Diverse day. Just got back from a multi-day Adobe ColdFusion conference. Lots of catch-up, phone calls, meetings, and small code changes. Here is a rough overview.

- Spent a little over an hour with Cory, on a Zoom meeting. We were going over to do list items and prorities. We went over a number of smaller needs and upcoming/current projects. General project management type stuff.

- Phone calls with Eric, Steve, and Shari O. - These were all separate calls with differnet topics.

- Added users, permissions, and sent out emails to help get Eric setup with system admin options on the data 11 server.

- Going over emails. While doing emails, got a few small code change requests. Made the changes and pushed up the new code. Some of it was internal and some of it was a request from the Bear 100 data team. Created a public facing test CSV file uploader page, specific to the Bear 100 and their runner data files. No database activity is done from this page. It only looks at the uploaded CSV files and spits back parsed data (it runs through the backend logic but no database changes are made - inserts or updates).

- Paying bills and recording receipts from Bryan and I's trip to the ColdFusion conference.

No meeting took place today. We sent a few text messages back and forth. Crazy times. Just trying to get some traction. We are planning a phone call meeting for next week. Everyone's schedules are pretty booked right now.

Quick phone call with Eric going over USAePay stuff and merchant processing options. At some future point, we may need better documentation and/or a hardware specialist on our team.

Meeting with Dustin to go over things. We started out on GoToMeeting and then switched over to Zoom. He had a list of questions. We jumped in and helped him setup his own new shopping cart. We may alter the name, but it will be called something like the integrated side menu cart. It's kinda custom but may be used by other people later on. I'm hoping that our little session will end up saving him tons of time so that he can hit his deadline. Good stuff!

After we got all of his new cart stuff under control, we switched over and talked about FTP (file transfer protocol) stuff. I showed him around, got him info, and we did some light training. He's going to work with Wayne and our hosting company to get everything else all setup. Good session.

Emails, recording notes from yesterday, and recording bills and expenses.

Finished up the link builder mini app on the mini scan cart settings page. Started working on some larger tool tips for the sub inventory attributes on the mini scan cart.

Recording notes from yesterday. Merged in some new code for the mini scan cart settings. The new link builder is done on the settings page. I also spent some time working on the popovers (bigger tool tips) for the cart. I converted all of the sub inventory attributes into a small popover that is hidden by default. It you mouse over it (hover), the icon, it will show all of the correct data. I'm hoping that will help make it look even more simple (layout wise). Pushed up new code.

Meeting with Cory and Shari O. over a Zoom meeting. We started on the end of day reports. We have some clients that like the payments filtered by invoice or main salesperson and other clients that like the payments filtered by the person who did the payment or who was responsible for the invoice payment transaction. We talked about some possible options.

We went over our to do list and set some priorities. After that, Shari O. helped with some cross training to help get Cory up to speed on setting up merchant accounts and merchant processing settings. Light back and forth and some light training. We made sure that access and permissions were set on certain servers and accounts.

Nice little phone call with Steve. We were talking about developers, who has what skills, and how best to keep helping the team to progress. We have a developer who used to work with us about five years ago that is circling back around to see what we have going on. We talked about some options there. We also have a number of our clients that are requesting simple websites to help their customers out with a simple homepage, about us page, and other simple pages. We could then tie those pages into our ecommerce sections or customer web portal pages. That would be a great fit. Lots of options.

Recording some notes from this morning and simple clean-up stuff.

Working on replacing the Texas 130-U form for trailer dealers in Texas. This is required paperwork for each sales transaction in Texas. Basically, a title and registration form for the state. Every once in a while, the state will upgrade the form and we have to build out a new option to populate that paperwork requirement. Hundreds of checkboxes, fields, and calculations. Lots of little fields. Pretty detailed form.

Emails and going over a new state level document for selling trailers in Texas (TX 130-U). Going to be working on that project later today.

Shopping cart meeting with Cory, Steve, and Dustin. I gave them a small demo of my new mini scan cart. Dustin is working on taking that code and making it into his own little cart, specific for a single client. Eventually we will use it for other clients, but right now, it is being developed for a single client. After the main meeting, Dustin and I stayed on to go over some other stuff and to make a small to do list. Pushed up some code to fix a small misspelling.

Finished up the work on the Texas 130-U PDF form. This is a required piece of paperwork for dealerships and application for titles in Texas. Our trailer dealers use this from and populate it from data inside of adilas that is collected during the sale of the stock/unit (trailer or bigger vehicle). Pushed the newest version up to all servers. I then had to go to each server and update some document and paperwork settings to show the newest version of the form.

Multiple sessions - working on uploading customers for a client. I went through and rebuilt the CSV upload page. Also fixing a small mess from a prior upload done by another developer. Spent time cleaning up some duplicate records. Let the guys and gals that are working with that client know where things were at. Merged and pushed up files.

Quick 20 minute meeting with Cory to go over projects and priorities. I then got on a phone call with Steve. We were going over general stuff, sales, demos, meetings, and new shopping cart stuff. Steve requested that I keep pushing on stuff and also help out with Dustin, Eric, Bryan, and Will. I wrote a few things down in my notes to follow-up on with the guys.

Working with Bryan on saving large files as CSV files. We were talking about session variables inside of the CFC's (ColdFusion components) and best practices. Bryan is going to rework some stuff and get back with me.

On the phone with Eric. We were going over 2 main topics. One was his new code for both EMV/Chip reader credit card transactions and normal swipe or manual entry credit card transactions. He has a branch that he wants me to look over. The other major topic was dealing with an import for a client that had customer info and customer loyalty points from a different system.

After working with Eric, I tried to track down a possible bug with scanning a sub inventory package or sub inventory number. It ended up being a setting that prompts for a specific sub weight. I turned it off and the sub barcode scanning worked great. We wanted it to skip that extra step. Just had to flip the right setting. No code changes took place. I reported back to Steve, Cory, and Dustin.

Meeting with Bryan for about half an hour. Going over progress bar stuff. He is still working on it. After that, I met up with Will Hudson who used to work with us back in 2015-2017 ish. He is circling back around and we were working on getting his local development environment all setup and going. We ended up doing some light debugging. After that, we went over some ideas for basic or generic website pages for our clients. I tried to show him the goal or vision of where it will end up. He'll start making steps towards that and we'll refine it as we go. Eventually, we will tie the new pages into simple settings, ecommerce, and the public customer portal that we offer to our clients.

Screenshots and prep work to help Dustin out with his new integrated side menu shopping cart. Coming up with ideas and sending him an email with ideas. We then chatted on the phone for a bit.

Dustin and I met up to go over his new integrated side menu cart page. We spent lots of time on screen resolution, layout options, anchors, refresh rates, and user interface topics. Good work session. We did lots of drawing, zooming in/out, and making some plans. After that, we talked about merging code, resolving conflicts, Git, the bash window, and bit bucket stuff (code repository).

Emails and looking over some code that Eric was working on. His code was dealing with USAePay (merchant gateway) and showing options for switching between EMV/Chip readers and swipe/manual entry on credit cards. We have needs for both of those avenues.

Got a text from Cory asking me to jump on a Zoom meeting. We ended up adding in some special history logging on part category and sub inventory settings. We looked around for any bulk or global tools that may have affected our clients sub inventory template settings. We added the new code, tested, and pushed up code.

Code review for Eric on his EMV/Chip and swipe/manual entry for credit card transactions. Made a few small changes. Called and talked with Eric. I got a call from John and we chatted and touched base on some projects. Spent some time recording notes from the past couple of days. It's been one thing, right into the next thing.

Meeting with Bryan. Going over more progress bar stuff for building larger CSV files. Talking about and making some changes to the code. Right towards the end, we ended up looking into an auto submit process that was creating a saved report. We need to clean that up. Most likely, Bryan and I will be meeting tomorrow to look over some of the changes and code tweaks. Getting closer.

Recording notes from yesterday and today (10/16 - 10/17). Both in the shop and inside of adilas.

A couple of different work sessions with Bryan. He is working on saving large reports with an asynchronous process to build a CSV file behind the scenes. It gets pretty deep. We have to query all of the data, check record counts, show errors and options if over the limit. If not over the record count limit, we need to show the actual data. If they choose to build the CSV file (comma separated values file) we have to save the settings, build it, show progress, and then let them know when it is all done and ready for downloading. Pretty intense process.

So, on his local box, Bryan has run over 70+ tests and built that many CSV files. While testing, we found a few errors. We ended up removing some of the buttons and options and keeping things really simple. We took off options like refine your search or save report. We got the files ready and pushed them up to data 8 for some live testing. We instantly ran into some errors on the live server. We did a whole session where we just patched things and got it stable again.

We left lots of the new code on the master branch (with patches) and will circle back around. We then tried to get things setup to do more testing on the live server without hurting any of the existing traffic, data, and users. The new test stuff will virtually be built out on a side road of sorts (away from the normal data, pages, and flow). Sent a request to Wayne to let Bryan get access to data 8 for FTP (file transfer protocol - uploading files) privileges.

Emails, phone calls, and text messages.

Meeting with Shannon. She is planning on helping me two days a week going through Ship B stuff for fracture and adilas lite. Our goal is to start going through the outline (high-level look at the upcoming projects) and detailing things out. That is exciting.

We also went over a book called "Who Moved My Cheese" by Dr. Spencer Johnson. This was an assignment that I gave her. See attached for some of our notes. We had a good discussion and chatted for a bit.

We also put a few new elements of time on the calendar for the next couple of weeks. Good stuff.

Started working on a new CSV upload file to help remotely load in customer loyalty points for clients who were on a different system and then switched over to adilas. Spent time combing the original data file (CSV file). Started working on the new upload code. Recorded some notes from yesterday.

Working on the CSV customer loyalty points upload page for a client. Working on the logic portion of the code. Quick phone call with Eric to go over progress and ask a few questions. Getting close. Ran out of time.

Finished up the code for the CSV customer loyalty points upload page. This allows us to take a CSV file, match it with existing customers in the database, and record manual entries for customer loyalty points coming from an outside source or outside system. Ran the code live and merged in the page with the master branch. Uploaded over 3,400+ entries with customer loyalty points for a client. Let both Eric and Cory know and gave them an update.

Recording notes from the past couple of day. Most of it was dealing with a new CSV upload for customer loyalty points.

Meeting with Cory and Shari O. We went over projects and priorities. That went pretty quick. We then got into some code and looked at the SG&A costs (selling general and administrative costs). We looked over older code, went through things, and then brainstormed on some new ideas. We would love to start from the expense/receipts. Basically, build it, then click a button or something to create the PO (SG&A inventory) and back tie it to the expense. That would be really cool. We went over some small drawings and such.

After the meeting, I got on a phone call with Bryan. I also did some emailing back and forth with Will on some general webpage settings for ecommerce.

Adding a new couple of filters to the closing reports. Sometimes we call this the daily/weekly sales report. The new settings deal with how the database queries the invoice payments. Some people want the report to show the payments based on who is the main salesperson per invoice. Others want to know if someone else did the payment part of it. We had to add in some options and switches. Lots of code changes and then following those links and drill-downs from page to page. Good little work session.

Working with Bryan on his project to help build large CSV files behind the scenes (too big to show on the normal website or web pages). Spent most of the session virtually chasing errors and what not. Lots of complex moving parts.

Meeting with Shannon. We spent some time going over the 10,000 foot view of the new adilas lite projects. We are trying to move into the 5,000 foot view (closer or more details in the plan). We prepped some files to record notes on the overviews per project. We watched a few videos of some of what we have already captured to this point. Trying to get some traction.

Working with Bryan. He had met with Dustin and they came up with some ideas. We did a small session with Bryan telling me what to do and how to do it. That way we could push it up live to test it with a bigger record set. Bryan doesn't have access to push things up to the servers yet. We tested and tested. We decided to go a totally different route. I gave him some new marching orders and a really simple mini plan. He's going to start working in that direction. The other way had too many unknowns.

Meeting with Eric to merge and push up some new code to help with certain merchants (our customers) who need to switch between a manual card entry, a swipe card entry, or a EMV/Chip card entry. We chatted, pushed things up, and ran some tests. Eric is going to call a customer and make sure that they know what to do differently. Trying to make things easier.

Met with Bryan and spent some time looking over his new code. This new code uses a manual process to create and generate a high record count CSV file using click through pagination (next n or next page of some number of pages). The past couple of days we have been trying to debug an automated process. We decided to step back, get it fully working manually, and then try to automate it. Otherwise there were too many new variables in the process. Making good progress.

Back working on the end of day report for closing out a cash drawer. Good work session. Got all of the normal pages coded and tested. Started going through a number of custom or one-off pages that used similar code. Pushed up a number of new commits on the code branches. Lots of testing in both secure and customer folders (file paths).

Work session with Shannon. We spent some time going over the ideas that we had for the overview for the videos and research project. We spent a bunch of time refining our draft. We then moved on to the adilas jellyfish model and did some brainstorming there on what to put into the overview for that project. Great work session. See attached for our videos and research overview text.

Emails and working on projects. Finished up on the new end of day filters for showing payments by main salesperson or who actually did the transaction. Looked into USAePay validation for the 3 or 4 digit code for credit card payments. Also added some code to all the header dates to be changed if making a PDF of an invoice or a quote. The default is to use the current date for the header date. On invoices and quotes, the PDF needs to show the original date of either the invoice or quote. Anyways, made the changes and plain PDF headers allow for a date to be passed through vs just pulling in the current date. Recording notes from the past few days.

Meeting with Cory to show her progress on a couple of different projects. We merged and pushed up code and did some testing. We tested on both data0 and data1 servers.

Recording notes from earlier this week (10/23 to 10/26).

Meeting with Cory and Shari O. over a Zoom session. We were looking into an issue with one of our client's balance sheet and some gift card transactions. We had to update the created date/time on the corp special account transactions for some gift cards that were partially done in the old way and then converted to the new way. As a side note, we may need to allow that date/time field to be editable. I had to do it from the background. That might be nice to have that as a standard feature.

We talked about the discount engine project and came up with a small plan for going forward. The new plan involves a database change, retrofitting the old discount engine code to use the new database changes, then working on the new discount engine code. Ideally, we get the database piece done and then allow our users to pick if they want to use the old or the new (for a while). When ready, we fully transition to the new code base. We also covered some other questions and what not.

Two different sessions with Eric, going over tips, payments, and use cases and scenarios. Our first session was in the morning from 9:30-10 am. I had to bail out to meet with Cory and Shari O. We met up again at 11 and did some more talking and discussing. The main goal was tips, flow, and keeping financials in balance and in good shape. We also talked about either creating and/or using some mappings for new expense types and/or deposit types. We talked alot about EMV/chip readers, tips, and how to handle those credit card type transactions. We also talked about cash/check scenarios and how that is sometimes treated differently for tips and repayment.

Each corporation does their own stuff and handles tips in their own way. Some treat it as cash and cash out every night. Others hold it, track it, and pay it back out with payroll, taxes, and a rolling payment method. Lots of companies in between, including some companies that don't allow or don't even deal with tips. Lots of possible scenarios.

Some of our discussions got off into the weeds a bit. Adilas is so flexible, we allow our clients to sort of make up their own rules. That is great, but we may also need a way to help steer them in a good direction and/or help them enforce their own rules. If we create something, we can't just take that away. We have to leave it alone so that it can play through any past transactions or user history actions. That complicates things a bit.

We talked about a dedicated tip screen on the checkout process. That would help us gather the correct information and even provide us with enough information to process things how we need to, to keep everything inline.

Looking into the discount engine code. Created a new branch and stashed some of the older code pieces. I'll grab and pull things out as I need them (stashed resources). Started to make a new database update page. Slowly working through the different pages. First task is to map things out and match up database changes between old and new. We can't launch the new without the changes but the new changes will break the old discount engine. We have to meet in the middle. This project has been being worked on for a couple of years now with multiple developers. I'm kinda doing a salvage and clean-up type project.

Spent an hour doing some training on W3schools. Reviewing some HTML and CSS stuff.

Working with Shannon. Reviewing some of our work from last week. Then jumping into the next section. Copied over the jellyfish overview from an internal questionnaire from a couple of years ago. Spent the rest of the time working on the SWOT analysis. John and I roughed out some stuff back in July. Shannon and I were going in and harnessing some of that work. Trying to make that document more usable. See attached for some uploaded pieces that we are working on.

Meeting with Bryan. Looking over his bigger CSV file maker code with a progress bar. Looked pretty good locally. Pushed it up live and did some bigger tests with it and it had some issues. We talked about ways to make the bite sizes smaller and smaller. It's still trying to process too much at a time without any information back to the users. Slowly making progress.