Gunsmith Db and App Part 6: Final Thoughts and Future Development

I’ve been writing a lot about my gunsmith database and application lately. It has been my largest database project to date by far and has been a really great learning opportunity. I’ve learned a lot about Visual Basic (this was my first project of really any size with VB). I’ve learned a lot about building complex MySQL queries and complex MySQL databases. All of this was pretty new to me so I’m really pleased that I was able to teach myself the necessary skills and put together an end product that will help someone. I’m really excited for my friend to test out the software and see what works and what doesn’t work for him. There are several things I want to add to or change about this project for future versions. First and foremost, some people are having some issues installing the software and communicating with the database. Additionally, if my friend were to use this software, he would likely need to pay monthly for some server space for the MySQL database to run. Because of this, one of my top priorities with this project is to move the database from MySQL to SQLite. I have never done anything with SQLite, so it will be good practice for me to learn a new SQL language and learn how to migrate data from a MySQL database to a SQLite database. In order to be a legal piece of software for a gunsmith to use, I also need to have the database make daily backups. I haven’t done this yet but will need to implement it soon. In addition to those database changes, I also want to add some more features to the software. I want to have a reporting tab where the user can generate custom reports and save their report templates. Another feature along those lines that I’d like to add is the ability to email the user on a regular basis (maybe once a week, though this could be set by the user) with a list of all of the guns they currently have in for gunsmithing, when the deadlines are, and if there are any overdue or due soon. I also want to add the ability to see a gun’s history. For instance, when a user currently searches through the dispositions, they only see that transaction. There is no way, currently, to see where they acquired a gun from if they have already disposed of it. I’d like to add the ability to see the history of the gun even after it has been disposed of. Along similar lines, I’d also like to add the ability to filter the search results (at least by date range but perhaps it would grow into more than that). This is the last post on the gunsmith database and app for now, but I think the project is far from over. If you have any suggestions on things I should add to the database or GUI, feel free to leave them in the comment section or contact me! As always, I’d love your feedback.