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WHO is Testing Me?? It's getting hot under this magnifying glass...
It's been a hell of past 24 hours, with nothing to show for it. 
I have unintentionally put myself and the developer (whom incidentally has the patience of a cat-herder; that's a compliment) through the gauntlet. Here are some highlights:
1. Tried, as probably nobody in recent memory has tried, to download, install, and configure one of the recommended inventory management tools.
2. Spent five hours this morning (in vain) trying to get it to work, which mainly involved getting App A, App B, Brick Owl, and BL to talk to each other. Note: I'm sure it works for others, just not for me.
3. Then I tried to just download the inventory CSV file from BL, only to find out (in all the hard ways) that XML is desired.
4. In either case, CSV or XML, I get roughly 1500+ errors. Before anyone asks, I did fulfill all the column requirements and other requirements for inventory upload; I *do* read for all the good it does.
As a former technical writer of 25 years (last doc was written 8 years ago), my strengths lie in English communication and editing, not networking or its unfamiliar terminology. So, here's an observational plea to anyone who wants anyone with a computer or phone to be able to utilize their application:
a. Include every step necessary in the process, from download to installation to configuration to end-use to troubleshooting.
b. Please use as clear and concise language (be it English, French, Spanish, Navajo, etc.) in your process steps.
c. Most importantly: Do everything in your power to avoid the over-use of WHY something works, because it usually involves a lot of unfamiliar, confusing industry jargon. Just tell us - step by step - what to enter into what fields, where we would obtain the required information (ex: XXXXXX.cfg file located in your C:/users/username/ folder), and what we can do if the expected result doesn't occur.
d. Finally, get someone who is not a tech wizard to review the steps, so that they may ask questions and make the process that much more clear.
I'm not slamming or attacking anyone, least of all the tireless developers. On the contrary, I envy people with not only the expertise to turn out detailed, functional applications, but I also admire them for their generosity, patience, and kindness in walking the rest of us through the nuances of getting it to work for us.
(Y'know, someday I'll get my BrickOwl shop up and running - who knows how - and you'll stop getting these alarums and excursions from me.)
- EH (Pat)
I have unintentionally put myself and the developer (whom incidentally has the patience of a cat-herder; that's a compliment) through the gauntlet. Here are some highlights:1. Tried, as probably nobody in recent memory has tried, to download, install, and configure one of the recommended inventory management tools.
2. Spent five hours this morning (in vain) trying to get it to work, which mainly involved getting App A, App B, Brick Owl, and BL to talk to each other. Note: I'm sure it works for others, just not for me.
3. Then I tried to just download the inventory CSV file from BL, only to find out (in all the hard ways) that XML is desired.
4. In either case, CSV or XML, I get roughly 1500+ errors. Before anyone asks, I did fulfill all the column requirements and other requirements for inventory upload; I *do* read for all the good it does.
As a former technical writer of 25 years (last doc was written 8 years ago), my strengths lie in English communication and editing, not networking or its unfamiliar terminology. So, here's an observational plea to anyone who wants anyone with a computer or phone to be able to utilize their application:
a. Include every step necessary in the process, from download to installation to configuration to end-use to troubleshooting.
b. Please use as clear and concise language (be it English, French, Spanish, Navajo, etc.) in your process steps.
c. Most importantly: Do everything in your power to avoid the over-use of WHY something works, because it usually involves a lot of unfamiliar, confusing industry jargon. Just tell us - step by step - what to enter into what fields, where we would obtain the required information (ex: XXXXXX.cfg file located in your C:/users/username/ folder), and what we can do if the expected result doesn't occur.
d. Finally, get someone who is not a tech wizard to review the steps, so that they may ask questions and make the process that much more clear.
I'm not slamming or attacking anyone, least of all the tireless developers. On the contrary, I envy people with not only the expertise to turn out detailed, functional applications, but I also admire them for their generosity, patience, and kindness in walking the rest of us through the nuances of getting it to work for us.
(Y'know, someday I'll get my BrickOwl shop up and running - who knows how - and you'll stop getting these alarums and excursions from me.)
- EH (Pat)
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Comments
It might have taken time but you accomplished what you wanted to do right?
I am also struggling with things I do rarely or for the first time, things take time.