You don't need an API as long as you document and maintain the file format. Think about it like this:JohnMayo wrote:
Given the exclusive deals Diamond has with publishers, it is virtually impossible for another distributor to "pop up". Including the Haven order code would be fine by me too. I think that the chances of anybody using it are exceedingly low given. The difference with Diamond is that a huge percentage of the comic books here in the USA go through that single distributor. And I'm not suggesting the Diamond Order code be the only way to be able to select comics, just a highly useful one.
I find it confusing that you are arguing against using a distributor level data element in favor of having each retailer custom code an integration process. Using the Diamond Order code would be much more universal than software with an API that each retailer could write code against since virtually none of them ever would. Such custom code would only be beneficial to the customers at that retailer using that comic book tracking software. I don't see the business case for any retailer to spend the money on that kind of custom code.
The Diamond Order code methodology would be useful for any user of the comic book tracking software buying any of the comics offered through Diamond. And I'm willing to bet that for most comic book fans, the majority of their collection was distributed through Diamond. Within that, the majority was probably distributed exclusively through Diamond. That having been said, no doubt there are plenty of people out there more interested in the more obscure indy comics or foreign comics who would find the Diamond Order code of little or no use.
The Title/Year/Issue combination is insufficient to identify a comic book. At the very least, Publisher and Variant are needed. Each of these data elements would be subject to the possibility of misspellings and inconsistencies from month to month. Like barcodes, the nine character Diamond Order code has no such problem with that. While the Publisher/Title/LaunchYear/Issue/Variant combination might be more useful for pre-Diamond era comics, I don't know how many people are somehow able to pre-ordering comics that old.
The whole point of this discussion is how to track pre-ordered comics, specifically those sold through Diamond. No claim was made that this would be any sort of universal solution.
I wouldn't care how the functionality is provided. I was just pointing out the simplest way for it to be provided.
If I'm DCBS, I can easily build a file for you to import that contains all shipped and unshipped items (Diamond or not) for any given date range.
If I'm some place like mycomicshop or heritage, I can give you an import for any order or set of orders you've placed and include price paid, condition, etc.
Then you do some simple co-marketing that says any order you make can easily be imported into your collection maintained in Comic-base. *any* order -- whether it's the diamond era or not. Hell, maybe you even distribute the free version of the software digitally.
I agree that most lcs' might not do it, but the ones I've mentioned could provide a valuable service at fairly low cost to implement and maybe make some money via click-through buys, etc.
And Comicbase adds new users.
I don't think Peter Bickford would ever do it, bec. he seems to hold too much to his vest wrt how the software is built and maintained, and he would probably have to finally move off of access and onto a modern DB so he could roll back failures and do transactions, but I still think it's a good idea.
And it solves your use case too John.
