Online cigar database - Feedback needed

[forrest]

Well, I'm just about finished with the online cigar database that I've been working on. It's written in Ruby, using the Rails framework. I could go into a discussion of its features, but I'd rather let screenshots do the talking for me.
Login:


The Home screen, featuring your list of humidors:


Click on "Examine" to view and edit your humidor. You can arrange your cigars alphabetically or by date.


You can also create Wish Lists, which are handled as a type of humidor. As long as your humidor is set to publicly viewable, you can share it with friends using the Show link on the Home screen.


What would an online humidor be without administrative features?

(Passwords are stored using a one-way hash, not in cleartext, but it's still not a good idea to plaster them all over the internet)

The Examine and Admin List screenshots were edited to make them fit on the screen better.

What sort of features would you like to see? I'm working on a pre-determined list of cigars to choose from as well as a review system. I probably won't be adding image functionality, because that would require lots more storage and bandwidth than I'm likely to get ahold of. Editing humidors and cigars are, of course, already built in.

A quick FAQ:
* When can I use it?
Not until I get a host that supports Ruby on Rails. I don't particularly want to pay for a host, so this will probably be the hardest part.
* What can I do to help?
Tell me what you'd like to see in something like this. What would make you want to use this service? Also, this can't go online without a Rails-capable webhost, so if you have hosting that you don't need, I can certainly put it to good use.
* How do I know it's secure?
Well, you don't. But I used to work doing Ruby programming for the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security at Purdue University, so I do know what I'm doing when it comes to secure programming. I'm not perfect, of course, but I do have experience in this field. In any case, if it does become a pay service, I'll most likely use ****** for payment, so I'll never see or touch any credit card information. That's a hornets' nest that I don't want to touch with a ten-foot pole.

Now, I have a few questions for you:
I haven't decided if this will be free or if it will be a pay service. How much would you be willing to pay monthly, yearly, or one-time to use this? What other features would you like?

Of course, if this does turn into a pay service, everyone who has a Club Stogie registration date of tomorrow or before will get in for free. I'm putting a cutoff on the registration date to keep people from registering just to get access; if they post regularly, I can't see myself taking money from a fellow S/BOTL regardless of when they joined.

If there are any other bits that you'd like to see screenshots of, let me know and I'll post 'em.

[Mindflux]

Pretty sweet stuff! I've been thinking about something like that myself..

P.S if you want an inexpensive ROR host, check out asmallorange.com. I used them until I outgrew them and they were fantastic.

[Sawyer]

Looks really nice.

As long as I don't have to pay, I don't care what you charge. I am not sure it is something I would use if there was a fee though.

[Irons]

Looks like a great idea. My host doesn't support RoR's, else I'd give you some of my space.

A little searching shows $7.95 that includes a domain name.
http://www.bluehost.com/tell_me_more.html

[Razorhog]

Wow!! This looks awesome! I have been looking for something like this because there just isn't anything out there for Mac OS X. I'll read this post in more detail and try to provide some feedback when I have time.
Awesome!

[forrest]

Originally Posted by Razorhog

Wow!! This looks awesome! I have been looking for something like this because there just isn't anything out there for Mac OS X. I'll read this post in more detail and try to provide some feedback when I have time.
Awesome!

Haha, the lack of a humidor program for OSX and the annoyance of messing around with HTML on my Googlepages page are precisely what gave me the idea to make this Looking forward to your feedback when you get a chance, thanks!

Originally Posted by Irons

Looks like a great idea. My host doesn't support RoR's, else I'd give you some of my space.

A little searching shows $7.95 that includes a domain name.
http://www.bluehost.com/tell_me_more.html

Thanks for the thought anyway! I'll look into BlueHost if I can't manage to find a free host. Hey, maybe UCI allows RoR...that'd be perfect.

Originally Posted by R877

I am not sure it is something I would use if there was a fee though.

Alrighty. Thanks for the input!

[[OT] Loki]

make it accessable via cell phone/blackberry/ipone

[Ron1YY]

Do you have a beta site up? I'd be willing to run it through the mill. I will call my hosting service this weekend and let you know if it supports RnR and see if I can set aside some space for you.

Ron

[Cadilon]

I think this look great. Its the kind of database I've really wanted too. I've played around with building my own in Filemaker, but its just too much work for me at the moment to "do it right".

From what I've seen from your screenshots, I'd probably pay $2 a month or $20 up front to use this.

[forrest]

Originally Posted by [OT] Loki

make it accessable via cell phone/blackberry/ipone

Great idea! Once it's live, I'll do my best to make sure that it's accessible from as many devices as possible. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Ron1YY

Do you have a beta site up? I'd be willing to run it through the mill. I will call my hosting service this weekend and let you know if it supports RnR and see if I can set aside some space for you.

Ron

I don't, sorry. Everything's still running off my local machine. Thanks for looking into the hosting, I really appreciate it!

Originally Posted by Cadilon

I think this look great. Its the kind of database I've really wanted too. I've played around with building my own in Filemaker, but its just too much work for me at the moment to "do it right".

From what I've seen from your screenshots, I'd probably pay $2 a month or $20 up front to use this.

Well thanks! Also, thanks for your thoughts re: pricing. Much appreciated!

[nozero]

Nice concept, best wishes with it!

[sonick]

what's the db end running ? MySQL ? BDB ? or is RoR the db itself with it's own format ? As you can see I'm Ruby deficient. No reason, just curiosity....

[GeneralDisorder]

That would be easy to do with (my)SQL and some PHP - I've done similar databases for point-of-sale systems. I should write one for those of us that have an extra old computer around - Linux and MySQL makes a great free combo for simple text databasing using an old Pentuim box. Could flex my PHP and maybe even some XML and XSLT - haven't used those in a while.

Rick

[orangehorse]

Originally Posted by forrest

Well, I'm just about finished with the online cigar database that I've been working on. It's written in Ruby, using the Rails framework. I could go into a discussion of its features, but I'd rather let screenshots do the talking for me.
Login:


The Home screen, featuring your list of humidors:


Click on "Examine" to view and edit your humidor. You can arrange your cigars alphabetically or by date.


You can also create Wish Lists, which are handled as a type of humidor. As long as your humidor is set to publicly viewable, you can share it with friends using the Show link on the Home screen.


What would an online humidor be without administrative features?

(Passwords are stored using a one-way hash, not in cleartext, but it's still not a good idea to plaster them all over the internet)

The Examine and Admin List screenshots were edited to make them fit on the screen better.

What sort of features would you like to see? I'm working on a pre-determined list of cigars to choose from as well as a review system. I probably won't be adding image functionality, because that would require lots more storage and bandwidth than I'm likely to get ahold of. Editing humidors and cigars are, of course, already built in.

A quick FAQ:
* When can I use it?
Not until I get a host that supports Ruby on Rails. I don't particularly want to pay for a host, so this will probably be the hardest part.
* What can I do to help?
Tell me what you'd like to see in something like this. What would make you want to use this service? Also, this can't go online without a Rails-capable webhost, so if you have hosting that you don't need, I can certainly put it to good use.
* How do I know it's secure?
Well, you don't. But I used to work doing Ruby programming for the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security at Purdue University, so I do know what I'm doing when it comes to secure programming. I'm not perfect, of course, but I do have experience in this field. In any case, if it does become a pay service, I'll most likely use ****** for payment, so I'll never see or touch any credit card information. That's a hornets' nest that I don't want to touch with a ten-foot pole.

Now, I have a few questions for you:
I haven't decided if this will be free or if it will be a pay service. How much would you be willing to pay monthly, yearly, or one-time to use this? What other features would you like?

Of course, if this does turn into a pay service, everyone who has a Club Stogie registration date of tomorrow or before will get in for free. I'm putting a cutoff on the registration date to keep people from registering just to get access; if they post regularly, I can't see myself taking money from a fellow S/BOTL regardless of when they joined.

If there are any other bits that you'd like to see screenshots of, let me know and I'll post 'em.

I have a BlueHost account that has some room on it. PM me if you are interested, I do believe that they allow RoR -- although I haven't used it.