Software to record car history

[Ruttager]

I'm a software and systems developer so I'm always looking for little tools to make life simpler. I'm new to the kit car scene picking up my 1997 seiw in march. It came with a huge binder of documents and receipts which is great but it's a pain to search through. 

 

Is there any software out there that will allow me to catalog the data and make it searchable? Essentially, photo each document and record what, when, where and how much was spent?  I'm tempted to knock something up if it doesn't exist allready.

 

. 

[NigelO]

Put the text and numerical entries into a spreadsheet, with external hyperlinks to a photo hosting site like Flickr (or even just internal links to your chosen photo storage folder)

you could scan documents and invoices too, storing them in the same place as the photos, then hyperlinking to them from the line in the spreadsheet 

[Ruttager]

I did consider this but then everything is separate. Photos need to be stored in the right place for the spreadsheet to find them and aren't shown inline. Delete a photo, loose the connection. I want it all in one place, if search burton I get all the records than mention Burton. I'm thinking of a sqlite database and a client front end. I'll do a bit more searching about and if I can't find something that's been done already I'll start writing one. Keep me busy on the commute. 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Sound like you need a document management system such as idox or good old Microsoft access.

[CraigHew]

you're over-thinking this. 

A simple tabulated document, spreadsheet or database with key data per item will suffice for searching quickly.  Plus a reference to the position in the physical file for reference.

Anything over that and you encounter upgrade / compatibility / lengevity issues.

[geoffd]

I'm a software developer too, so I can see the attraction of writing your own program.  Then you can make it do exactly what you want.  

If you just want to track costs, you might try using an accounts system - I think some of them have facilities to photograph or scan invoices.  Some have a free version.  If you wanted to extend the program to record events you attended, competitions, etc., that gets a bit more complicated.  Maybe a CMS could be adapted.  Again, some have a free edition.

it sounds like a fun project anyway, especially if you have commuting time to spare!

Geoff

[Quinten]

Why not keep a blog on this forum?  I've been doing it since I bought the car and it provides a nice insight for the next buyer (if I ever let this one go!) what has been done to it over the period of my ownership...

[MattV]

What about using an app with OCR?  I use OfficeLens on the iPhone and it can take a picture of a document and then upload it to somewhere like OneNote.

OneNote or EverNote have great tagging options which would allow you to search.  I think OneNote will also allow search of document text.

[Ruttager]

2 hours ago, geoffd said:

I'm a software developer too, so I can see the attraction of writing your own program.  Then you can make it do exactly what you want.  

If you just want to track costs, you might try using an accounts system - I think some of them have facilities to photograph or scan invoices.  Some have a free version.  If you wanted to extend the program to record events you attended, competitions, etc., that gets a bit more complicated.  Maybe a CMS could be adapted.  Again, some have a free edition.

it sounds like a fun project anyway, especially if you have commuting time to spare!

Geoff

Track costs would be a positive or, potentially,  negative side effect . Timeline of purchases would be quite interesting as well along with general statistics. The database would be simple to develop the hardest part would be the user interface. I might mess around and see what I can come up with on the train next week. I commute leicester to london 3 days a week so that will help with passing the time. I'm a .NET developer so WPF would be the choice as I need more experience. If I get it going with any kind of pace I'll upload it onto github.  I'll keep the requirements simply to recording every purchase and receipt then if I actually finish that I can extend it to cover trackdays, meets, and essentially anything else. 

[Ruttager]

2 hours ago, MattV said:

What about using an app with OCR?  I use OfficeLens on the iPhone and it can take a picture of a document and then upload it to somewhere like OneNote.

OneNote or EverNote have great tagging options which would allow you to search.  I think OneNote will also allow search of document text.

My experience of OCR is  that its still pretty flakey though massive improvements have been made. I tried to integrate it into some software last year. Its something that I will be looking into again at some point. 

[Dommo]

I've had the "wanting" to do that for ages, but when it came do designing it I opted to make it more generic and cover all household invoices and documents, with the cars being assets to track against. Because I'm always losing stuff, I also track what folder the hard copy is in, and where that folder is kept! I completed the data structures then got distracted and manually added a shed load of documents. Next task is adding the imaging part. I've got a strong background in document imaging, OCR and archiving so I will look to incorporate a function of OCR, but it will definitely be a gimmick in terms of value added vs time spent.

 

Sounds like I might have to tidy it up so you can have a poke around!

 

Just logged on to Visual Studio and found an abandoned project called Vehicle History Manager. Looks like it was a Universal Windows app - that will be why I got fed up and abandoned it then 

[Lyonspride]

Scan the documents into one big PDF file (with OCR so that it's not just saved as an image), and then just use the test search feature to find what you want.

OCR works well on most standard text fonts.

Honestly I don't try to sound offensive, but why does everything need to be so overly complex? A former employer wanted a backup system for 50 odd machines across a large factory, they had all sorts of quotes, ranging into the hundreds of thousands of £, in the end I dropped a batch file onto each machine telling it to copy data to the server twice per day and delete anything more than 30 days old.... Cost absolutely nothing, took me 5 minutes to write a .bat file.

[Dommo]

On ‎26‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 06:54, Ruttager said:

Is there any software out there that will allow me to catalog the data and make it searchable? Essentially, photo each document and record what, when, where and how much was spent?

 

. 

 

4 hours ago, Lyonspride said:

Honestly I don't try to sound offensive, but why does everything need to be so overly complex?

 

Because of all of those requirements, the PDF only met one of them, partially

 

*tongue in cheek, it's otherwise a valid point*

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

8 hours ago, Lyonspride said:

Scan the documents into one big PDF file (with OCR so that it's not just saved as an image), and then just use the test search feature to find what you want.

OCR works well on most standard text fonts.

Honestly I don't try to sound offensive, but why does everything need to be so overly complex? A former employer wanted a backup system for 50 odd machines across a large factory, they had all sorts of quotes, ranging into the hundreds of thousands of £, in the end I dropped a batch file onto each machine telling it to copy data to the server twice per day and delete anything more than 30 days old.... Cost absolutely nothing, took me 5 minutes to write a .bat file.

 

You are right to some extent, but don’t forget, it’s a hobby, and the collecting, analysing, archiving et al of info are all different elements of the same hobby. They don’t appeal to all, and that’s fine, just like some people love building the cars, but aren’t actually that bothered about driving them. No one aspect really, is any more or less valid than another, that’s the beauty of hobbies!

 

And let’s face it, when it comes time to sell, the beautifully archived, and presented, full set of records will have that particular group of owners suddenly looking very smug, as it turns into a great selling feature!

 

 

[corsechris]

I, with some help from a programmer friend, did something similar to this many moons ago for a historic archive of a car owners club newsletters.

 

scanned each issue into a PDF, OCRed the text into a text file, the application searched the text files for the chosen string then returned the PDF for viewing. As I wrote new issues for the newsletter it became easier of course as I just exported a text file directly for each new issues. The OCR of the oldest issues was pretty poor as the print quality was bad, but even so, it was surprisingly effective overall.

 

The program was done in C++ then compiled to a self contained executable to run on Windows. Should still have a copy lurking somewhere? The only club-specific thing was the embedded application icon and a bit of text.