EPIC BPAL Spreadsheet Thread

[miamaslegi]

I'm still itching for a BPAL iPhone/iPad/Android app That said, I wouldn't even know where to begin coding one.

 

Well, it's not a BPAL-specific app, but I really like the Android app Memento. I think it's geared toward keeping track of collections and household inventory. I have it on my phone and I've got about a third of my bottles in it so far. I don't know the first thing about databases, but I've managed to wangle it around so that I have the info pertinent to me (name, collection, when I got it, the notes it contains, if I've tested it, if I think my manthing would let me put it on him, short testing notes, etc., etc.). I like that I can sort the lists any way I like and I can search for anything in the records - all Weenies, all scents including vetiver, all scents I rated with 3 stars, all scents I haven't tested, etc. You can apparently sync your databases with google docs, but I don't know anything about all that. It's really a great little app overall and I'm glad I found it! I thought I posted about it here, but I guess it was in another thread.

[Jenesis]

nervous energy this morning - finished updating the Lupers BPTP update, and added the new Alice and Emerald City (and Lunacy) - think it's up to date.

 

(as ever, ignore the color coding, and column A, that's all personal notation)

 

Izile's BPAL Spreadsheet

 

Holy crap. This is AMAZING

Thank you!!

[izile]

Also... I had a sick day.. so I think I've caught up with updates through D*Con...

 

if anyone notices me missing anything, please let me know.

[izile]

Just updating to say I've updated the list, with NYCC and 'Weenies, and lunacy (BPAL and BPTP)

 

EDIT: OK, didn't know anyone was actually still using this but me, so I made a clean/blank copy without all my codes and colors stuck everywhere.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aph0q1dUpDf4dEk4N0pwMGx2Y0d1UjB5M3ZySEJHT1E&usp=sharing

 

 

Edit: 10/29 - because I just realized I had missed the Pandora scents, and the Bat's day Atmo sprays. Now added to above link.

Edited October 30, 2014 by izile

[Minh Scent]

Wow, Izile, this is amazing! Thank you so much for your generosity sharing this.

[izile]

Wow, Izile, this is amazing! Thank you so much for your generosity sharing this.

 

no worries, and you just reminded me I needed to transfer the Ligeia scents I put in my own color-coded list over on the blank list... whoopsie! Got to remember that!

[Myria Jean]

Well, it's not a BPAL-specific app, but I really like the Android app Memento. I think it's geared toward keeping track of collections and household inventory. I have it on my phone and I've got about a third of my bottles in it so far. I don't know the first thing about databases, but I've managed to wangle it around so that I have the info pertinent to me (name, collection, when I got it, the notes it contains, if I've tested it, if I think my manthing would let me put it on him, short testing notes, etc., etc.). I like that I can sort the lists any way I like and I can search for anything in the records - all Weenies, all scents including vetiver, all scents I rated with 3 stars, all scents I haven't tested, etc. You can apparently sync your databases with google docs, but I don't know anything about all that. It's really a great little app overall and I'm glad I found it! I thought I posted about it here, but I guess it was in another thread.

WOW. This looks great. I downloaded this and am going to get it set up to be useful.

[sprout]

nervous energy this morning - finished updating the Lupers BPTP update, and added the new Alice and Emerald City (and Lunacy) - think it's up to date.

 

(as ever, ignore the color coding, and column A, that's all personal notation)

 

Izile's BPAL Spreadsheet

Thank you for the scent list with descriptions and categories. As a person who has been out of the game for a while and lost a substantial portion of products (long story), this will help me with slowly rebuilding the lost precious. Thank you very, very much. Your attention to detail is helpful and impressive in the extreme.

[Auspicious Q]

Izile, that spreadsheet is a true thing of beauty. Thank you for sharing with us newbs.

[izile]

And should be updated through new lunacy and yules! (had time while forum was down).

 

as always, notice something slipped by? Please let me know!

[Kristin Annis]

This is amazing - thank you!!

[maewitch]

I was really intrigued by the Memento app, but as I don't have an Android I went looking for something similar in the iTunes store and found MyStuff2. It's a home inventory/collection app, and really customizable. It needs a little fiddling, but I'm digging it so far. (The Lite version is free but only holds 15 items, enough to test out whether you like it, otherwise it's 4.99$.)

 

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/mystuff2-lite-home-inventory/id354737165?mt=8

 

This is a series of screenshots of my phone going through the main page with categories, the scents within the category, and then the individual scent page.

 

 

EDIT: I'm really enjoying this app! I forked over the 5$ after playing around with it. I love how it can be customized - because it's an inventory tracker, you can easily edit/add actions like swapped or sold, it's searchable, and sortable by a variety of options (including year, for example, if you add that as an attribute). You can even add pictures! Love, love, love!

[maewitch]

Double posting, but wanted to add this picture of the inventory tracking function, which is a great way of maintaining records of what you've sold/swapped, and with whom (you could an attribute in each action category for notes, so have a private feedback system for yourself regarding swappees).

 

 

[elbow]

Wow. I just read this entire thread, and it's quite the saga.

 

In the realm of Spreadsheets, the torch is passed from faithful updater to faithful updater; one falls, and another rises to take zir place.

 

Meanwhile, over in Database country, rumors of downloadable DBs fade with the advent of web-based options. Wikis appear and vanish again, while Perfoom.com blooms, only to be overshadowed by (the inexplicably previously unmentioned) ScentBase. Perhaps the most promising contender emerges from bpal.org itself... but these apps meet their tragic demise in the Great Crash of 2014.

 

Epic, right? And the saga continues; now there's mobile options, and who knows what next?

 

I adore this kind of data geekery. I've spent countless hours tinkering with my own BPAL spreadsheet. You people are my people. And I just wanted to say: you rock.

[Jeni Mullen]

I did take the base spreadsheet and I have since been keeping my own. I updated columns to check off what I have tried, what I own and in what form (bottle/imp), my own reviews links, and what notes clearly don't work for me. I just updated my own spreadsheet for the Yules. I will be expecting my order tomorrow.

[bheansidhe]

I have been using a spreadsheet since 2006. The only thing I've changed about my method in that time is storing it on Dropbox instead of one computer.

[Jeni Mullen]

This is why I love google docs. I can update it on my phone!

[miamaslegi]

Late this summer, right after I posted about Memento, I got my first tablet which came with, among other things, a free year of Evernote Premium. Since then, I've been keeping track of my orders, stash, testing, swaps and sales, and so on in it. I really like that I can keep everything up to date across all my devices, Android, iOS, and OSX. I have one notebook in Evernote for BPAL - I'm still working on getting the last bits of my stash and tests and orders from ages ago into it. I had been keeping a binder of handwritten notes and a binder of info on all my orders, swaps, and sales - I've been able to put those away. In my BPAL notebook, I just make sure to tag everything appropriately and simply (pending, decant circle, order, forum buy, swap, sale, test, stash, etc.). I was tagging everything in my stash and that I tested with all its notes, the collection, and so on, but realized that's just making things unnecessarily complicated since I can search all my notes for everything with vetiver or all the 2012 Lupers or everything I haven't tested yet.

I'm not a person with all sorts of contacts and job and social things to keep track of (I'm an introverted homebody and, for all intents and purposes, a housewife), but I am the sort of person who keeps a personal journal and a reading log and a book of memorable quotations and notebooks of reading notes and a recipe notebook and a weather log and a crafting journal and lists of games beaten and movies watched and notes on the cats' and dogs' checkups and notebooks upon notebooks of random jottings, reminders, lists, and whatnot. Evernote has enabled me to keep track of all of that and pack my shelves of notebooks and journals up - though I'll never give up my handwritten personal journal! I have resisted doing something like this for a while because I love to write by hand and I'm a bit of a luddite, but while it is quicker to pick up a piece of paper and jot down a shopping list than to put it into Evernote (for me!), it's easier to keep track of my phone or iPod than a dozen little scraps of paper that eventually end up in the trash.

Ooops, sorry for the digression! To get back to the point, I'm really liking using Evernote to keep track of all things BPAL-related (and everything-else-related!) since I can format things any way I like, I can add pictures and links, clip relevant webpages, and even dictate my testing notes, and I can keep everything up-to-date across all my devices. It took a while playing with Evernote to get the hang of it and see what I could do with it, but now I am using it for more than I ever imagined!

[izile]

better late than never - just got done adding both BPAL and BPTP lupers and lunacy. Someone remind me not to miss the Fri 13th ;-P

[RubyV]

Hey Izile, is the spreadsheet in your soggy the most recent?

[CiaoBonefish]

Hey Izile, is the spreadsheet in your soggy the most recent?

It looks to be the most recent, just without the latest Plague update! It's really a fantastic spreadsheet! I'm currently using it to compile a separate spreadsheet that is a little more organized for myself with separated tabs for Yules, Lupers, Weenies, Retail Exclusive and Event Exclusive, GC, GC Unimpable, etc. It's taking a while, but once I'm finished it is going to be so great to actually be able to see everything in neat categories

[izile]

Plagues are updated, as are last Lunacy Poll results - sometimes I'm just a bit slow behind updates.

[Deliciousness]

Plagues are updated, as are last Lunacy Poll results - sometimes I'm just a bit slow behind updates.

 

Thank you so much!

[RubyV]

Plagues are updated, as are last Lunacy Poll results - sometimes I'm just a bit slow behind updates.

[Soupy Twist]

oh thank the gods I'm not the only one who keeps extensive, searchable records of sampling scents. I keep mine in a very basic FileMaker Pro database. I like spreadsheets for organizing, but I can't always fit everything I want to say into a single cell. I am impressed by the ones I've seen here!