There are some changes that I am looking to impliment for the mileage database and thought I'd get some input before I did anything drastic.

Currently, the list of individual cars is a bit too enjoyment-oriented and is hard to actually digest. I plan to split up the database into 3 sections:

Aggregate Statistics
Individual Car Statistics (current main page)
Records

Aggregate statistics includes graphs & charts for each of the vehicles. The database would also allow for input of tanks even if only the mileage and distance is known. Those who don't know the amoutn of traffic, etc. from 9 months ago should still be able to enter their information. This aggregate page mainly deals with overall mileage for the cars as well as gas per tank, etc.

The car stat page will remain mostly how it is right now, minus the graph at the top. It will probably be replaced with one similar to that on the Detailed pages with a line graph of the months and one line per car in a Mileage vs. Time graph.

Lastly, records would include highest lifetime mileage, highest tank mileage, and farthest on a tank as well as a section for Member of the Month.

What do you think?

 

Hi Jason:

___Just a small improvement possibly?

___If you can, sort the tanks on a month over month basis in their entirety. I believe Krousdb added his first ever tank and it appears as if it showed up in his April tank data possibly? I am not exactly sure this is the case but take a look for yourself for what I am speaking of. If you enter in an old tank for February, it should align itself with the February tanks, not the April tanks.

___Oh, and before you touch a single thing, back up the database on your home computer, a family members computer in another state, a friends computer on the other side of town, copy it onto a floppy, and burn a CD with it as well just in case

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

 

Hi,

I'm new to this forum, and just wanted to say that this
database really caught my attention! Great job!

As for modifications, well, I like how simple it is now, but
there are a few things I would like to see (as someone
who just joined the group and looking for quick info).

One thing is a column for "last updated" for each vehicle
showing the date that info was changed last. As this
database grows, I can see people not updating as time goes on.

Also, is there a way to show the year of the car on the
main page? I'd like to see if there are major differences
between the '03 and '04 and any other versions of each vehicle.

And as for sorting, can we sort the cars by % Highway driving?
And if we include the model years of the cars, maybe sort by
year?

Again, these are just suggestions, and I don't know how
difficult it is to change the pages.

jinno

 

Wayne,
I'm not really sure what you mean about the months. The graph indicates the month that you selected for that tank -- not the month you contributed it.

Jinno,
Welcome to the community! I may add a "last updated" column, but it's not too relevant because you can always just click on the Detailed page and see the date for the last tank. The year that it happened just isn't too important.

The car year is currently the ALT (hover over the image) attribute for the car pictures, but if I decide to expand the page horizontally, I may add this column. Also, I'll see about sorting by more than just the options available. I tried to remove anything nonessential from the main page because it simply won't fit horizontally right now.

 

Oh, and Wayne, I consistantly back up the database. I'm not one to take chances, and there are way too many instances when important data gets wiped out. Take echofans.net for example. In one split second, the entire website was gone.

 

Hi Jason:

___Just look at Krousdb’s “EMAXX’s” last tank for the monthly item issue … He is a very good Prius driver if you haven’t noticed He entered in his first ever (possibly?) February tank and it appears second to the top in his tank over tank list right now is all. The dBase should sort by month as it appears to us instead of last tank entered on top, the tank before that just underneath, and so on. Apparently, some must find their receipts or something and enter in older tank data so as to make it complete. When viewing the tank over tank, you have this outlier February fill mixed in with April for example. The problem might be with the sort however. As it warms up or cools off in a given month, the tank data may not be representative of tank after tank?

___The whole paragraph from above might sound a bit mixed up … I just need a little sleep is all

___Secondly, the dBase is beginning to get a bit ungainly at a glance. Maybe split the sections up so that you have HCH’s, Prius’ Insight’s, and non-Hybrid’s in their own little sections? The jumble is beginning to be tough to understand with a quick look down the list. Then again, if you separate them, it will be tough to see accomplishments of HCH’s, Prius’, Insight’s, etc. in comparison to one another?

___Jinno, that was a good idea. The last data entry date added to try and keep up with what was recently added inside of tank data is an excellent idea. I always wanted the year and maybe even transmissions added as well. See the “Rolla’s” Corolla LE w/ Auto as an example. The difference between the HCH w/ CVT or Stick cannot be seen either …

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

 

As far as sorting, you can do this with the form right above the table. Since I don't ask for dates or years, I can't perfectly sort in time, but you can sort by month manually.

I'm also planning to add specific cars to the main sort page so that you only see one at a time.