logic tree stuff. Lots of order of operations type questions and placement stuff. On a Zoom session with Calvin. He was showing me the web version of the adilas label builder and the progress that we are making there. I authorized him to keep going, as we are getting close on our first round budget numbers. We really want it, but it is not quite ready for use. It still has a ways to go, but making progress. Looking good. I was having problems pushing up a video for John. I kept getting FTP errors. I got some FTP log files and sent them to both Wayne and John. Trying to figure out what was going on. |
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Shop 7387 |
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Projects | 2/11/2021 |
Zoom session with Calvin. We went over the progress on the adilas label builder and where it is at in the development stages. I took a couple of screenshots, but mostly we just talked and touched base on where things are at. We also briefly talked about other possible projects that might be coming down the road. Calvin may be interested in some of those projects. We'll talk as we get things done and setup priorities and figure out funding for those projects. I honestly can't see an end to the list of projects. It just keeps going and going. Recording notes and doing emails. |
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Shop 7411 |
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Project-1492- Snow Owl Data Tables | 2/2/2021 |
Code review with John on a some new snow owl data tables for expense/receipts and the main advanced expense search results. The only problem that we came across was trying to pull too many records. Due to pagination, the data tables seem to do really good under a 1,000 records. Once you get above that, it really gets complicated and takes a while for the server to return all of those records. The old way, we built in our own pagination (next page) stuff and it goes much quicker, because it is only returning 50-100 per page vs thousands and thousands at a time. Pros and cons, every way you turn. On the phone with Calvin going over progress on the web version of the adilas label builder. Touching base and getting a report from him. Making progress. |
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Shop 7315 |
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Work session with Cory | 1/28/2021 |
Questions on the adilas label builder app that Calvin made. We went over some of the permissions and how things interact. We recently got 20 new serial numbers for the adilas label builder from Calvin. We are going to be using that existing product until the more expanded web version is fully ready. Working on a quote and project management, detailing out project scope and requirements, for a custom email report for customers and customer contacts. Cory was recording notes and I was saying what needed to be done on the project. Then, we go back through things and refine the notes and details. Good work session. |
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Shop 7262 |
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Adilas Time | 1/28/2021 |
Recording notes, going over new serial numbers for the adilas label builder app from Calvin, and touching base on other projects. Steve and John were going over some custom reports and what they needed, as far as new logic and/or tweaks. The reports were dealing with cross overs between PO's, elements of time, and sub inventory - lots of mixing and blending. Anytime you get so many things involved, it can get kinda deep, kinda quickly. Basically, the users love how it is recording the data (catching all of the data points), they just want the reporting to be super easy and almost know what they want without asking the system for it. It's just the next logical step, but sometimes, they get really demanding and add some crazy pressure. We just keep going and taking that next step. That's all we can do. Keep on faking it till you make it! |
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Shop 7251 |
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Adilas Time | 1/14/2021 |
Started out with Steve checking in and talking about labels and label building. Talking about the new Flash conversion stuff, JavaScript Canvas libraries, PDF's, and even Calvin's adilas label builder project. We then got asked by Cory about complex data labels and how those worked. We did some drawing and explaining. Without getting too deep, we are seeing limits on normal barcodes and are wanting to get into more custom labels and QR codes. As a side note, I'm supposed to reach out to Calvin to see if we could get a number of the existing adilas label builder apps, so that we could distribute them vs having our clients go through him to get the app. I haven't done it yet, but it's on my plate. We have to use what we have right now. More will come as we keep going, but we have to harness our current assets in order to make it to the next steps or phases. |
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Shop 7112 |
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General | 11/17/2020 |
I got a call from Calvin and he wanted to show me some new code dealing with a web version of the adilas label builder. He had subbed out some code to come up with a custom grid/layout piece. He gave me a demo and talked about options. This project has been a long time coming. We are really excited to get the adilas label builder fully on the web. Currently, there is a Windows software app that Calvin created and it ties into the web display and usage of the PDF custom labels. We've done a lot of work on this project over the years. This next phase will be to replace the Windows app and make the full thing fully web ready and part of the adilas site. Taking steps, little by little, but making great progress. Once again, slow and steady wins the race. Emails and recording notes to wrap up the day. |
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Shop 6894 |
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Projects | 10/6/2020 |
Steve and I got on a GoToMeeting session to talk about options. We spent some time going over ideas and drawings for the adilas trust and how we could set that up. I have another Word document with a bunch of notes. Steve and I met for a good hour, talking and going over ideas and options. Calvin called and we chatted for a bit. Calvin was pitching a proposal to work on the adilas label builder and getting that whole product web ready and transferred over to adilas vs being custom Windows based software that he developed. We talked about budgets, timelines, expectations, and other options. One of the things that Calvin was pitching was outsourcing a JavaScript grid layout engine. If we got that built, we could use that same layout engine to configure custom labels, custom invoices, customer receipts, check printing, PDF forms, and other layout type projects. Good stuff. Here are a couple of other quick side notes from the conversation with Calvin. We talked about doing focused sprints vs big long drawn out projects. One, the developer's lose momentum and two, sometimes funding runs out. Time and resources, those are major pieces to the puzzle. Plus, this is the major killer, transitions... you lose so much in the start/stop, start/stop process. We gain some advantages as we do small pushes to minimize the length of the project and the number of transitions that will happen. We already knew this, but sometimes it is a good reminder on efficiencies and flow. After the other meeting and phone calls, I merged in some code for Steve on branch that he was working on. |
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Shop 6827 |
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Updates for Calvin | 9/7/2020 |
Built some database updates for Calvin and the adilas label builder app. The new updates deal with getting all of the single label sizes and Avery label sheet label specs. This is all part of the adilas label builder app. We are working to get the whole things on the web and being a full blown web app vs a desktop app. Cool. |
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Shop 6688 |
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Projects | 9/2/2020 |
Part of this session was a meeting with Calvin. He and I went through some of the differences between the desktop and the web version of the adilas label builder. We also talked about the difference between test and live (data and setup configurations). As we go forward, we are going to need a sharp JavaScript developer for the adilas label builder app and web version. Calvin showed me some web based canvas and layout programs. Here is a link to one called flowSharpWeb. Not exactly what we are looking for but it has some of the concepts that we are looking for. Basically a full blown web layout program to allow our users to build and connect all of their custom labels designed and entered into the system. There are always multiple ways to do these things. We just have to figure out our way and style. We had some talks about outside consultants vs the primary developer. The new guy doesn't know the product as deep as the original or primary developer. Sometimes that is good and sometimes that is a disaster. We are going to work on creating a stepped plan... Going from a working Windows app to a full featured web app. Calvin and I looked at some database tables of what we have and what we still need. We will need some of his sheet label specs and sizes. As part of this process, both Calvin and adilas will be passing different sections and pieces over to each other to get this plan and process in place. As we move forward, we would also like to get some training for the label builder and what the user expectations are/could be. We also talked about recording one of our next meetings as we try to transition existing code from Calvin over to the adilas side. We want to capture what we can without having to make Calvin do the same things over and over again. After Calvin and I were finished. I did a bunch of emails to finish out this time period. |
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Shop 6803 |
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Steve, Brandon, Calvin and Cory label discussion | 9/1/2020 |
Meeting with Calvin, Steve, and I. Cory was unable to make it. Both Calvin and Steve were talking tons about text message marketing and possibilities to use Calvin's GMext text marking tool and combining it with adilas contacts, options, and using it as an internal 3rd party solution offering. Lot of potential there. Here are some of the notes from the meeting: - People keep wanting things to be easier and easier. We have the same requests for text messaging and for labels. We want it, we also want it easier and easier. - There were talks about the onboarding process and being able to do it or set things up by yourself. - There was some discussion about text messages and the cannabis industry. The two of them went over some history, lessons learned, and some of the legalities. - Texting deals with phone numbers. There are things called short codes and long codes. This deals with the length of the phone number. A normal number like (555) 555-5555 is considered a long code. A number like 55555 is considered a short code. They talked about pros and cons and levels of regulations for those numbers or values. - We talked about Twilio and tying those services into adilas for different text messaging services. - We have a 3rd party solution that is trying to leave the text messaging arena. There were talks about maybe seeing what they have and seeing if we wanted to take over any of that and/or reuse some of those pieces. Just talks and discussions. No plans were made here. Just options. - Circling aback around to labeling - we would love to get that code on our (adilas) side of the fence. - There were talks about how that could look and what kind of structure would need to be in place (transfer of code ownership and maintenance responsibility). Along those lines we talked about building projects and tools (one process), supporting those products (a whole other process), and extended updates and service plans (ongoing maintenance for those products - a whole other process as well). All of those things need to be considered. Who plays what role and how do we play together? - To make super cool web-based tools, we keep seeing more and more need for high level JavaScript developers and coders. Spencer Garner, who does some adilas stuff, was mentioned. There are others and we could even potentially farm it out if needed to other or outside developers. - The GMext product comes in a light version and a professional version. The big difference is how many texts need to be sent at one time. The GMext light version can only send up to 1,000 texts at a time. The GMext professional version is able to configure multiple long code numbers to run in tandem and thus be able to send more messages at once. Each setup of the professional version needs to be manually setup in order to get the correct number of outbound phone numbers (long codes). - The discussion turned into topics of automated vs manual process and which scenario works best for what application and client base. - They got into discussions about predictive marketing and even AI (artificial intelligence) stuff. - Being able to use classic desktop software, web based version, and mobile responsive versions. Most things are leaning towards the web based and mobile versions of those products. - Good marketing requires a plan and then being able to execute that plan over and over again. At some point, you need to pass the marketing load and decisions on to the users (until the predictive and/or AI stuff is ready to use and deploy). - Calvin is using AWS and Lamda functions to do some of the magic for his text messaging stuff. - We talked about being able to schedule outbound text messages. Calvin showed us a small demo. We recorded, but he asked that we not make it public. See note at the bottom of this page for more info on how to get to the video. - This is a page with a bunch of GMext light videos from Calvin - anyone who wants to learn more may go here - https://lite.gmext.com/how_to_videos.php - At the very end... we spent 5 or so minutes talking about the adilas label builder. Calvin and Brandon will meet and make other plans there. Most of the meeting today was dealing with touching base and text messages and GMext marketing tools and options. We also recorded a small 7 minute video that showed Calvin using GMext light. He setup a couple quick contacts, assigned those contacts to a group, and then prepped and scheduled a text message to that group. It is inside of the adilas shop, but he asked us not to publish it via this element of time. Just go to the media/content advanced search and search for "GMext" and find the video with the date of 9/1/20. |
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Shop 6700 |
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Projects | 8/31/2020 |
Meeting with Calvin. He was reporting on some bug fixes in the adilas label builder app. Small side note, some times good comments in your code really help. Eventually you may need to go back and fix things... Sometimes months and months or even years later... Why did you do what you did... Without good comments, sometimes that is hard to tell. We were running into that on some of the code that we were looking at. We ended up finding the problem and it was dealing with case sensitivity and switching servers (hosting environments). Eric and I jumped on a meeting after Calvin and I were finished. We were going over new ACV (actual cash value) math and accounting for customer loyalty points. We can take it to certain levels, but at some point, you have let the users make decisions. Lots of talk about our responsibilities and due diligence on our part - helping the users make good decisions. We did some testing and were getting good results. After that, back to more emails and such. That is constant. |
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Shop 6690 |
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Meeting with Calvin | 8/25/2020 |
On a Zoom meeting with Calvin going over the adilas label builder and needs and wants there. We ended up doing some debugging and walking through the code together. We also made some notes of other possible hang-ups. Especially with sub inventory and different sub attributes per part category. That gets really deep. |
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Shop 6744 |
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Steve, Cory, Brandon-Catch up on projects and updates | 8/24/2020 |
Cory jumped on and had a few questions to go along with her projects and coordination stuff. We talked about a new table to store bowling pro shop drilling specs for bowling balls, figuring out where the adilas label builder project is at with Calvin, and some other small details. Going back to the adilas label builder app that Calvin made. It is currently a Windows application and we don't have any of the code. We would love to keep pushing it forward and make it into a full service web app (able to use by any of our clients). Currently, if anything needs to be tweaked and/or updated, we have to get with Calvin to get those changes made. Sometimes that is hard to find the time in his busy schedule. Because of that, we are feeling somewhat limited as to what we can do with that piece of the puzzle. We really want to get that code over on our side so that we could make changes and upgrades easier. We currently don't have a Windows developer on staff, other than Calvin, but we may need to look into different arrangements. As part of this discussion, I think that it is important to note that many developers know that there may be maintenance on things that they build. What they don't count on, and we don't want to count on this either, is years and years worth of maintenance and upgrades. It drags out the projects. Also, it is no fun if someone else introduces something new and it breaks an older process what was working. Basically, sometimes, a new error may be introduced that affects older code making it appear that the older code was in correct. That may not be the fact, but the reality is, it breaks something going forward and there is a constant need to keep updating and doing maintenance on almost all code that gets written. Kinda like a shelf life for code. That is good to keep in mind. Another thing that makes some of this code work hard is the number of ways things are used. That comes back to settings, configuration, and use cases. Sadly, yet kinda fun in some ways, we have users that use our products in ways we never would have imagined. That's tough to code to all of those use case scenarios. It sure keeps things interesting (good and bad). |
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Shop 6635 |
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Adilas Time | 8/17/2020 |
There were 4 to 5 of us on the morning meeting. Wayne and Steve were talking about storage solutions and options there for client-specific storage (potentially even in different places per client). Apparently, they had been on a meeting since 8 am. As a fun side note, we need to make sure that each system could be configured to both store and retrieve stored content from different places. Currently, we push all images and scans to the local box on a per server basis. We also push all bigger files, graphics, PDF's, and other document out to the content server. What if we could configure both of those pieces per client? That would be super cool. Along those lines, we could specify a location say on AWS where there images and content could be stored. We would then directly charge those clients for the storage of those files and assets. Currently, it is all part of the monthly fee but no one has been watching or monitoring how much storage space that really is. We have one client that has well over 200+ gigs of outside files that we are storing for them. To put this in perspective, google drive allows for 15 gig for free and then you have to pay. They are at 200+ gig. They add to it daily as well. We have other clients that have thousands and thousands of scans and images. Once again, unmonitored. We need to be able to configure the systems to handle those changes as well as pass those file storage and hosting fees on to the client. It's their data, they need to pay to store it (within reason). Also, some of the storage is stored over years and years. There was also some talk about having active and inactive content and files (levels within the storage solution). For example, new files, images, scans, and media could stay active for a month (or whatever time range). Then they (the files) could be moved a little bit deeper but still exist. Think more of cold storage vs active or hot storage. This is all just a dream right now, but it may play into some of the configuration needs for fracture (upcoming adilas project). Danny and Steve were talking with Wayne about labels and what not. We need to get Calvin's label tool fully online and working over the web. Currently, the adilas label builder is a custom Window's app. Things keep changing (for labels) on a constant basis. Danny wanted to make sure that Wayne knew about some of the label changes so that we didn't overwhelm him with tons of files and merge requests. The guys were talking about adding in a fee for those clients who use Metrc - a state level 3rd party solution for sales and compliance. That would be great as it literally costs us around $20K per month to keep up with Metrc and their changes alone. Pretty crazy. Sean is going to be reaching out to some of our current clients. Steve and Sean talked about some current and future plans to reach out to different clients to see what they need and how we can help them. Steve was talking about small custom homepages, or small dashboard type interfaces to help them get around and move around in the system efficiently. There was also some great talks and ideas about doing live or on-sight training by our clients for new clients in the same or similar industries. Basically, instead of having an adilas rep train someone, have an active client in that same industry or line of work train the persons. That allows our clients to get the training, from the source, and our clients could make some money by charging to show and train the clients using their existing systems. Some cool ideas there. Use the client's facility and train other people in your same industry by charging them to train them. The last main topic of the morning was dealing with servers, IT help, and server resets. Wayne and Steve are going to be looking into options of using the existing IT staff of our commercial web hosting companies to help with extended server and support issues. They already have full access to the servers and know the infrastructure at the hosting company. It would be so cool if we could sub some of that maintenance and hot fixes out to them. Both Steve and Wayne will be making calls and setting up meetings to advance that ball forward. |
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Shop 6592 |
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Brandon and Cory look at changes that cause Calvin label maker not to work | 7/9/2020 |
Cory and I met and chatted about a new bug that some users are seeing with the adilas label builder. We decided that we needed to pass it off to Calvin, the label master. I did record a super small video and it is on my local machine if needed. |
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Shop 6492 |
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Adilas Time | 7/1/2020 |
The morning meeting went long. We had two servers that were being moved. They were data 4 and data 6. The data 4 server had a problem and the databases were slightly switched around. We have a test database and a live/production database. The web server was pointing all new transactions towards the test database and we couldn't see the live data. It was still there, we just couldn't see unless we logged in directly. It took us a bit, but we (mostly Wayne Andersen) got it fixed and headed in the right direction. Calvin called and reported in on some things and projects. He has been helping users with the adilas label builder, doing more gmext (group mass texting) stuff, building new tools, and more mobile development. We chatted for awhile and ended our conversation on CMS (content management systems) and the need to be able to tie-in files and documents to different pieces of the puzzle. As a side note, Calvin built a tool that allowed files and documents (media/content) to be added to certain objects. He said a funny comment, "I have recreated only a small portion of what adilas already does." That was pretty cool. We do a lot and allow media/content, photo galleries, and files to be added to all 12 main application player groups (invoices, deposits, expense/receipts, vendors, users, customers, stock/units, elements of time, quotes, PO's, balance sheet items, and parts/items and general inventory). Switching back to the servers and what not, we really need to take care of Shari O., Drea, and Wayne Andersen. They have all been rock stars in doing tech support and server stuff. They get my vote and appreciation. Long days for all of these guys and gals. |
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Shop 6270 |
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Working with Bryan | 4/10/2020 |
Bryan and I worked on some ideas and requirements for the thresholds and inventory engine stuff. We want to take it way further than it is, but that takes time, money, and planning. Part way through our meeting, Steve jumped on and showed us a bug on one of the servers. We flipped into emergency mode and made the changes. A file folder had been moved on the server and it was causing all kinds of errors. We got it fixed. Calvin called and I gave him an update on where we are at and what projects are going on and being worked on. He reported on the web version of the adilas label builder and what not. Good catch-up session. We've both been super busy. |
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Shop 5927 |
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General | 3/18/2020 |
Wayne popped in and we talked about the need to get multiple databases connected to single machines. We need to virtually get some of the users off the bus and on to their own vehicle and/or motorcycle (smaller entity). We also talked about setup options, custom image tags, mappings, and making the new system setup process even easier. Thinking towards the future and being able to duplicate things on a larger scale. Emails, follow-ups, and calling and talking with Calvin. Touching base on the adilas label builder and heading towards a web based interface. He has been super busy with his gmext (group mass texting) products but will keep us posted on progress on our stuff. |
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Shop 6041 |
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General | 2/27/2020 |
Calvin called and showed me a small demo of the adilas label builder and the progress of moving it to the web. Nothing super fancy, but progress is being made there. I also had to answer some emails about mini conversions and what they are and do. See attached for a small explanation of mini conversions. |
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Shop 6011 |
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Meeting with Jonathan | 2/25/2020 |
Meeting with a number of folks. The goal was dealing with the shopping cart. We had Steve, Chuck, Jonathan, Cory, and a client on the meeting. The first part of the meeting was the client going over some of their requests. Here are some highlights from them... - They would like to be able to send text messages from the customer queue - They would love to have a hand-held scanner and have it automatically be able to update an unmanned cart. Some talks about using the built-in cameras on certain tablets and such. Other talks about hardware and software problems and solutions. Through the web, sometimes those pieces are hard to get to perfectly talk to one another. - Lots of questions about barcodes, labels, and auto/bulk actions. - They would like possible popup/modal type windows to see customer notes, maybe the last invoice, and even a modal popup on the ++ or advanced add to cart (haggle tools) - The also spoke about major needs for tiered pricing - the same options that work on my cart favorite buttons and smart groups and tiered pricing. As part of this discussion, there were options mentioned about parent attributes, barcodes on buttons, advanced barcodes (QR codes), mini conversions, etc. This becomes a bigger and bigger need. It also needs to be more standardized. Lots of options, but because it could go so many ways, it is hard to find the correct path. Too many options. - Along the tiered pricing vein, there was also a request to be able to assign items (subs or child packages) to a pricing tier through the build new PO process (bringing in the items and assigning them to a pricing tier as part of the inbound process). - They really want a fully interactive cart, yet still locked down, yet still super powerful, yet super simple, yet, yet... Lots of requirements. - Training mode, how to get to the best training and how to connect the dots. We have help files, news and updates, videos, etc. - but we need a way to get to that really quickly. They, the client, were also requesting that each new feature has a full tutorial and/or video. They only wanted the things that were fully done to be added to the news and updates. - They would love for more onsite or local training options. They love the time and are willing to spend the money. They would love to get the training options to be standardized and regular (scheduled and consistent). - They love the bulk update cart functionality - Being able to bulk print labels and skip steps (save as a quote or cart checkout). The also wanted to be able to flag certain items that they only need one label vs multiple new labels per quantity, etc. It sounds like it could be pretty deep. There were also requests to be able to bulk print labels from the PO. Calvin's new adilas label builder does do bulk labels for invoices and PO's. They just might need some training. - Online orders, ecommerce, and even options for delivery. - In the cart, being able to see it at all times. Having some sort of split screen where there are items or look-ups on one side and all of the items on the other side. Lots of one pagers with asynchronous connections and easy flow through the sections and/or pages. - We love ideas and helping to push the ball forward. The needs keep coming. We just try to keep solving those pieces as we can. - We also allow the clients to chime in and help us prioritize, fund sharing, and have a say in where things are going. ////// more notes after the client left - Just Chuck, Jonathan, Brandon, and Steve - Steve - a big thank you out to both Chuck and Jonathan - you guys are stepping up the game. He was also talking about collaboration between the different developers and how cool that will be. - There may end up being 8-10 versions or variations of the shopping cart. At some point, we need to separate the logic from the view/design. Jonathan was also talking about putting the specialty features into settings so that each cart may be more configurable. Good stuff. - Questions from Jonathan about market analysis and what does that say for us? Sadly, the reality, we haven't done anything there. Lots of options. - There were some talks about having a system to run your stuff vs trying to marry all of the individual pieces together. There is pain on both sides, but we are heading towards the systematic type approach. Trying to bring all of these things together. - Time to value - how many clicks to get those needs fulfilled. Not that we can't do it... we just need to figure out how to help speed up the process and make it easier and more easy to get to those pieces and features. - Smoothing out processes and making it easy to get to the places that they need to. It kinda comes down to navigation and visual flow process. Aka - the full user experience. - Steve was talking about how making these pieces work together to get all of the POS (point of sale) systems, inventory tracking, CRM (customer relationship management), CMS (content management systems), accounting, reports, and backend storage all in one place. That is the dream. - Some of our clients are virtually starving for instructor lead training. Jonathan is saying that there is a barrier to entry to this... meaning the learning curve to fully know adilas. We need to help provide it and also help to standardize it. Small talks about competition, reps/consultants, and ways of teaching the processes, pieces, and principles. - Small mention of the adilas café and how some of that would help us provide training and service type options. You could get training from the adilas university or you could get direct training and/or hire a certain person to help fill a certain need. Think of all of the power users that could offer services and/or training. What if we could show user stats on who has done what and what level they qualify. - From Chuck - what about a monthly webinar? We could plan it out, record it, charge for it, etc. We could do digital meetings, in-person training, instructor lead trainings, etc. As we keep updating the system, we need to keep updating the videos. Maybe even using YouTube as a primary source of training. Possible Facebook groups, tips of the day, etc. - From Chuck - doing light idea mining when we are out and about. For example: Hey, what processes do you do to sell things? We then record that and start making some settings, permissions, and selections together to help them with what they are doing. Presets per industry. Sometimes it is so overwhelming... we could really create virtual profiles and help with settings and configuration stuff. - From Chuck - small talks about web components and being able to customize things on the fly. Separating logic, functions, views, displays, processes, etc. - Lots of settings and even helping those people get to those settings and help it make sense for each industry. Settings and configuration options. Groups, categories, settings, nested presets, tiered pricing, labels, etc. - From Chuck - he really doesn't like it if we do a process and then virtually dump him in an unfamiliar page (backend navigation). That comes back to page flow and user interface. We will keep working on this. If we send the users to the correct spot, we don't lose them and we even help them know what the next step should be. This may take some mapping and design stuff. - Trying to stay small but still looking for talent and help. - Help file on barcodes - https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/help.cfm?id=413&pwd=cart - barcodes can really speed up shopping carts and there are tons of options. This is an area that could still be developed out further and enhanced. Just an idea. See attached for a number of other resources. There are a couple of videos and some research on shopping carts and POS interfaces (point of sale interfaces). |
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Shop 6027 |
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General | 2/25/2020 |
General stuff. I reviewed a video that Russell sent over for the new and upcoming shopping cart (12 minute video). Also did some other research on the cart and what we are looking for. Lots of good stuff going on. On a phone call with Calvin going over the meeting and training/demo yesterday for the adilas label builder. I sent him a list of servers and he will be updating his list. This is a setting inside of the label builder. Also, he reported on his progress of taking his Windows app (hybrid app) out to the web. He is making progress and reported on where things were at. |
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Shop 5870 |
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Adilas Label Builder training with Calvin | 2/24/2020 |
We had a great demo and training meeting on the adilas label builder. The primary presenter was Calvin Chipman of MyEasySoftware. In this hour long presentation, Calvin goes over the tool, shows you around, makes suggestions, shows samples, and also allows a small demo from a power user. Good stuff and great training event. See attached for a full copy of the video recording. 1 Hour. |
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Shop 6016 |
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Call with Calvin | 2/18/2020 |
Phone call with Calvin to go over up coming training and webinar for the adilas label builder. We went over an agenda and chatted about some ideas and options. |
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Shop 5884 |
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Adilas Time | 2/3/2020 |
Danny had some questions about multiple barcodes on PDF labels. I recommended him to get with Calvin and see if he could get the adilas label builder wizard installed and configured. That product already allows for multiple barcodes and QR codes per label right now. Here is a link to some more info on that product. Steve and Dustin were on the meeting and introduced a new developer Alex Hearding. Alex will be helping Steve and Dustin with different tasks and what not. Light intros and talking about next steps. |
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Shop 5535 |
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Call Calvin | 1/27/2020 |
On the phone with Calvin going over some plans. We talked about moving more and more towards the web version of the adilas label builder. - Setup dates for February - Setup a date/time to do a training session on the adilas label builder (record the training and invite some of the reps/consultants). We set it up for 2/24/20 at 10 am to 11 am. We'll work out the details prior to that meeting. |
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Shop 5501 |
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Call Calvin | 1/13/2020 |
Calvin and I got on a phone call together. We are sending Calvin off to work on the adilas label builder and the hosted or web version of that product. The current product is a hybrid product and has a Windows software portion as well as a web version and/or portion. The new adilas label builder will be completely web-based. Calvin and I also touched base on a few things and talked about direction and vision. I approved him sending in some hours for emergency tech support that hadn't been submitted. For a while, we were somewhat between some talks and negations on how to handle billing and support requests. Calvin is working hard with a partner to create a new company called the IT Dream Team. Most of his time has been spent there. We are excited to get some dedicated time to finish up and work on some of the adilas projects. Good stuff. |
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Shop 5337 |
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General | 12/24/2019 |
More work with Steve on the logic for his custom gram controller pages. We also chatted and talked about our meeting with the IT Dream Team and possible options. Calvin and I also did some back and forth debugging on the adilas label builder app. Calvin got it all fixed. The problem ended up being a change in the SSL (secure socket layer) encryption level and that was causing things to fail. Basically, we had to open the connections up a bit and allow for multiple different types of secure connections (multiple or statements to allow different options). Some changes were made and we did some light testing. |
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Shop 4978 |
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General | 9/20/2019 |
Paying bills, invoicing and doing a deposit, recording notes and going back and rereading entries from earlier this week. I got a demo from Calvin on the new sub inventory stuff on his custom PDF labels, using the adilas label builder. Pretty cool. I also spent a couple of hours writing some answers to a security questionnaire that was presented to us. I have included a copy of my answers. Hopefully they are honest and thorough enough for the task at hand. See attached for a copy of the security document. https://www.newtekwebhosting.com/our-infrastructure/ - server infrastructure at Newtek hosting - adilas security https://www.newtekwebhosting.com/disaster-recovery-solutions/ - disaster recovery at Newtek hosting - adilas security |
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Shop 4895 |
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Adilas Time | 9/18/2019 |
Just Dustin and I on the morning meeting to start with. I spent most of the session recording notes and doing research on system mapping and direction for the future. Part way through, Wayne joined the meeting and gave me a small report. Here are a few notes from that discussion. Wayne - looking into generating an auto renewal of SSL certificates. Data 6 has this tech installed - small test run. We talked about the old dedicated servers, new VPS servers (virtual servers), and AWS (full virtual stacks). Wayne was stating that he was kinda frustrated with the service level at Newtek on this last go around. We were in a waiting pattern for over a week without anything or any communication. This was our first round of VPS serves with Newtek. It ended up being days and days that we normally don't have to deal with. Wayne is wondering if something is changing and/or slipping there at Newtek. Lots of frustrations and delays. We want to make sure that we have multiple options, going forward. We currently have a lot of servers out there and we are kinda feeling like we have all of our eggs in one basket. We would like to expand that presence. There were some other talks about config files and how some of the config files are seaming to revert back to defaults vs staying at a higher tweaked out level. This is mostly dealing with the database config files. Wayne is setting up a file level monitor to help track that down. After Wayne left, I kept working on my projects. Towards the end of the session, I got a call from Calvin. We switched over to a Zoom session and he showed me what he was working on with his adilas label builder and pulling in sub inventory and sub inventory attributes. It gets pretty deep. I liked what I saw and gave Calvin some feedback. He is quite busy right now and we talked about some options and priorities. |
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Shop 4859 |
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General | 8/22/2019 |
Shawn wasn't able to make it. So, I ended up doing some review on the adilas café project and re-reading a number of past entries that dealt with that project. Trying to formulate a plan and get a new adilas designer (graphics guy) up to speed on that project. I also had Eric pop into the GoToMeeting session and asked a couple of questions. Mostly a research session. I merged in some code for Will and did some email follow-ups on questions dealing with the adilas label builder. Sent some emails out to Calvin with some questions. |
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Shop 4833 |
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Virtual Post-It Note - Barcode Info | 8/7/2019 |
This was some text from an email about barcodes and how they work inside of adilas. It has some good links and info: Hey guys, Here are a couple of help files with some good information about barcodes: Another option that exists now, thanks to Calvin, is the adilas label builder app. This plays with Adobe PDF (Acrobat) technology. The new adilas label builder requires a little bit more technical knowledge on the setup, but it is available. I would recommend that we possibly go that route. If they don't have anyone who wants to play, I would be willing to work with the client. I'm not a master, but I've seen numerous demos and have played with the product before. The new app allows for labels from invoices, customers, PO's, and inventory items. It can do individual labels, custom labels, and all kinds of sheet labels. Calvin is currently working on sub inventory items, sub inventory attributes, and flex grid connections. That will be really cool. Here is a link to more information about the adilas label builder app. If push comes to shove… I'll be their label tech. I'm a $100/hour but happy to help. Anyways, just chiming in. Thanks guys and gals and have a great day. Brandon Moore |
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Shop 4828 |
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Working with Alan on internal API's | 8/6/2019 |
Met with Alan for half an hour going over the existing internal API socket system. We talked about web page id's, API sockets, requirements, and how things are validated. He has a project (invoice due dates and automated watchers for overdue invoices - collecting on a/r's or accounts receivables). He will either be using the existing path way and/or slightly modifying it to work better for future development. Good stuff. I got on a call with Drea from tech support and she had a number of questions about barcodes and settings inside of adilas. I assured her that beyond creating and generating the barcode, the other settings are on a printer driver, scanner setting, or a browser setting. We don't have any of those pieces in our system. We also briefly went over options between Adobe Flash barcodes and Calvin's PDF labels and sheet labels, using the adilas label builder app. Grabbed some older notebook sketches and put them together into a single image and uploaded them to element of time # 4791, here in the shop. The combined image is a quick break-down of the data assembly line analogy and model. |
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Shop 4785 |
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General | 7/23/2019 |
Helped merge in some code for Eric and his Spring Big integration project. I also talked on the phone with Calvin about what is needed for the adilas label builder (sub inventory and flex grid). I then did some emails and tech support stuff. |
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Shop 4775 |
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General | 7/16/2019 |
Working on sub inventory API socket information and API socket documentation. Got a call from Calvin and we talked about some options for a web-based adilas label builder app or application. Good stuff. The cost was around $15,000. We've already paid well over $20,000 for the existing label builder app. The new one would be web-based and include sub inventory and flex grid stuff. Spent some time looking into a cross corp invoice to PO error that was reported. Apparently, the page was working as of last week and now that same page is not working. I checked and the same code that we have in the master branch is on the server. It also has a modified date of back in April of this year. The next step is to look deeper and see what might possibly be the problem and/or disconnect. |
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Shop 4634 |
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Meeting with Calvin | 5/7/2019 |
Questions for Calvin: - What/when on your time lines and load? Timing and budgets. - Having a hard time getting them setup (login credentials and who gets to do what) - Charging for the adilas label builder wizard setup - once they get through... they can go far, it is just hard on the frontend - How can we get this more inside the system? Maybe move more towards the web and setting things up that way. We need to simplify the frontend. Instead of full API credentials, maybe just check their username and permissions (web-based). Maybe going in doing some research. What is the next level. - Maybe fill out a form and then send that to Calvin vs just an email - 3rd party solution stuff - security - Custom formats - currency, decimals, med date, sm date, long date, time 12, time 24, integer, other - Being able to nudge selected fields with arrow keys - currently just drag and drop - We need access to core sub inventory and sub attributes - this could be a major challenge - super dynamic - on the PO side, invoice side, cart side, and normal part side - bulk print from the cart (session stuff) - Crazy mixing pot - People are used to printing from here, but maybe we need to make it easier on the finished invoice side. How can we make it easier to get to? - As some point, we will need flex grid values, vendor info, store/location info (could come later) - maybe even being able to mix some of these things. - At some point, we may also need access to parent attributes (could come later) - Audience questions... common user, tech user, designer, programmer - How do we select and train them - Ideally, we would like to have one person per corp that could do labels. - Defining the database terms and fields - Videos and other training materials |
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Shop 4540 |
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General | 4/2/2019 |
Got on to work with Shawn. He was working on payroll stuff so I ended up on a tech support call with Pat and Shari O. We spent about 1.5 hours working on getting those two, Pat and Shari O., setup and using the adilas label builder wizard that Calvin Chipman created. They got a pretty good taste of what it can do and we did some light playing and training. Lots of potential there. After that, I worked on some other emails and notes. |
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Shop 4466 |
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Adilas Time | 3/11/2019 |
Joined up with Steve on the Monday morning meeting. He was showing me some new pages that he was working on and using some prebuilt CSS templates that we purchased. Russell Moore got us started with those CSS templates a few years back. Steve has been in there playing around and is grabbing code and pages and plugging in real code and database values. It is starting to look pretty good. As a side note, a couple times today, we have circled back around to prebuilt templates and what they offer. Steve and Dustin were talking about some of their combined efforts and different demos that Dustin has been giving and doing. He has done a great job and is very easy to work with. That is a huge plus. Calvin joined in and had a few questions. He also helped both Steve and I get the latest versions of his adilas label builder wizard. We worked with the label editors and then also gave Calvin a few change order to do list stuff. We would love to get some data formatting functions to help make the data look good. The other major topic was talking about 3rd party solutions and how we secure those pieces. I told Calvin that I would work with him on what is needed and how best to get the desired outcome. We are planning on adding a section for Calvin and MyEasySoftware in the adilas 3rd party solutions section. One little nugget from todays talks and discussions was: We may be better off getting one or two key persons trained up on certain features and implementations and then allowing those parties to charge or get paid to help setup the others who need those pieces. It helps get specialists and also really cuts down on the tech support required to do harder or more complicated tasks and processes. The summary is: Get people to pay for value added services, especially somewhat technical or complicated setup or in-depth processes vs trying to teach everybody how to do it on their own. The other option to that, which would be nice if possible, is to make the setup and/or processes more simple and intuitive. Somehow we need to monetize some of these deeper tools. Either charge for setup and training or increase the monthly reoccurring. Wayne joined the meeting and had a few questions. He and Calvin chatted about AWS, windows services, and how they may be able to use AWS Lambda functions to do similar things that we are doing under the current Windows server model. It got pretty techy. We setup a new permission for Wayne to use in his open id user pools and how to grant or deny access between open id users and different worlds or corporations. Steve and I did some more work on templates and getting a good starting place to work from. Steve was talking about how awesome it is to use prebuilt CSS templates due to the fact that you start from a working picture (static or fake data) and then build in functionality from there. We did a code merge for Steve and I had to help out with some page view icons for some of the new pages. Towards the very end of the call/session, Wayne popped back in and had some questions about changing the MySQL data engine from MyISAM to INNODB type tables. Techy database stuff. He also had a question about the scan and add to cart process and how complicated it seemed to be. We talked briefly about some performance tuning and options. Basically ways to help go in and split things apart and/or speed up certain queries. Afterwards Steve and I chatted and talked about some of the cool things that are coming down the pipeline. Keep moving forward. |
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Shop 4409 |
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Adilas Time | 2/28/2019 |
Steve and I were on the morning meeting. He is still feeling kinda sick. We worked on a small query for his code and then tried to work on Calvin's adilas label builder. Steve's copy of the program is stuck in a login credential error. We tried installing and uninstalling the program a few time. We will most likely have to reach out to Calvin to see what to do. Along those lines, I also made some notes on my to do list about some other tweaks that may be needed. I spoke with Shawn, Eric, Bryan, and Dustin at different times during the morning session. Some were simple questions and others were trying to setup times to work on certain projects. Lots of email stuff. I used the last part of the meeting to look over new state and federal tax withholdings that Shawn submitted. |
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Shop 4436 |
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Working | 2/27/2019 |
Going through adilas pages, changing page icons and verbage to help with Calvin's new adilas label builder stuff. Also trying to help do a little bit of advertising for Calvin and MyEasySoftware. |
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Shop 4421 |
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Meeting with Shannon | 2/26/2019 |
Shannon and I met up and went over some things. We started out and I gave her a demo on a couple of the new things that are being released. I had some struggles with Calvin's Adilas Label Builder, but it got better. I took down some notes and will be reaching out to him. I also showed her a demo of Josh's discount engine and where that is at. We talked about some other converging projects, including Eric's loyalty points and gift card stuff (sub special accounts). We briefly talked about some sales flyer stuff and encouraged each other to keep chasing the dream. sometimes it feels kind of allusive and hard to catch. Good meeting. |
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Shop 4432 |
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Working with Calvin | 2/26/2019 |
Calvin was slightly delayed, so I kept working on the adilas tick list project (getting notes off of post-it notes and into a bigger spreadsheet document). Got the spreadsheet ready and sent it over to Steve. There were 50+ projects just on that new spreadsheet. Calvin called and we touched base. I am going to make a page for him to help promote his Adilas Label Builder app and wizard type editor. He will send people an email with a download link and serial numbers. Calvin will also finish up the last little tweaks and push up those files. We are getting close on this round. The next phase will come after we allow a few users to get in there and beat it up a bit. |
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Adi 1455 |
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Getting Calvin's Adilas Label Builder app fully online and ready | 2/26/2019 |
This is round 2 piece. Bid out for $15,000 to make it into a web app. |
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Shop 4413 |
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Adilas Time | 2/26/2019 |
Wayne and Steve were having some good discussions on the new AWS (amazon web services) stuff. Lots of talk about bringing new corporations on and getting them all setup out in the AWS landscape. They were even talking about rewriting our API to match the AWS environment in a better manner. Calvin was giving us a demo of his Adilas Label Builder app. He showed us a full build from the ground up. We built a PO label and then did a number of live tests. We had Wayne, Steve, and myself on the demo. Calvin is doing a great job. I will be meeting with him later on today to finish up some pieces. Briefly working with Eric on some local JavaScript validation and questions. He is getting further along on his sub special account tracking project (loyalty points, gift cards, etc.). Working with Wayne on media/content stuff. He is going through and testing all kinds of stuff on the new AWS environment. Currently, we have provided him a list of some known bugs and he is working through them. That is awesome. Spent some more time working on the adilas tick list (giant to do list). Still just trying to get all of the smaller projects listed out and on one spreadsheet. That's a pretty big project in and of itself. |
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Shop 4431 |
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Working with Calvin | 2/25/2019 |
Calvin and I got on a Zoom session to try to track down some bugs. We had to back-up to a permission problem and then forward into special pages pushed up to the content server. The custom adilas labels will be build using a special adilas label builder wizard (built by Calvin and MyEasySoftware). They are then populated on the data servers. Once requested from the data servers, they are passed (the label instructions and the data) to the content server. Once on that server, the app will use the instructions and the data and create the custom labels. We have to pass data all around to make the process work. The actual work will be done by one special customized software library on the content server (commercial product we had to purchase and license). It would be super expensive to put that same software on every server. Anyways, that's where things are at. Making progress. |
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Shop 4412 |
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Adilas Time | 2/25/2019 |
Monday morning... here we go again. Steve, Dustin, and I were on the morning meeting to start with. Each of us has our own to do list stuff. We touched base and then started working on our different projects. One of my projects for today is to take all of my post-it notes on my desk and put them all on one giant to do list and/or tick list. I only made it through a couple of post-it notes before I got pulled off that project to help with another one. Eric joined the meeting and had a number of questions about the sub special account tracking project and some decisions on how and where to do the safety checks. We got in to it and decided that he would need both local validation and server-side validation. We talked about mixing JavaScript (local) with ColdFusion (server) and how best to do that. I showed him some examples and pointed him in the right direction. Calvin joined and had some questions about direction and working with multiple servers. He is working on the adilas label builder app and wizard-type project for custom labels. Steve and I setup a demo for tomorrow. Calvin also needed some help accessing some live data to do some tests and what not. After that, I went back to adding in to do list items on the big spreadsheet. I paid some bills and light tech support stuff. One of the tech support questions was dealing with custom field settings for customers. This has been somewhat of an issue since 2016. Long story made short, we added a page where a user can change names, show/hide, sort, set defaults, require, etc. for basic customer fields. That options exists on one page... it also only applies itself to just one page. The problem and/or request has been, why don't you cascade those settings all the way through the system? To answer that, I would say, we would love to... it just takes time, planning, a goal, and funding to get it done. We would love to finish some of those things up. Towards the end of the call/meeting, Steve and I talked briefly about priorities and needs within the system. Lots of demands and we have to manage the resources based on both internal demands and external demands on the same resources. |
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Shop 4424 |
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Another demo with Calvin | 2/20/2019 |
Calvin and I met up and he gave me another demo on his progress for the adilas label builder. He now has a web-based system that collects user inputs and quantities and passes that data over to the label builder app. |
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Shop 4423 |
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Meeting with Calvin | 2/20/2019 |
Met with Calvin over a Zoom session. He was showing me progress on the adilas label builder. He is now working inside of adilas and doing connections, links, forms, and API socket calls from adilas to his label builder program. He has it working locally on his machine. I gave him a few requests/suggestions but it is looking good. The next major step is building a Windows service and being able to do the same thing live on the adilas content server (where we will serve up all of the custom PDF labels using his label builder). I authorized him to keep going and sent a small update over to Steve. |
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Shop 4393 |
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Working with Eric | 2/14/2019 |
Eric and I were working on his project. I ended up on a call with Calvin and going over some of his adilas label builder stuff. As it progressed, I ended up flip flopping between both Eric and Calvin answering questions and helping them here and there. |
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Shop 4395 |
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Working with Calvin | 2/13/2019 |
Calvin and I worked on his adilas label builder app project. His first round project is getting close. We moved out of his Windows based app (the actual label builder app) and into the web and tying the two programs and platforms together. The label builder is very powerful and dynamic. Anything you can think about may be added to the labels. That includes any number of graphics, lines, QR codes, barcodes, static text (fixed values), input text (open for typing), and dynamic text (pulling in data from a database). Any of these things may be used in any context and any number of times. If you wanted a label with 4 different barcodes on it, no problem. Pretty crazy. Anyways, our new goal is providing a way for us to connect to user data (normal adilas stuff like PO's, invoices, items, parts, customers, etc.) to the power of the adilas label builder. We went into adilas and determined about 7 access points for the custom labels. Calvin is going to start working on those pages and passing information from page to page to start sewing up the functionality. Great progress. |
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Shop 4397 |
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Demo wiht Calvin | 2/12/2019 |
Got on a Zoom session with Calvin to see some progress on his adilas label builder app. He had added in some quantity options for parts, PO's, and invoices. He also showed me some other features such as about (light marketing stuff) and options to reroute back to the start to do a different label. He is making progress and we scheduled some more time for tomorrow. |
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Shop 4388 |
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Meeting with Calvin | 2/11/2019 |
Calvin was giving Steve and I a demo on the adilas label builder. He was showing us new label options for invoices, PO's, and items. Prior to this, he only had customer info ready. Good progress. |
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Shop 4377 |
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Working with Calvin | 2/6/2019 |
Calvin and I jumped on a Zoom meeting. He is working on pulling in label values for invoices and invoice line items for his adilas label builder app. Tons of data and it gets kinda tough to cycle through and figure out what is needed and what is not needed. It gets pretty deep with multiple queries and multiple one-to-many relationships. Most of what we were talking about was strategy on how to gather, filter, and only advanced data that is needed. This is stuff that makes your head hurt... :) |
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Shop 4347 |
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Calvin | 1/30/2019 |
Talking with Calvin over a Zoom meeting about the adilas label builder application. He has been off on other projects and this was just a meeting to get back into the project. We briefly talked about goals, priorities, and options. We also talked about putting some of his Windows based tools out on AWS for Mac users. Somewhat of a small workaround between Windows and Mac stuff. |
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Shop 4134 |
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Adilas Time | 11/13/2018 |
Wayne and Steve were talking about servers and some of the new updates that are going on. Wayne is helping to fine tune and monitor the servers. He wants to be in charge of that portion of the puzzle. He is very good at it and knows what he is doing. Steve and I are trying to encourage him to keep going in that direction. Some of the discussion items were dealing with servers, up-time, redundancy, database table locks, response time, active vs passive monitoring, and empowering our users and clients to view stats (maybe limited views) on the server. There was quite a bit of talk about new news and updates talking about the server monitoring and even possible mirror and/or redundancy back-up and/or mirror server options (insurance and roll-over technologies). Wayne was asking some great questions about the current model and where we want to go with things. Steve was responding and answering the questions. We left off with a charge on Wayne to get in there, dig around, and come back with a plan. We may end up rolling some of the new changes out over a series of months. Good stuff. We touched base with some of the other developers on the meeting and then broke out into our own work sessions. I was working on the sales tax branch and trying to cascade new sales tax changes through the black box pages. As a fun side note, there are around 400 (ish) black box pages that are part of the master code branch. That doesn't even include ones that are created and uploaded without being merged into the master branch. What that tells me is, that our clients like custom options and that section, black box or custom code, is a huge part of our model. It can be a pain in the rear some times, especially if we are trying to update things, but it also fills a need and our clients seem to like the options of being able to customize things. That is awesome. Once everybody left the meeting, we all just worked on our own little projects. I was doing tech support and follow-up on some sales calls. Towards the end of the session, Steve and I chatted briefly about the client who may want to do some tracking on their assisted living facilities. We talked about maybe setting up a play site for the assisted living and running things with locations, elements of time, etc. Lots of good ideas. We also talked about the adilas label builder that Calvin is working on. We are getting close on this round of the project. We would like to see where all of that goes and what comes out of it. We are looking to close out phase one and then start using it to see what else may be needed (round two or phase two). Steve - we are a solution for solution minded persons. We are really seeing that the clients that like customization, they tend to be some of our greatest clients. Very interesting. We are also seeing that some of the reps are a great resource and are throwing some ideas and monies at things (pieces of the puzzle) that they need and/or want. Some of them are getting funding from their clients to help push things forward. Random idea... what about opening up the door to our customers to get their own developers and let the custom side of things grow a little bit deeper. Maybe use the adilas market and let some of the independent developers run with things a little bit. Training - we were talking about ideas and timing. Things are a little bit crazy right now, but we don't want it to get out too far before we circle back around and setup some more training. We were also talking about costs and paying for that. On a different note, we have tons of hidden benefits like hooking up Marisa and Drea on training. We also have Calvin who was at the last training and got tons of great info and feedback about his labels and Gmexting (group mass texting). Lots of hidden benefits and getting people trained and more involved. |
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Shop 4133 |
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Adilas Time | 11/5/2018 |
On the morning meeting. We briefly talked about some updates from the weekend. We had a number of different developers pop in and make small reports. Steve and I were about system stats and reports at the higher system level. We also need some rules and how we allow and/or don't allow play. Not just reports on how much data we are carrying along (total stats and counts)... but also, what is added new per day (incremental reporting). We need to be able to analyze usage, storage, and even analyze bandwidth. What are they truly using. From Calvin, there may be potential in monetizing the usage of the application. If we are incurring a cost, we need to pass that on, plus adding in some profit. We have some clients that come in at a super low rate. Then they grow and develop and build and become more successful, but the system fees haven't increased to match that (at all). Basically, no one is monitoring the growth, storage, usage, and system stats. We need some report matrixes that we could show and then charge for. Calvin popped in and gave Steve and I pretty deep demo of the adilas label builder. We got pretty deep, we played, asked questions, and even got into some of the funding and financing of how do we pay for this, how do we fund it, and how do we keep supporting it? Good stuff. Some people want to buy it modular (every little thing) and some people want to buy it as a package (get everything and use what you want). Some of the matrix values might need to be: How many things get created? How often are they being used? How much data is being transferred back and forth? How do we monetize things and get a real ROI (return on our investment)? It comes back to sales, rules, and what we setup. Steve and Calvin were talking about putting all of the tools out there and then letting them (the adilas users) use what they need. Kinda like a big giant rental center... they could use the big tools, the small tools, and everybody could use whatever they needed. They were talking about small mom and pop shops, percentages, set fees, or some kind of mix between those different models. Lots of options. By us not monitoring server stats and usage, we and kinda killing ourselves. We want to come up with something that is fair and workable for all the different parties. That is where we want to get to. We want to track the cause and effect of data storage, file storage, processing (API socket calls, queries, data in/out), and maybe usage and bandwidth. Looking forward... We may need some snapshot info (aggregated data) to show corp to server stats. We may need to start counting reads (queries and looking at things) and writes (inserts and updates). We may need just counts per day per corp. This could become some of our general matrix values. Steve and Calvin were talking about possibly charging for the net results (what are they getting out of it). We need to store it, and then go back and use that as the histories, stats, and usage. Just an idea... what about showing stats per user and what they are browsing (who is generating the usage - who is looking at what). We could add some counters on the actual method calls (yep, Holly used me or pulled me). Steve - Every year that a company is with us, we keep adding a virtual train car to what they are pulling and/or hauling. At some future point, we may need a way to snip and clip some of that older data off (how much are they hauling). This could be in and may include standalone declarations and other watchers, feeders, and triggers. Certain tables just keep ballooning and we are storing and storing data. We need to figure out a way to archive some of that data. |
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Shop 4025 |
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Adilas Time | 10/31/2018 |
Happy Halloween! As a fun side note, both Steve and Josh have Halloween as their anniversaries. They were able to chat and have fun talking about that. Calvin popped in and we got some API stuff working on the adilas content server. He needs that functionality for the new adilas label builder app. Good stuff. Alan, Dustin, Josh, Steve, and I were on the morning meeting. Steve had a couple of questions about some emails that were going around. We pulled in Alan and chatted about some database restructures, re-indexing of records, and full table rebuilds. We then talked briefly about a client that has a bunch of custom code but hasn't really been able to get things going. They are currently not paying their monthly bill and not responding to the David B. and Shari O. We have decided that we need to turn them off as it is costing our company trying to chase their company. If they want it, we can easily re-flip the light switch back on. Wayne jumped in and we did some checking on his database migration code. We logged into the dedicated server and ran a couple reports. All of the data looks good and he will be contacting the client to let them know. This project has been ongoing for about 2 months now. Basically, we migrated about 10 corporations off of one of the shared servers to their own dedicated servers. Well, once we finished and released the new dedicated box, they came back and said, what about this other corporation that we had no notes and/or record of. Because it missed the normal migration process, and the new server was already live and consuming auto id numbers in the database, we couldn't do our normal migration process. Instead, Wayne had to write a new program that allowed for both servers to keep running at full speed and still be able migrate and copy database records across between servers. That may sound easy, but think of all of the auto id number and foreign keys based off of the auto id numbers that could get messed up. This was a very deep project. It looks great and seems good to go. That is awesome. We intend to use this same program (actual software we have to run on the physical servers) to help us migrate other clients off of shared environments and into either other shared servers and/or to their own dedicated boxes. That is a huge break through for us. Good stuff. After that, I jumped in and did some emails and tech support stuff. Towards the end of the meeting, Calvin jumped back in and we made two of his permissions go live for the adilas label builder. We then did some light testing on the live servers. It still needs some lovin, but we had a successful live test between data 0, the content server, and Calvin's adilas label builder app. That is pretty cool. He was going to make a couple changes and then get back with me. Pretty cool and some great progress. |
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Shop 4023 |
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Adilas Time | 10/23/2018 |
Alan - Reported on some database changes, new session and application based permission changes, and talked with Steve and I about possible corp-specific database tables. We are still in the pros and cons state of some of those decisions, about the corp-specific database tables. Alan also asked Steve some questions about the upcoming part/item weight and part/item count stuff. That is one of his current internal projects that he is working on. Calvin - Popped in and showed up some progress on the adilas label builder. He has a bunch of things working on the local level. The next area is interacting between servers and using API socket calls. The last part of our session, we went over what it would take to make and create an adilas API socket section on the adilas content server. It already does some of that, but needs to be updated and retrofitted to help with Calvin's adilas label builder pieces. After that, I spent some time doing emails and trying to help point Will in a good direction for a thing we are going to be calling "Transitional PO's" - these are a cross between an order/request PO and a live PO. It deals with when do you start paying for parts/items, when do you record them as inventory, and how do track the transitional date range when it is somewhere in the middle of an order/request and an actual live PO that affects inventory and payables. Basically, extending out the order and fulfillment process to a deeper level. |
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Shop 4038 |
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Adilas Time | 10/9/2018 |
On the morning meeting. Alan and Dustin were working on complex forms and passing dynamic data between different pages. Lots of AJAX, JavaScript, and JQuery. Alan did some demos and explanations on some new session based permissions checks. He should be launching the new graphical invoice homepage today. It has tons of charts, graphs, and summarized data. Calvin popped in and went over some of the new API sockets that he will be using for the adilas label builder. He is going to be using about 8 or 9 custom MyEasySoftware API 3rd party sockets (custom built for his label builder). He also went through some other flow and button options to show us some of the progress. It is looking good. He passed me some new table definitions and I wrote a small database update file for him so that all servers and developers could get updated records. As a future note... eventually, we will need to update every page that currently has adilas paperwork (custom document assignments) so that they can look-up and show the custom labels and assignments that get built through the adilas label builder application. Cool stuff. |
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Shop 4042 |
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Adilas Time | 10/8/2018 |
Alan popped in and showed us all some demos on the new invoice homepage (with graphics and charts and summarized data). A couple of us saw a demo last week. Everybody else was just seeing it for the first time. We then went into a discussion on permissions and setting those per user per session. Alan was showing us some new functions and working with database access objects (DAO's). Great demo and discussion. Wayne popped in and reported on his database migration project. He took some time and explained some of his process and also told us about some lessons learned. He spent some time talking about unit testing and doing test based or test driven design. Good stuff. Steve and I briefly talked about Calvin and the adilas label builder. We talked about rounds, versions, and where it still needs to go. We are all on board and headed forward. It is fun to see all of the projects that are coming down the pipeline. We have some other clients that have requested some backorder and shipping pieces. They submitted some specs and requests over the weekend. We will be looking into that project and breaking it into smaller pieces and seeing who we can get on the projects and who will help fund what parts of it. Later on in the session, I started looking through the email and attachments that they sent us. As I got deeper into this project, there may be some pieces that we could do internally (all adilas clients need) and other pieces that are fully custom. I put the ball back in their court and gave them some contact info for a couple of the developers. I also tried to lightly let them know where I could play without charging them. If it goes beyond that, I would have to charge as well. Basically, I will help my guys and do some initial stuff to get things going for free. If it goes deeper than that, I'll have to charge them as well. |
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Shop 4092 |
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Phone call with Calvin | 10/4/2018 |
Calvin and I chatted on the phone. He gave us a demo earlier this morning on his adilas label builder. Super cool and making tons of progress. We chatted on the phone about funding options for pushing the project forward and what not. We discussed options of selling licenses for the first round product, doing some fundraising (crowd source funding), and/or allowing people to fund it through micro loans to adilas. We also spent some time talking about his GMext and GMext Pro products. Calvin is trying to come up with a good saying and/or tag line for his products. We went over a couple of options. He is planning on showing us another demo next week to show us how far he has made it. That will be awesome. |
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Shop 4037 |
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Adilas Time | 10/4/2018 |
On the morning meeting with the guys. Dustin was reporting to Steve about some of his progress. He is brining some cool interface pieces to the table. That will be really cool. I was working on a non compete and non disclosure document for Full Circle and Adilas. We are going to be pulling in some of the Full Circle marketing, emailing, and texting services under the adilas roof. That will be awesome. Calvin popped in and we had a small discussion on new permissions for his adilas label builder application/program. We went through a few questions and scenarios and then created the permissions. They are currently hidden, but will be release as soon as they are ready. We got the new permissions pulled down from data 0 to his local box for testing. After that, Calvin gave us a label demo to those who were on the morning meeting. I saw a demo (recording) from a couple of days ago and wow, I was impressed with the changes and the direction. It was really fun and we even pushed it pretty hard to see how it would responds. Good report and great progress there. Towards the end of the session, I was working with Steve on passing in dynamic sub inventory attributes for some of his bulk functions on his plant pages (move in bulk, add in bulk, record plant phases, harvest in bulk). Working with sub inventory and sub attributes within sub inventory gets pretty deep, pretty quick. Lots of moving pieces. |
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Shop 4087 |
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cross corp | 10/1/2018 |
The first part of the meeting was spent chasing some big queries. Then we rolled into a discussion about cross corp barcodes and buying and selling sub inventory and being able to use a set barcode for that item. Basically, one systems sub inventory would then be allowed to be sold from another corporation based off of a barcode that was set by the original corporation. I was thinking that it will end up being tied into this new adilas community funded project. See the link below. https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=22&id=1348 After the meeting, I kept working on some code for the Bear 100. I spent some time working on emails and light tech support. I also reviewed a label demo video that Calvin Chipman did for Kelly Whyman and Steve Mitchell. This was the first demo that I had seen with Calvin's new wizard style label builder for the upcoming adilas label builder. Compared with the old prototype, this looks awesome. I put up a small screen shot of the video. The real video is awesome, but I don't have permission to push that up yet. The video had and brought up some great questions dealing with the adilas label builder... things like: permissions on labels, history on labels, simple mapping interface, right clicks vs buttons, checkboxes vs scrolling drop-downs, visual indicators, auto save, prompts when closing, AWS (amazon web services) and putting the Windows software on a Windows box and then allow the user to login and use the program from there. Tons of good stuff. |
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Shop 3935 |
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Adilas Time | 8/30/2018 |
Small pow-wow on what happened with the server hack, light debriefing and recap, where we are going, and how to push usernames and passwords to other developers. Making a small plan to push out resources to the different developers. Calvin came in and we were chatting about the upcoming adilas training in Denver as well as bulk texting (GMext program) and text alerting (more strategic but smaller text messages). Lots of needs and options coming down the pipeline. One of Calvin's comments was the cost in multi texts is in the texts. The cost in alerting is in the code and how to make those triggers and where to place those pieces of code. We also spent some time talking about the adilas label builder and how that will all play out. Calvin and I were documenting steps and processes to get it all rolled out. We spent a lot of time talking about the order process (what do you want), how we can assign it, how we then request it, and how to actually process and print that label. We also lightly talked about how to communicate back and forth between the different servers. Lots of moving pieces and lots of data going back and forth. The end goal is to get a custom label solution that is owned and used by adilas for the adilas clients. We want to keep building onto the overall solution and/or platform. Sometimes, we have to build stepping stones and then try to link them together to make up the bigger picture. Lots of mixing and blending of pieces and concepts. Another interesting piece of the puzzle is the question, how are things being used? Sometimes the feedback that we get and when we can see the usage patterns, that is like gold to a developer. If we let our users, they will help tell and show us where we need to go and how to get there. They, our users, are a huge resource. Spent some time helping Dustin get his settings page dialed in. He is making one of his first, both add and edit, pages that uses the same page. Lots of his logic is modern div tags and JavaScript vs normal page modes and physical page refreshes. He was on it and will do fine. |
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Shop 3767 |
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Adilas Time | 5/23/2018 |
On a Zoom session with Calvin. Going over tech level details for his adilas label builder application. We went over some of the existing label pieces and how they connect. He also showed me a custom visual builder and getting some ideas from there. We also talked about having he and his family help build out the custom labels until we get everything on a customer facing web basis. Good meeting. 2-4:30 pm working with Alan on discounts. We were testing code and running through scenarios. We found a few small problems but most of it looked pretty good. |
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Shop 3766 |
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Adilas Time | 5/23/2018 |
Russell came in and reported to Steve and Dustin about his news and update settings and multiple WordPress feeds. We then did some light planning on who was going to teach what for the upcoming training event. Lots of emails and planning. Calvin popped in and reported on some new updates in GPS land. He has a phone provider that is offering GPS tracking with an API from a standard phone carrier and provider. That is awesome and will help simplify the process of getting the GPS data. He also gave us a small demo of his adilas label builder program. Part way through the demo, we had to do some emergency surgery and fix a problem with the WordPress news and updates feed. It was looking for an image but one hadn't been uploaded yet, it was stopping all new logins. If you were already on, you were good, but it you were just logging in, it would block you by showing an error message. We had to tweak a few files and got everything all up to date and ready to go. Kinda crazy. More emails and light tech support stuff. |
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Shop 3757 |
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Adilas Time | 5/17/2018 |
Working on reoccurring elements of time. Also, Calvin called and gave me a small demo of his adilas label builder app. We also looked at some other custom labels that he had done. Good meeting. |
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Shop 3713 |
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Adilas Time | 5/2/2018 |
On the phone with Calvin. He gave me a report about the adilas label builder. He is going to be allowing blocks that may contain plain text, HTML text, images, barcodes, and QR codes. The label settings will be saved and will be able to reconstruct themselves to be used over and over. We talked about a few other tweaks and such. Small update on how the company is liking his hybrid desktop app. Things seem to be working and flowing quite well. Working with Alan on the in-line taxes. Other emails and random tech support questions. One of them was an overview of cross corp transactions. There is tons of potential there and I'd love to see things get built out a little bit further. See the media/content for a quick copy and paste of the info on cross corp stuff. |
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