Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts, js. Yes, you will find these things are discussed elsewhere in the forum, but they're not always easy to find.
it seems like a untouted feature
Yes, it runs nicely from a memory stick. Just one of so many wonderful features that they all seem untouted.
Storing data per user is not planned yet
The ability to handle multiple users in one database seems like a good idea, but I wonder how practical it really is. In most situations, the multiple users are not going to be "equal partners" in sharing a database. There is going to be a primary user (one who created the database and is ultimately responsible for maintaining it) and secondary users. The secondary user want access to the primary user's database, in part, because they would rather not go to the trouble of maintaining their own. As such, their interest in recording personal information (i.e., wish list, seen date, comments, etc) is somewhat less. If this were not true—and the secondary user might also find they are interested in different movies, different information sources, different program configurations—then it becomes clear that user is much better off maintaining their own database. If the multiple user database approach works, except for personal fields being shared (e.g.,
Seen date), this can be dealt with by using adding custom fields (e.g.,
Seen by). The result might even be preferred in a family situation.
Seen means somebody has seen it,
Seen date is the date it was first seen, and those viewing it at a later date would just add their names to
Seen by.
I would like to know if there is any way to use this software for other things besides movies.
If you look at the software as a front end to a relational database relating people to their creations, with the ability to download and populate the database with information from websites, then it can be used for anything that fits that model. It would require a lot of work, however, to rename captions, add custom fields, design skins, and—most of all—write download scripts. While the core functions are the same, you would find requirements vary considerably according to the subject matter. The idea of making it do everything is clearly impractical. If one has a keen interest in one particular thing (e.g., video games) not already better served by other software (e.g., music), they may find adapting PVD to this purpose a fulfilling hobby.
Probably my second highest priority request would be to make a Windows Mobile version of this application.
Unless you can afford to put nostra on your payroll, it seems you're not going to see this any time soon.
But don't despair—you should be able to export to HTML in some fashion that you'll find practical for mobile use. That could include most of the information for the entire database, as well as special purpose things like wish lists for use in the video store.
I am a very technical person (although not as much of an eagle eye as rick.ca seems to be. Wow is all I can say!)
And here I was trying so hard to be humble.
Oh, well. That, and seeing the future, is nostra's job.
PVD is not for everyone, but as a technical person, you'll appreciate it's power and flexibility.
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