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Inventory to Cloud

K

Kaz

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It is great that the recipe cloud feature is up and running, many times I have been at work and thought about picking up some ingredients for a recipe but haven't been able to access it.  This may have been brought up before, but would it be possible to upload the inventory to the cloud as well.  I know this could create some confusion as to keeping the inventory up to date, but it would be helpful to know what I have in my stock from a remote location as well.  Maybe allow the inventory to be uploaded and tagged with an upload date so that when viewing it from the cloud you would know how long ago it was updated?  Sorry if this has been brought up before. 
 
I third this.

Not just for inventory, but everything.  I want my beersmith at work and beersmith at home to be exactly the same.

I haven't figured it out yet (it's not in bitterness options) but my IBUs for a specific recipes are different from here and at home. Opening the same exact recipe and doing nothing different, the IBUs are not matching- everything else is, though.
 
Thanks,
  I'm looking seriously at doing this - need to get finished up on my mobile app first, but this is high on my list. 

  I may try running this for paid members first to see what the storage/transaction requirements are.  It might be storage/bandwidth intensive to store everyone's inventory and keep it synched, but I won't know until I try it out for a bit.

  We're at 13,000+ recipes online already in < 3 months, so I'm trying to manage growth as well as performance/optimization of the platform to keep the service scalable as we could easily reach over 50,000 beer recipes within the first year.

Brad
 
I'd like the Inventory in the cloud feature as well, and an expansion to it that would be a sweet premium feature would be being able to search recipes I can brew with supplies I have on hand, or minimal purchases. Possibly sorted list by recipe rating and maybe a simple way to expand the view of the search results and show which ingredients you have and which you need. I realize it would be a complicated programming task and server intensive to do this, but also a great way to show off the power of the cloud based extension to Beersmith!
 
If storage/bandwidth is too much of an issue at this time, having the option to change what directory beersmith looks in for inventory and config files. We then could use a third party tool like Dropbox and place beersmith data files inside and point the program to look there for the files. Dropbox or any of the cloud sync programs would then take care of the storing and syncing of the files. Not sure if there would be a lock issue where if you forgot to close the program on one PC.

Just thought I would throw the idea out there
 
Brad, thanks for what you've done so far.  I have been able to take the 'cloud' to the store on a regular basis, but it would sure be handy if I had my inventory handy for hop purchases. 

BTW, shout out to the crew at the Home  Brewery in Ozark, Mo.  Right up the street, they know their business and very personable.  Todd and Sheri are great people (and the numerous staff are too!)
 
Hi,

Just like the rest of the forum members have posted in this topic, this is my most prioritized development.

I am running beersmith on my laptop and on my stationary computer and the inconsistency between the inventory on the laptop contra the stationary are really causing me issues.

Do you have any timeplan for this implementation?

I also request having the profiles to be synced via the cloud.

So, all together, sync the inventory and the profiles(mash, ferm, carb and eq)

If you are worried about the bandwidth, decrease the interval of the sync?

Best regards,
Peter
 
If bandwidth is an issue, and you don't want to get into the business of developing and selling cloud services, I would suggest integrating with Dropbox natively.

On my PC I was able to move my entire database to Dropbox and then force BS to go there using a 'symlink.' This enabled me to install BS on my office computer and do the same thing. This way two separate installations are referencing the same database. I imagine this would be problematic if I had several computers referencing it simultaneously, but I am either in one place or the other. And any changes I make are mirrored on the other computer. I am pretty sure there is a Mac version of the same command but I don't use one so I don't know the specifics.

It doesn't help with the mobile app version unfortunately, as I can't trick it into looking at a different database location in my Dropbox.

If you want to do it on a PC, first close Beersmith. Then open the "My Documents" folder. Move, don't copy, the "BeerSmith2" folder to your Dropbox. Open a command line and type mklink /J "%UserProfile%\My Documents\BeerSmith2" "path to Dropbox\BeerSmith2". Obviously, replace the phrase 'path to Dropbox' with the actual path to your Dropbox. If it worked you will get a message saying the junction was created. When you open BS, nothing should be amiss, but it will now be reading and writing from the new location.
 
Or just make a webpage interface to Beersmith. Most devices can handle webpages.

The inventory file could have a last edited property, and also EACH inventory item could store a last changed date. That way only items changed since last inventory update get uploaded. This will also allow sanity checks in case you alter the server-side inventory manually in between local software updates.


Also if possible, you could track each logged in users bandwidth usage? If so, you could allow 'x' amount of bandwidth. Perhaps even crediting additional bandwidth to a user with advertiser clicks and purchases. So lets say I plan on buying stuff through Amazon, I click-though the ads on your site, you get kickback from Amazon and my bandwidth allowance goes up.
 
Having it on the BeerSmith storage (Cloud is such a buzzword and misleading  ;D) would be great for ease of use and all.  There are times I'm driving by my LHBS and think "oh while I'm going by, I should stop and grab XXX for this batch... shoot do I have everything else I need?" but if it turns out to not be feasible I'm cool with that. 

However at the very least, I would be happy with even a simple import/export or the ability to share/save the BS files over a network. 
 
This thread looks like it has died.

The need to get inventory information from desktop to mobile is still there.  I would love it if I could just pull up my shopping list on my phone when I'm at the LHBS taking into account what ingredients I already have at home.
 
Baldhead Brewer said:
If bandwidth is an issue, and you don't want to get into the business of developing and selling cloud services, I would suggest integrating with Dropbox natively.

On my PC I was able to move my entire database to Dropbox and then force BS to go there using a 'symlink.' This enabled me to install BS on my office computer and do the same thing. This way two separate installations are referencing the same database. I imagine this would be problematic if I had several computers referencing it simultaneously, but I am either in one place or the other. And any changes I make are mirrored on the other computer. I am pretty sure there is a Mac version of the same command but I don't use one so I don't know the specifics.

It doesn't help with the mobile app version unfortunately, as I can't trick it into looking at a different database location in my Dropbox.

So, if I currently have my default location of recipes in my drop box to use between two computers how would making this change affect that or would it?

If you want to do it on a PC, first close Beersmith. Then open the "My Documents" folder. Move, don't copy, the "BeerSmith2" folder to your Dropbox. Open a command line and type mklink /J "%UserProfile%\My Documents\BeerSmith2" "path to Dropbox\BeerSmith2". Obviously, replace the phrase 'path to Dropbox' with the actual path to your Dropbox. If it worked you will get a message saying the junction was created. When you open BS, nothing should be amiss, but it will now be reading and writing from the new location.
Click to expand...

So, if I am currently using dropbox for a common recipe reference point between two computers how would this change affect that? Or would it?
 
I want to take inventory on my phone while I am looking at the stuff I'm counting (or weighing). Then see the inventory on my desktop.
Being able to see the inventory on my phone at the lhbs is good too.
Sorting recipes by best match to inventory would be another nice addition - even in only to the desktop version.
 
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