fixed a small merge conflict in the ecommerce header files. Jumped on the morning sales meeting. See attached meeting notes.

Meeting with Bryan and going over the "any scheduler". He was showing me an older campground reservation system that Will and Steve did inside of adilas back in 2018. It has been pretty buried and not used that much. Bryan was looking around at other different scheduling options such as Airbnb, hair salons, etc. Looking at how we do it internally (selling and booking time).

We started talking about availability templates. Basically, timeslot placeholders. Lay it out and then use it if needed. We did some brainstorming and after we stopped, I was thinking that we also need payee id (user stuff) and store id (location information). Making progress.

Beaver Mountain and looking over ecommerce/shop pages. Scheduling code review. Went pretty deep for the review. Small tweaks and changes.

Working with Aspen on world building and research. Printed her out a check.

Prep work for Beaver Mountain. Making sure that vendors, items, categories, time templates, and settings were all in place. This was on the old system - meaning the ski school system. Eventually, we created a whole new system for them to run and track their special events.

Went into to Beaver Mountain to do a live demo for Kristy and Amie for unique special events and online sign-up and registration options. Good demo. Came home with a bunch of notes and to do list items. We decided that we would run the special events on a different system as compared to the current one that is being used by the Beaver Mountain ski school. All of the flex grid tie-in settings and verbiage are different. We allow for custom but only one set of custom settings, not a one-to-many on the custom settings and custom verbiage stuff (field names and aliases).

On a meeting with Bryan. Review of the demo that we did for Beaver Mountain. Showed him some of the ideas and things that they would like based on the demo. We spent some time looking at the date-picker code. Pushed up 17 files with some code changes. Switched over to the new time settings stuff. Horizontal and vertical time views (like Beaver Mountain). Tons of time talking about the availability table (new for online scheduling). Going over plans and new time settings.

We also talked about adding links to the new public horizontal time view page from multiple different places inside the system. Bryan took some of the custom code from the Beaver Mountain pages and is making it more public and general for all of our users. He already did that (just a few days ago) but now we are trying to add links and navigation so that people can actually use it and get to it from multiple other places and pages. All part of the process of building things out. Bryan really liked the horizontal time view functionality. Good stuff!

Phone call with Calvin about Emerald Fields, Gmext, and possible Mac version of the bulk FTP uploader tool. We also chatted about some of his other tools. They have been a huge help and we, at adilas, use them every day.

Sean and Danny were talking about demos and techniques. They are prepping an outline with hyperlinks to help them navigate and show things quickly vs having to navigate the whole system to get to the same pages. Good technique.

Steve joined the meeting, even though it was his day off. We got into talking about new time settings and my meeting yesterday with Beaver Mountain (local ski school). They have been using adilas for close to 7 years now. Most recently, they are looking to use it to help them with registration for their special mountain events and races. It was unintentional, but I ended up giving all of the guys on a meeting a full-on demo of what we are doing and where we are heading.

Steve was kind of challenging me on a few things - why did you do that? What about this or that? Maybe we could do this or that, etc. We talked about it and I took some notes. I still don't fully know what direction to go and what would be best, but I took some notes. Some of it was dealing with multiple systems vs a single system, settings, custom code vs building for the masses, and individual customer records vs quick flex grid to get super simple data into the system quickly. We talked about effort levels, timing, speed, data in/out, exports, and future flow. It was a good discussion, even though I felt like I was being challenged on every front.

As a side note, when we started this project, back in 2015, we didn't have what we have now (7 years later). If we had had what we have now, it would have been a different story. All things are possible and are options, it just depends on timing, resources, budgets, skills, and where the system is at (functionality wise).

As a part of fracture and going forward, we will be trying to turn in as much stuff to settings as we possibly can. We have 4 known levels for settings. They are corp-wide (world level), group-wide (12 main players), page-wide (per page per section), and user-wide (preferences and options per person). Things keep breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces another word for it is "subs". We even were talking about things like subs of corp-wide settings and almost location-wide settings. We don't want to go there yet, but it is starting to surface. Basically, the main goal is to turn everything into settings, where possible.

Along those same lines, if you have tons of settings, you will also need different levels of users - end users (lower levels of knowledge and skill), medium or middle users (knowledge of settings, options, and configurations). You will also need the admin users or backend/systems admin persons (who is making and building the settings for the others to use). It can get deep.

It is ok to re-think the processes or re-think these processes. Permission granted! Often, education leads to new ideas. We see it in our clients all the time. We add something or teach them how to do something and almost immediately they come up with something new, different, or that now seems possible based on the last known level. We call that taking the next logical step. It's huge and big part of what we do.

The last note for this session was this - everything is breaking into subs, sub settings, sub permissions, and sub configuration options. Everything!

Cory and I going over multiple projects. More things are leading to settings. One of the projects was an auto bulk sort on invoice line items by part category. They add the items to the cart as they need to. Then after the fact, they need the invoice line items sorted differently for easier fulfillment. Once again, this would be a setting. Not everybody wants this.

On a different project, we talked about using the external alternate id field to hold special outside id numbers. This option already exits, just some people haven't used it and/or don't know about it. Technically, each of the 12 main players have a field already in the database tables called external alternate id that is setup for external id numbers or tracking purposes. One of the clients may have a special need for us to help generate and store some longer external id numbers (including special formulas and custom build out for functionality).

Talking with John about data tables. We were going over reasons why we are using older versions vs keeping things automatically updated. Some of that is just timing, knowledge, and maintenance. Other topics included CDN's (content delivery network), jQuery, bootstrap, and other outside libraries. It sure would be nice to be able to redraw the data tables and remove rows if needed. The new ones can do that, but the old ones can't do that option. Back in the day, we didn't need that option.

Other things that we want to do with the data tables are things like: sub filter, sort, export, print, and pagination. We need documentation for some of these outside libraries and other dependencies. Our projects get more complicated due to different developers, time frames (when it was built), and even level of coding ability. We have quite the mix. All part of the game. John and I were talking about creating our own documentation for some of our code use and outside libraries - how do we use it. We will use the adilas docs for this.

We also talked about testing, training, and setting up standards. We would love to even offer some sort of formal training and certification. Sometimes we end up judging some of our developers that haven't had the correct training. Natural, but unfair. The other topics for the day were the cost of transitions and having to pay bills and other life expenses - inflation and needs.

Bryan has been making videos about his project, just to document things. Small push to change eXpo payment type to Herbo payment type. Lots of talk about layers on time and availability. Bryan got deeper into reviewing the horizontal time view page for Beaver. We also talked about time buttons (this will be a sub of my cart favorite buttons but to help book and sell time - with an additional calendar tie-in as well as shopping cart functionality). See elements of time #'s 6967, 8004, and 9633 for other ideas on time buttons.

We were playing inside of Microsoft Excel with scenarios and options for web availability and layering.

Emails and text messages.

Had computer hard drive issues. I was kinda stuck. Ended up going upstairs and joined from that computer.

Couldn't get computer to boot up or reboot. Took it into the shop.

Went over to Bryan's house to work. My computer was down. We went over new settings and ideas for time buttons and tying them into my cart favorites. We wrote down some ideas in Bryan's notebook.

From 2 pm to 3 pm - Bryan and I jumped on the server meeting (from his house). Cory, John, Bryan, and I were on the meeting. Wayne joined part way through. After the meeting, Bryan and I jumped back in and worked on refining the old custom code that we made for Beaver Mountain. More time button stuff and planning. Bryan has all of the notes. I was kind of just an extra today - no computer or anything.

A couple of different sessions to work on my new local environment. My hard drive crashed, and I had to install all kinds of new software, tools, and products. Adobe ColdFusion, MySQL, Git, Bit Bucket, database updates, etc.

Eric joined the meeting and was touching base on a number of projects. We chatted about gift cards, enterprise catalog or item catalog, and the inventory snapshot project. Small sales meeting. The guys were reporting on efforts and what not. Lots of follow-ups and different communications. We have the best price for the value. Talking about bigger demos and updates. There are lots of little shops out there that need our help.

Shari O. asking questions about a client setup. Steve was showing some stuff from the Herbo proposals. Light research on using Google Meet (online meetings). We currently use GoToMeeting, just looking around.

Steve and I touching base on things. Meeting with Bryan. Merged in 10 new files for elements of time. The new code came from Chuck. John helped us push it up to data 0 for testing. Looking over Bryan's progress on his migration of the custom Beaver Mountain horizontal time view to a more generic and public accessible horizontal time view page. Bryan is also working on pulling across the add additional user/payee assignments page. Once again, custom code that only Beaver Mountain had access to and now we are reverse merging in that new code so that other clients could use that type of functionality.

Meeting with Cory to go over projects. We talked about the pick ticket stuff with elements of time. Checking on different errors. Auto emails for PDF attachments for invoices. Going over new date-pickers. Reviewing other projects. Talking about transitional invoices and reserving inventory. Mini conversion and laying claims on certain inventory items. Deep production and manufacturing type stuff.

We also got into talks about backorders, cross-corp invoice to PO stuff, and some new sub barcode requirements and settings. After that, John and I spent some time and talked about Adobe XD files and documentation for certain projects. We also talked about some Docker (server) stuff.

Bunch of random stuff. Emails, phone call with Shari O., new systems and setup options, more emails, and trying to setup and work on my local system. 

From our meeting this morning - sales technique - is there anything that I haven't shown you that we are missing? Open it up and let them respond.

The guys were going over SG&A (selling, general and administrative expenses) options based on batches. Steve is willing to help with some API integration stuff for certain 3rd party solutions. We also talked about the need for flex grid tie-ins and being able to use those as a pass through in the internal cart or shopping cart. We need to be able to pass customer, invoice, time, and part number (items) information through the cart flex grid options. This doesn't exist yet.

Danny was talking about stock/units and using VIN (serial number) look-up tools and outside services to help verify user inputs. John was reporting on some new changes for the bank homepage. Light talk on layout options and using tabs, cards, and responsive web layouts. Small date format bug fix. Talking more about the flex grid pass through in the cart.

The further we go, the more settings play into the mix. We tend to build generic tools and then reuse those tools over and over again. Custom stuff for individual companies may be required, but we will try to use settings and permissions where possible. Try to make everything as data driven as possible.

Installing new software and tools from Calvin. Phone call with Eric to go over inventory snapshot project and how to get certain info back out of the system. I spent some time being stuck on a database problem.

Quick server meeting and then leading into a work session with Wayne, John, and I to get my local environment all setup and working smoothly. First off, we checked on a number of different branches. They (Wayne and John) flopped the data 0 box (quick reboot) and then we started working on my local machine. I was downloading Microsoft Office, working with Wayne on VPN's, FTP settings, Git stuff, installing Docker, and setup of my local environment. Huge work session. Lots of good back and forth while we were bringing Docker up, down, and testing settings. I took a few notes during the process. Multi-hour tech session.

Steve and Sean were talking about sales stuff and where they are heading and going. Danny jumped in and they were all talking about personalities and outcomes. Fun conversations. Adilas is such a great tool, you can watch everything... we want to keep using that! That's what we want our clients to say. Giving our clients the knowledge to help make the decisions that they need to make.

The guys were talking about maybe hiring a new salesman and doing a 60-day trial period. Just trying to get some ideas. We also talked about education and the big need for structured learning within the system and about the system.

Switched to working with Wayne and John. Got a temp file from Wayne and a dump of his local database. As we were downloading and installing things, I was asking them where we stand and what are their goals? Wayne said - I think that our goal is clustered servers on both the database and code side of things. Small talks about load balancing and not overloading our servers. We also talked about back-ups and storing all external files and images in a different way (maybe the content server or something like that). Basically, getting rid of the local file storage so that the clustering would work better for the different servers and clusters.

Wayne would also like us to switch over to Lucee. That would cut the hosting costs on a monthly basis with a big overall savings year over year. We briefly touched base on the datasource or world building project (getting each corporation on its own database). The other goal that Wayne was talking about was tracking usage based on each corporation's load and data traffic usage (bandwidth and storage). Once we have those pieces in place, be able to bill accordingly.

After that, we switched back over to my local development environment. The way that they have it setup, both Wayne and John, the local environment closely simulates the live or production environments and servers. Trying to make things be more consistent for both test and live environments. Ideally, once we get it a little bit further, some of our automated tests will make sure that things are flowing and behaving consistently. That lead us to a whole other conversation about testing and having a whole test suite. Both unit tests and migration tests.

Lastly, Wayne was helping me install Sublime Text libraries and custom packages. We also went over creating new code snippets to help me code quicker. I had tons of those on my old box, and in my old editor, got to get it all setup again on the new laptop. 

Date-picker files with Bryan. Fixing FTP and merging in code. Looking at the horizontal time view project and harvesting code. Helping Bryan push things up live based on Bryan's files and new changes. Pushed up some new code using my new laptop. I've been kind of grounded, because I didn't have everything all setup due to my hard drive crashing. Everything is getting better and I'm getting used to the new stuff.

All kinds of random stuff. Emails, local computer setup, installing Calvin's tools, Microsoft Office, printer drivers, scanner software, entering expense/receipts, antivirus stuff, and a phone call with Dusin. All over the place.

Sales meeting. Finding pain points and then addressing those pain points. Everybody was touching base and sharing stories. I did a demo on elements to time and how it works with the new pages and new horizontal time view. At one point, only Beaver Mountain Ski School had a horizontal time view page. We revamped some of that custom code and made it more global and available for everyone.

One of the guys had the idea of showing schools and being able to show multiple people at a single time. Dealing with training and education and even demos. Getting more people to see and understand things at once vs the one-on-one game we are playing right now. We spent some time going over MVP's and what is needed. MVP's could be - minimal viable product, plan, person, etc. We all need the continuous win to help us along the way. Little wins and success go a long way.

Working with John on bank transfers. Pushed up some files for Dustin. Then back on the code review stuff with John. Looking over the bank homepage changes. Pushed up the new pages for John. Yeah!

Work session with Bryan. We spent some time on the date-pickers and AJAX helper pages. Doing some debugging. We were also looking at other links and navigation to help with the horizontal time view pages. Trying to make it smoother and flow from page to page better. Small back and forth work session. Faking it along the way. We pushed up some new changes.

Quick phone call with Steve going over sales and possible strategies. It's really hard sometimes.

Three different sessions. Working on the custom data export tool for a client. Building out the web app page for the tool. Most of the logic is done, just working on the web interface and output display. Running the page live, pushing up new code and committing the changes.