car maintenance/expense tracker
05-31-2003, 04:48 PM
#1
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car maintenance/expense tracker
To keep track of my car expenses, I've got a text file named expenses.txt that I open up every time I put down some money, and it's kind of a pain. Just sitting here I thought maybe I'd whip up something in php and make a database-backed website to keep track of not only expenses and dollar amounts, but maintenance, miles and dates. IE, keep track of your fuel filter replacement so you'll have an easier time remembering when to do it again. I'm lazy so if I had more people interested and perhaps more importantly, somewhere dependable and free to host it I'd be more likely to get on it and do it right. And of course, I'll need suggestions. I'll probably grab a pen and paper and make some diagrams and database maps this weekend if I feel zealous, or in my dead time at work this week.
Anyone?
Anyone?
05-31-2003, 06:18 PM
#3
I will provide a host site for you, if you want. Not only that, but if you are any good at database web apps, I would like to talk to you about doingsome work for my company's intranet site... interested?
Regards,
Regards,
05-31-2003, 06:54 PM
#4
Burning Brakes
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This is a great idea! I'll volunteer to do some alpha/beta testing.
I'm more interested in the maintenance activity record keeping (and planning) than the costs, but it sounds like we're talking about the same thing. I'd like to see what maintenance activities should be done at certain mileages and be able to enter data about what I did (date, mileage, task, cost, comments).
Since you're keeping track of costs, it would be necessary to provide a total cost. It may be interesting to also break costs out into those that were done at a shop and those where I did the work.
There are two kinds of info to indicate the mileage at when do do a task. One is the actual mileage and the other is the interval (e.g. every 10k miles). The actual mileage is what's most important to me, and as far as the interval is concerned, it is good info to know and I think providing that info as comments would suffice.
Since there will be many users, customization of certain tasks would be needed. In particular, it would be nice to be able to have a means to select the oil change interval. Some people may want to change every 3k miles, while others may want to change every 10k.
Some people (those who live where it gets cold and snowy, unlike us California beach folks!) probably would want a means to force tasks to be done at a certain date, e.g. prepping for winter mothballing or for springtime revival).
I'm more interested in the maintenance activity record keeping (and planning) than the costs, but it sounds like we're talking about the same thing. I'd like to see what maintenance activities should be done at certain mileages and be able to enter data about what I did (date, mileage, task, cost, comments).
Since you're keeping track of costs, it would be necessary to provide a total cost. It may be interesting to also break costs out into those that were done at a shop and those where I did the work.
There are two kinds of info to indicate the mileage at when do do a task. One is the actual mileage and the other is the interval (e.g. every 10k miles). The actual mileage is what's most important to me, and as far as the interval is concerned, it is good info to know and I think providing that info as comments would suffice.
Since there will be many users, customization of certain tasks would be needed. In particular, it would be nice to be able to have a means to select the oil change interval. Some people may want to change every 3k miles, while others may want to change every 10k.
Some people (those who live where it gets cold and snowy, unlike us California beach folks!) probably would want a means to force tasks to be done at a certain date, e.g. prepping for winter mothballing or for springtime revival).
05-31-2003, 07:05 PM
#5
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Here's how I document what's been done to my car: <a href="http://www.weissach.net/WP0AB294XMN410197-History.html" target="_blank">http://www.weissach.net/WP0AB294XMN410197-History.html</a>
Karl.
Karl.
05-31-2003, 08:48 PM
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Alright, interest. 
I've been in a design mood lately, and I think thats the best way to get started. I'll pull photoshop up tomorrow and map out some ideas and post them somewhere so you guys can take a look and tell me what you think. I'd ask for help, but I think I'd have a harder time coordinating and communicating ideas to people than just doing it myself.
OT time.. I'm an artist. I've always drawn, and painted, and cut out pieces of paper and so on. I started playing with html in notepad in about 1995 and made some of the ugliest web pages you've ever seen (ok, they weren't as bad as most out there now..). I swore of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors (Frontpage, GoLive!, Dreamweaver..) forever. Then I realized html was so easy that using notepad doesn't make you cool, and found out how awesome dreamweaver was, not only for making a web page, but for designing one.
After a couple years of designing great looking static web pages, I got tired of updating them by hand all the time and decided to learn some kind of cgi. I settled on php because I had a bunch of people who could help me with it, and after about 6 months I was pretty proficient and made a full fledged message board with a design I thought was beautiful for me and my friends called The New Rage. Then, I thought "I can do this a whole lot better," and did. Totally redesigned it. The New Rage died, but I saved the code. I started working on a third version, but never got anywhere. The thing was, when I'm coding, it's just like drawing or painting. It's a GREAT creative outlet. Solving problems and figuring out how to make things work.
Well, THAT came out of no where. I'll get to work tomorrow.
I've been in a design mood lately, and I think thats the best way to get started. I'll pull photoshop up tomorrow and map out some ideas and post them somewhere so you guys can take a look and tell me what you think. I'd ask for help, but I think I'd have a harder time coordinating and communicating ideas to people than just doing it myself. OT time.. I'm an artist. I've always drawn, and painted, and cut out pieces of paper and so on. I started playing with html in notepad in about 1995 and made some of the ugliest web pages you've ever seen (ok, they weren't as bad as most out there now..). I swore of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors (Frontpage, GoLive!, Dreamweaver..) forever. Then I realized html was so easy that using notepad doesn't make you cool, and found out how awesome dreamweaver was, not only for making a web page, but for designing one.
After a couple years of designing great looking static web pages, I got tired of updating them by hand all the time and decided to learn some kind of cgi. I settled on php because I had a bunch of people who could help me with it, and after about 6 months I was pretty proficient and made a full fledged message board with a design I thought was beautiful for me and my friends called The New Rage. Then, I thought "I can do this a whole lot better," and did. Totally redesigned it. The New Rage died, but I saved the code. I started working on a third version, but never got anywhere. The thing was, when I'm coding, it's just like drawing or painting. It's a GREAT creative outlet. Solving problems and figuring out how to make things work.
Well, THAT came out of no where. I'll get to work tomorrow.
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06-01-2003, 12:57 AM
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I draw things out the way my tables are going to look and put all the graphics that'll go on the page on it, then I'll open up Dreamweaver and actually do it. If I'm feeling inspired I can do the Photoshop version in a few hours. Hopefully I will.
06-01-2003, 01:30 AM
#9
Race Car
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Hey, i made an Excel chart to log all my stuff. I have been really busy and havent found time, but i want to make it even more thorough, with charts and reports to see certain data parts. (cost per month, etc...) Right now im just showing parts cost, quantity, labor costs, where done, mileage, date, and the formulas to various prices and totals. It works for me. I just need to make it even more detailed.
06-01-2003, 10:35 AM
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5th Gear
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Just to add my two pennies worth....
I'm a database developer and have already written a small tool for keeping track of my expenses. It is built in filemaker and will run on a Mac or Windows machine. I've enclosed some screen shots. If your interested I could be persuaded to put together a runtime for you guys. It's a labour of love so I won't charge (as long as things don't get to time consuming)If your interested let me know via email.
[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Gabriel Marrufo.GABRIEL\Desktop\cm1.jpg[/IMG]
The front page where you keep details of car. (you can keep records on more than one car)
[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Gabriel Marrufo.GABRIEL\Desktop\cm2.jpg[/IMG]
Record of work carried out with total cost (sorted in reverse chronological)
[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Gabriel Marrufo.GABRIEL\Desktop\cm3.jpg[/IMG]
Work detail page.
[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Gabriel Marrufo.GABRIEL\Desktop\cm4.jpg[/IMG]
Images page
I'm a database developer and have already written a small tool for keeping track of my expenses. It is built in filemaker and will run on a Mac or Windows machine. I've enclosed some screen shots. If your interested I could be persuaded to put together a runtime for you guys. It's a labour of love so I won't charge (as long as things don't get to time consuming)If your interested let me know via email.
[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Gabriel Marrufo.GABRIEL\Desktop\cm1.jpg[/IMG]
The front page where you keep details of car. (you can keep records on more than one car)
[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Gabriel Marrufo.GABRIEL\Desktop\cm2.jpg[/IMG]
Record of work carried out with total cost (sorted in reverse chronological)
[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Gabriel Marrufo.GABRIEL\Desktop\cm3.jpg[/IMG]
Work detail page.
[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Gabriel Marrufo.GABRIEL\Desktop\cm4.jpg[/IMG]
Images page
06-01-2003, 11:17 AM
#12
Race Car
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You cannot link from your hard drive. (i dont think...) If you are a Rennlist member you have over 20mb of space online. Go to member webs and register your space and just upload your pics there- or in the gallery.
06-02-2003, 01:16 AM
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Perfect. Soem.. family problems (combined with my inability to deal with them) slowed me down after about 10 minutes of work today, which could likely make the project go the way of every other project I had real intentions of finishing. Look for the thing to be online around 2007.