phil wrote:There was something else (and similar) that came up on the Sweet Maria's list a while back, around about the time DrZeus, HughF & I had our original chats about the online roasting record (which should move forward this week). I'll look into that and see if it makes an interesting alternative.
Phil
Phil asked me for comments on the "Coffee Roasting Database" but I have been a bit distracted. Brief comments only : it's way quicker than doing something from scratch e.g. in Excel and a lot prettier. I really like it and intend to keep using it.
However, the user interface can be a bit confusing (read the "Basic Workflow" section on the linked homepage first :
http://improbablystructuredlayers.net/CoffeeRoastingDB/CRDBHome.htm). For example, qty left and remaining weight are used on different pages for the SAME quantity and you can only enter this from the Orders page so trying to enter it elsewhere means it just beeps at you etc. Once you get the hang of it, it is very good. To be fair, if you hit the Tab key to move through fields it will skip fields you can't change but colour-coding or a LOT better documentation would be more helpful.
The Roasting session page is meant for someone who has a PC right next to the roaster as you have to press a button to record a time (e.g. time of first crack) - if not you have to fake it by pressing that button after the roast when you get back to the PC and then adjust the time with up/down buttons, you can't just type in the time.
The real pity is that you need MS Access on your PC - you can distribute Access applications which don't need Access to run (I think) but it may need a more expensive licence to be bought by the developer to do this legally. I wouldn't buy Access just to run this (100 UKP or so) but since I have it anyway I'm really happy to ue this. It would be much better with more documentation though (unless I've missed finding this on his site).
HTH,
Hugh
P.S. The screenshots below cover my real store of green beans (and a faked roasting session just done to test that page). The initials after the coffee name are suppliers, SM = Sweet Marias, TL = Two Loons, MM = Monmouth. The JS 1234 entry is a dummy entry for the Jim Schulman 1234 blend. UPDATE : Smaller (single-window) images now used as asked.
Grinders : Macap MXK conical for espresso, Mahlkoenig Vario for Chemex, Macap MC6 (spare when our office was closed) for cafetiere, Zassenhaus Knee Mill for cafetiere when working away from home.
La Spaziale Vivaldi S1 espresso machine. HotTop KN8828P roaster. Chemex manual drip for most brewed coffee plus cafetieres and eSantos.