New scouting program in development

[aw3se4dr5]

I am developing a new scouting databasing program for my team. I have attached some screenshots of it. It is not very far yet, but I am proud of what I have created so far. What do you all think of the UI? I have shown some of the different themes applicable to the windows. If I can get permission from the team, I might be giving out previews of the program at IRI.

[MGoelz]

Is this a database that you will just keep adding to?
I'm trying to do something similar for my team, although I'm focusing more on making an application for our pocket pc's.
I think the UI looks great. And you're importing from the Blue Alliance? Now, that is pretty awesome.

[DiehardCybercard]

i really like what you are working on so far. that could can be a useful tool to every team out there, and i know my team would love to have something like that

[Nick Orlando]

I like it

I'm not sure of all the features I see, but maybe a picture database would be cool. When our team scouts we like to focus on statistics we see, so maybe a customizable spreadsheet from year to year that can be filled in for each team. Also a little side note pad would be good for each team, to take notes on how they score, if they play defense well, etc...

I know writing programs is difficult enough and then doing an aesthetic GUI just makes it that much better. Keep it up

[aw3se4dr5]

Thanks. It is encouraging to see the positive feedback.
More screenshots to come

[dqmot17]

Hey, um...i'd like to note that every competition i've been to, their has been little to now internet access...so anything you do has to be download before hand.....
is that what you are planning to do? because otherwise it looks great (i can see a rivalry in the future between your scouting program and ours. its would be healthy, look at AMD and Intel).

[Gary.C]

Wow, really good program and keep up the good work. Scouting is important and many teams are probably looking for the best app they can find. Also stated, you might want to think about add pictures from tba or cd media, and as dqmot17 said, you should probably make it so that everything is downloaded before hand. Keep up the good work.

[aw3se4dr5]

Yes. I would like to point out that one of the main reasons I wrote this program is so I could stay in the stands and be able to see the standings via the features of the program. It was also my intent to be able to download as much information from TBA as possible so that internet access is not required.

[Nibbles]

Lookin good! What are you using to store the data?

A few user interface suggestions, instead of two range boxes, have one text field and a label: "Enter a team number or an inclusive range (e.g. '39-498')". The state filter list could be kept (preferably out of the way, but I don't know what the 'all' and 'none' labels do), but add a text field to type abbreviations into, e.g. "CA AZ". In general avoid lists if a text box or a combination can be used, you can parse and validate the data as necessary.

[Trevor_Decker]

The program look useful, but Why don't you just use Excel; It would be easy to modify year to year, can handle pictures, can be filtered, and does not need a internet connection.

[Mike Soukup]

Originally Posted by Trevor_Decker

The program look useful, but Why don't you just use Excel; It would be easy to modify year to year, can handle pictures, can be filtered, and does not need a internet connection.

These are wise words.

For this season, I wanted the members of our team doing the pick list scouting to have more tools to make the job easier. In the past, we used a simple spreadsheet with two macros to make cutting & pasting rows easier. I wanted more: coloring, sorting, relating the pick list to the match schedule, aggregating match data, etc. I was toying with writing a DB with a fancy GUI, something that would have taken weeks. Then I realized that everything I wanted to do was possible in Excel with VBA macros. It's not perfect and I could make a better GUI on my own, but the time saved to get an application that is 95% what I want it to be is well worth it.

The lesson here, which is something that I try to drill into our programming students' heads, is to not always try to reinvent the wheel. If someone already wrote something that you can piggy-back off of, use it.

I'm not saying that Excel will work for you, but you should at least consider it. You can focus on the guts of your program instead of the overhead required to start from scratch.