Memento Functionality and Where to Start

[Matt Krzywonski]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping you guys can help me out with some information and a little direction on the project I'm working on. I'm trying to determine the feasibility of creating a custom CRM/Inventory/Order/Job Scheduling system with Memento. I have some previous experience with Memento but only to the point that I created a basic CRM and a few other databases. My main questions really are how complex is it to tie all of these individual systems together and specifically to the order/inventory component I want to see if QR scanning can be used to mark inventory in and out.

Truthfully, I don't know where to start with this or how to tie everything together to make it functional.

Please Help!!

[Bill Crews]

Not sure how to respond helpfully. "Tie all these individual systems together" and "QR scanning" are the primary issues, I gather?

Well, first, I'm an architect, whose specific Memento knowledge comes from my personal Memento use, which has not included some features. Developing the wiki helped me learn some basic info across all Memento, but I have not personally used QR/bar coding or scanning, attachment of photos or files to entries, or associated audio or video, for example. So, I'll let others discuss QR with you.

As for tying systems together, how can we talk? If you're familiar with large CRM, inventory, order management, and job scheduling systems, you probably are familiar with the Oracle RDBMS? If so, we could compare tying at least the databases of Memento systems together as compared to Oracle on large computers. In terms of app-level system integration, mobile platforms tend to work pretty differently from "desktop" and large computers, and Memento's app integration features are more robust in the mobile arena.

So, tell us what your experience is, so I know what "language" to speak or context to use, and also, let's get down to some specifics.

The general answer is that Memento is a lot like relational DBMSes like Oracle, Sybase, DB2, SQL Server, and other similar DBMSes. It is less in some areas and more in others. Linking starts with relational linking and is extended by many-to-many support, link attributes (new), and scripting of triggers, actions, and JavaScript fields. Script support includes system features, app integration features, HTTP features, etc. Basic Memento scripting helps to provide glue to stitch seams of systems together. The more esoteric features provide access to the Web and to mobile integration.

Beyond that, I need to understand where you see the integration challenges to be. Please help me out, so maybe I can help you out.

[Matt Krzywonski]

Hi Bill,

Thank you for your reply. Yes, using the QR code functionality and tying in some of the individual databases as well as a few other functionality issues is where I'm stuck. As for the extent of my knowledge I don't have much database knowledge beyond building the prior memento db's I spoke of and building a few db's on Microsoft access. I have a pretty decent understanding of the basics of how relational db's work based on my previous experience on Access and Memento but it's been a while and there are more than a few things I've forgotten.

To get more into the specific challenges that I see right now I'll give you a more detailed look at what type of functionality I'm after. I already have a Customer/Prospect/Lead database that ties into a basic CRM that tracks activities on each account but what I can't seem to figure out is how to get the "to do" portion of my tasks to populate on a calendar anywhere. I know Memento had a calendar view on my tablet version but I don't find that on desktop or phone versions. Either way, I would much prefer to update it to my google calendar and then by default it will update my outlook calendar. I'd also like to have this same functionality for a job scheduling calendar. 

As for structure, where I'm hitting the wall is with the Inventory/Order system I want. I can build the basic structure with product descriptions, count totals etc. and link them with the customer file but I want to be able to use the QR code function to scan a QR code, mark it as incoming/outgoing inventory and have my total inventory count adjust accordingly, and assign outgoing inventory to a work order or sales order.

The next major structural challenge for me is developing a job scheduling dbase. Our current system (paper calendar) blows and we need to modernize as fast as possible. Again, I can build the dbase structure and link to the order dbase just fine but I'm not sure how to integrate each installation on a schedule according to priority, job size, material lead time, and available labor. I need to be able to see these on a calendar to have a tangible overview of what's going on with each job. The end goal is for my installers to be able to pull the app up and update the job status each day and use a color coding system for each status, have a "daily job notes" section to record daily activity, and I'd also like to have a "job alerts" note section to be used for critical issues on site, ie, property damage, material shortages, owner issues, etc. and have some sort of notification pop up so that our admin staff will all be made aware immediately with a digital paper trail in place so it can be tracked from the time the issue comes up until it's resolved. The alert isn't critical as I can get around that via regular job notes but if possible I'd love to have it.

I think the biggest puzzle piece that I'm missing is the Javascript triggers etc., as I said, I can get the data linking mostly figured but getting the rest of the trigger functionality I want has me kind of stumped in terms of what's possible, and how to make it go.

Thanks again Bill!

[Matt Krzywonski]

P.S. Given my company owners penchant to be old school and want everything on paper I'd really love to figure out how to print table entries in a standardized form to be able and print for him until I can get him sold on the tech and its benefits.

On Friday, November 17, 2017 at 7:15:14 AM UTC-7, Bill Crews wrote:

[Bill Crews]

I'll answer this first, while I consider the answer to your longer question.

What I do, and I bet most folks do it, to, is use Excel/Sheets for report formatting. There are many approaches to doing that. One would be to create a report library that uses Link to Entry fields and JavaScript or Calculation fields to fetch values from your main data libraries. You can then sync that to your sheet and format your sheet. Using sync instead of export allows you to format the sheet once and continue to use that format over time, as the data changes.

[Bill Crews]

I believe the Calendar View (and maybe the Table View) are less frequently used views, and I don't know to what extent they are supported with the more recent features, like reminders on a DateTime field.

Once you are scripting, you could use the Http and/or Intent objects to do things like updating your Google calendar from Memento. I don't know many details, but you could read the Memento JavaScript Library, Triggers, Trigger Examples, Actions, and Tips:Using JavaScript in Memento wiki pages -- in particular, the Http and Intent objects in the Memento JavaScript Library page.

Again, I can't be much help with QR codes, but the inventory adjustment part, I can speak to. The latest release of the mobile edition that is coming out just now, release 4.4, has a new feature called Attributes of Linked Entries. Among other things, it can be used to implement the inventory update solution. In my spare time, I'm working on implementing this and plan to add it as examples to the wiki when I'm done. However, I don't have much spare time, so that might take something like a week. You're welcome to try it yourself in the meantime, if you wish.

I consider Memento to be particularly good at doing this kind of thing. Between good color/icon support in choice lists and support for ad hoc data analysis (see the wiki's Slicing & Dicing pages), it is excellent at getting the data to speak to you.

I didn't know JavaScript when I started learning it for Memento. I find it quite learnable, so long as you don't try to make it work like Java or other language.