Cigar Register - free cigar management software

[peter_a]

Hi everybody,

I'm really happy to announce that we've released the first version of Cigar Register, a brand new cigar collection management software.

This is a spyware-free & spam-free independent Windows desktop software, designed for cigar collectors. You can find information on cigars, manage your humidors, cigar collection, shopping history, wishlist and store your smoking history with your reviews.

Since it's a non-commercial side project from cigar lovers to cigar lovers, everybody can download it for free at www.cigarregister.com !

Hope you'll enjoy! If you have any questions feel free to ask, I'm one of the developers.

[heftysmokes]

Any word on the early glitches?

[bigpoppapuff]

a friend of mine from here in bflo is trying it out...says it works fine...

[TheSilentChamber]

I'm downloading it now, I'll let yall know what I think of it. Looks like a quality program though from the screen shots. It might be usefull for me as I dont smoke very offen, but I buy cigars frequently (guess I should smoke more offen so I dont build up too big of a collection).

[TheSilentChamber]

I tried to install it about six times and got an error every time. Guess not all the glitches are fixed.

[TheSilentChamber]

Finally got it to install, something on one of the network drives was interfering with it some how. I kinda like it, definatly worth the free download. It might take a while to enter everything if you have an extensive collection, but it defiantly makes it easy to browse through what you have on hand, and what humidor its in. Would make compiling a list for a pass very easy as you can scroll though what you have. Lets you track your humidor humidity and temp, as well as lets you review cigars as you smoke them (althought I keep getting an "invalid number" error when I try to rate stuff, even though the numbers are from a drop down menu. Also lets you filter stuff by many differnt factors. Something fun to play with if you want to keep tabs on your collection.

[guado]

I keep getting "invalid number" whenever I try to add something to the humidor.

[Dru Lee Parsec]

I installed it on a Windows XP box with no problems. Added a humidor with no problem. Now, when I try to add a cigar to the humidor I get a "Invalid Number" error on the 2nd dialog box with no other explaination as to what I'm suppose to do.

So I have it installed but cannot add a cigar to my inventory.

[Dru Lee Parsec]

AHA! I didn't enter a size or ring guage in the first dialog box. So when I tried to click "Finish" in the 2nd dialog box I got the Invalid Number error.

I'm a retired computer programmer and former Manager of Software Quality Assurance so my impression is that the database should allow null entries in just about all columns. If I don't know the ring guage of a cigar I shouldn't be disallowed from entering a cigar. Also, the next button of the first dialog box should validate all the data in that box. If I didn't enter required data then I should be told as I hit the next button, not when I hit the Finish button in the next dialog box. Also, a more appropriate error message would be helpful.

I bet that the reason for the non-null database restraint is to allow more accurate searching. If I asked to see all my 7" cigars and I didn't enter a size for some of them then those cigars wouldn't show up. But I think that's ok to allow that to happen. I think it's more important to be able to search by brand, name, nationality of the wrapper, etc.

Also, I don't see a style attribute. It might be nice to be able to search for all my "Maduro" cigars. Or perhaps a size attribute that allows me to search for all my "Churchill" cigars.

Still, it's a decent piece of software that looks like it can be very useful. And since it's free we can't really complain about usability issues.

Since it's free software would you consider opening up the code as open source software? Then you could have other programmers helping out with this little issues.

But overall it's a great piece of software.

Now, just between us software guys. Did you just plug in a bunch of parameters into a .NET demo program to create this software? It kind of looks like the kind of program that application framework marketing folks like to show off as "Look at this, we just defined a bunch of parameters and build a template for our data display and the application framework built this cool app for us in no time!" I mean, there's a lot more work here than you typical demo program. But it does have a bit of that generic demo program look and feel to it.

But even if that's what the software is it doesn't mean that it's not usefull. Once I start collecting cigars in full force I'll probably use it.

Greg

[Dru Lee Parsec]

A couple of other comments. Once a cigar has been smoked and entered in the "Smoke Room" is it possible to edit that review? I clicked the finish button too soon and I have no ratings for that cigar.

Once a cigar from your collection is smoked in the "Smoke room" it's removed from your collection. That's good. That makes sense. But what if I then add the same cigars back into my humidor? It looks like I have to re-enter all the data again. It would be great to select a cigar that use to be in my collection like "Garo Habano Maduro Alto" and have all the size, wrapper, binder and filler information filled in automatically.

I noticed that you can do that with cigars from the database. But you can't do it with cigars that are not in the database. I created a new cigar for my collection called the "Big Bubba" cigar from Antartica. It's 2" long with a 87 ring guage. It's a real tuna can of a cigar. I see it in my humidor and while it's still in my collection I can change the number of cigars in a humidor or in my collection.

But once the last one of those cigars are smoked I have to re-enter all the data again. I think the easiest solution would be to add new cigars that I enter into the cigar database so I can pull it up later when I re-stock my collection.

Others have mentioned having a picture of the cigar, or at least the ring band. I think it would be nice if the user could add a picture to an existing database entry.

Boy, I feel like I'm back at work writing bug reports again Yeah, this brings back memories.

[Dru Lee Parsec]

OK, just one more (For now)

I've selected "inches" as the system of measurment in the options dialog box. But whenever a measurement is displayed in the "My Cigar" section such as on the Humidor tab or the lower pane of the Cigar tab the number is correct but the type of measurement defaults to mm.

It displays correctly in the Cigar database display. But not in the "My Cigars" display.

[ScoopKW]

Since this is non-commercial, why not open-source it and get it on the fast sourceforge.org servers?

Besides, if there's glitches, you can turn an army of cigar-chomping programmers on the project.


RE-EDIT -- Just installed the software. It's nice. It's not for me, but it's nice. (I have exactly five different types of cigars to keep track of. Pen and paper would be more convenient if I cared enough to keep such detailed notes about my collection.)

I think it would be nicer if people could:

1) Upload their reviews for perusal by the other users
2) Download pictures of the cigar band, or a close-up of the cigar in question
3) Use the "wishlist" function along with a "wish to get rid of" function to facilitate trades

[mauied1101]

Has anyone checked the software to see if it makes any attempts to access the internet or other suspicious activity? While it sounds great to me, I haven't downloaded it b/c 1) it seems too good to be true and 2) (without offense to peter_a) it's a first post from an unknown person in eastern europe - where a lot of bugs come from. Concerned I'd be downloading a trojan horse.

Thoughts from a techie on the board?

[drew_goring]

Has anyone checked the software to see if it makes any attempts to access the internet or other suspicious activity? While it sounds great to me, I haven't downloaded it b/c 1) it seems too good to be true and 2) (without offense to peter_a) it's a first post from an unknown person in eastern europe - where a lot of bugs come from. Concerned I'd be downloading a trojan horse.

Thoughts from a techie on the board?

I am pretty sure that it is legit.

http://www.cigarpass.com/forums/inde...opic=25053&hl=

edit: and I am dloading it now to give it a whirl

[mauied1101]

Thanks Drew - took a look at the entire thread - I think it's a great effort and it sounds good - I'm just gonna sit back until the software ages a little before I try it. Nothing against it - would like to see comments from folks after a bit of use.

[Dru Lee Parsec]

I'm just gonna sit back until the software ages a little before I try it. Nothing against it

I agree It's a great concept, but I don't think it's up to a 1.0 release. There are just too many little bugs and glitches in it (See my previous comments).

However, I don't want to make the developers feel bad about their product. I fully support writing and releasing free software (especially open source software, even though this isn't open source). But I think this software needs a few more weeks of tweaking to make it really usefull. And that's not really too bad, It just isn't ready for prime time.

By the way, does anyone have any idea where they got their data for the cigar database?

Thanks

[dHUTCH]

I agree It's a great concept, but I don't think it's up to a 1.0 release. There are just too many little bugs and glitches in it (See my previous comments).

However, I don't want to make the developers feel bad about their product. I fully support writing and releasing free software (especially open source software, even though this isn't open source). But I think this software needs a few more weeks of tweaking to make it really usefull. And that's not really too bad, It just isn't ready for prime time.

By the way, does anyone have any idea where they got their data for the cigar database?

Thanks

Ive only been getting one error and that's while looking at the cigar database.....hmmph and the cigar database is lacking a little............or atleast I think it is.

[Dru Lee Parsec]

Ive only been getting one error and that's while looking at the cigar database

Oh I'm finding all kinds of stuff. Click on the Wishlist node of the tree and you'd expect your wishlist to show up. Nothing happens.

Click on the collection history and then right click an item to delete it. The table doesn't refresh so it looks like you didn't delete anything.

Inches vs Millimeters works in some views and not others.

I was somehow able to add a blank to my wishlist. Now the count on my wish list says 2 but there's only 1 cigar in the list.

If I'm in the database view clicking on the tree has no effect at all.

Oh well. Just for fun I thought I'd see how much work a good cigar database program would be. I've already started writing one in Java (so it will work in Windows and Linux) using the free MySql database as the back end.

If I get it to look like something that could be useful then I'll go put it up on Sourceforge as an open source project. I havn't written code in a almost a year. Now that I'm retired from the computer software industry maybe I can write code for my own enjoyment again.

[stjohnroe]

Being active, I would be happy to perform code review / troubleshoot.

Chuck me a black box problem.

Oh I'm finding all kinds of stuff. Click on the Wishlist node of the tree and you'd expect your wishlist to show up. Nothing happens.

Click on the collection history and then right click an item to delete it. The table doesn't refresh so it looks like you didn't delete anything.

Inches vs Millimeters works in some views and not others.

I was somehow able to add a blank to my wishlist. Now the count on my wish list says 2 but there's only 1 cigar in the list.

If I'm in the database view clicking on the tree has no effect at all.

Oh well. Just for fun I thought I'd see how much work a good cigar database program would be. I've already started writing one in Java (so it will work in Windows and Linux) using the free MySql database as the back end.

If I get it to look like something that could be useful then I'll go put it up on Sourceforge as an open source project. I havn't written code in a almost a year. Now that I'm retired from the computer software industry maybe I can write code for my own enjoyment again.

[Dru Lee Parsec]

Does anyone have any idea where they got the data for their database? As incomplete as it may be it's still a great start.

I just wonder if it's in a text file somewhere that I can use to fill up my database.