BrewTrax Software - Questions, Answers & Feedback area

[AquaCom]

Hello. I have started this thread as we already have a number of members using BrewTrax. It seems sensible to have a single thread for people to post up questions, comments, suggestions and feedback.
I can then answer any questions for everyone to have sight of and also I can post up news of new features going in to BrewTrax & release dates.

(Forum discount details are in this thread)

Postive comments and feedback on the software are obviously greatfully received, as is constructive feedback, so that I can react by improving the software for everyone and making sure you get new features that everyone wants.

I'm not arrogant enough to think that every now and then I won't get some negative feedback. That's fine as long as it's constructive. e.g "On the whole it's good, but I would have liked it if it also did...."
We are a small startup company and will always sort any issues out very quickly and ensure you are kept informed.

PM's and direct e-mails to me are also welcome if you prefer not to "share" publicly.

Oh and don't forget I'll be at the VWC meeting on Sunday if anyone wants to ask questions on there too The only issue I see with that is the wine tasting will be up first and some of us may have consumed the whole bottle by then

So... I shall open the floor...

[mrdexter]

Starter for 10.

Very intuitive to use, this will be familiar to anyone who is already computer literate. There are plenty of features that I love, I'll spare you the blushes of heaping praise on you (except to say that answering a support ticket withiin five minutes at 11pm at night is impressive to say the least) and give you a couple of feature requests for the next update.

The finishing/Aging thing was confusing and I suspect you will get asked again.
I would suggest either expanding on the tooltip for the finishing field explaining that this counts as finishing ageing too, or re aligning the fields, so you have Start Date, Ageing, Finish date (or both of course).

The only other thing I have spotted so far that would please me greatly would be to handle SGs that ended in 0 and keep them to three decimal places. 1.08 just doesn't look right :-)

[AquaCom]

Thanks for the feedback

Replies to your specific points...

The finishing/Aging thing was confusing and I suspect you will get asked again.
I would suggest either expanding on the tooltip for the finishing field explaining that this counts as finishing ageing too, or re aligning the fields, so you have Start Date, Ageing, Finish date (or both of course).

No problem at all. We should be able to make this more obvious in the next release. We are also starting to work on intro\tutorial videos for each module.

The only other thing I have spotted so far that would please me greatly would be to handle SGs that ended in 0 and keep them to three decimal places. 1.08 just doesn't look right :-)

Martina spotted this one as well, so we'll hopefully get that on the list for the next release too.

Thanks,

[kampervan]

have had some fun with this so far. but adding in all my stock will take some time. one thing i find missing is in the bottling wizzard, would be good to have more choice on size. ie keg, polypin etc, or the ability to add other sizes. Obviously the data bases will grow as more users supply kits etc, so in future will be very good.

must say easily worth the £18 even if it only took me 10 mins to crash it, but was my mistake, and did get an email very quickly telling me what i was doing wrong. will need to take a stock take and then spend some time entering it all

[mrdexter]

Are there any plans to add more Avery labels to the Bottle Labels module? I know we have the option to add them, and I'm sure some people would love to do that sort of thing, but I mean for those of us who can mess up measurements simply by reading them from the box and entering them into the software :-) ?

[AquaCom]

kampervan - Thanks for the feedback. I will certainly get that on the wish list and update you ASAP
Hopefully won't take too long to key in all your brews. You'll really love running some of the reports when all that data is in the system

mrdexter - Absolutely! Now the software is out there you'll start seeing new kits, recipes, suppliers, labels and reports getting added. (which incidentaly all get downloaded automatically via AquaLIVE so you won't need to do anything)

[Cellar_Rat]

Is it available on a 30 day trial ?

[AquaCom]

At the moment we don't have the capability to offer a trial version I'm afraid. If you've got any concerns or doubts about the software though, let me know... thanks.

[Rich]

What have you in place to stop people uploading rubbish information? kits/suppliers etc?

Might be unlikely, but it could happen as the software grows. can you pinpoint where it's coming from and block them etc?

If I deleted the info from my end, would it get updated/downloaded again at the next update?

[AquaCom]

What have you in place to stop people uploading rubbish information? kits/suppliers etc?

All databases are held on your local PC but when you sync your database it connects to our database server (SQL Server) and uploads any changes you have made. The changed suppliers, kits, recipes etc all go into a "holding" table, rather than automatically out to other BrewTrax users. We then periodically (usually daily) work through the uploaded changes (as well as any newly created kits, recipes & suppliers) and vet them. Any "junk" is removed, spelling mistakes cleaned up and duplicates removed, and that record is then promoted to "live". Any user who syncronises, connects to the live databse and downloads any new and changed records.
As well as other users uploading changes, we personally also add new database entries into our holding area and someone else in the company checks it over and promotes it.

Might be unlikely, but it could happen as the software grows. can you pinpoint where it's coming from and block them etc?

Every user/installation has a unique serial number. It's locked down to an individual PC per serial number. When you sync, it also logs who the data came from. Without wishing to seem like Big Brother, we "could" ,if we wianted to, prevent a user from submitting changes to our server if they were abusing the system. These processes are all in place to pevent "Junk" getting out into the open.

If I deleted the info from my end, would it get updated/downloaded again at the next update?

Yes and No It depends if you intentionally or accidentally deleted the record/info. When you delete something, it's assumed you intended to do it and carrying out a "standard" sync will not download that info again.
However, there is a "Full Sync" option which allows you to download ALL records from our live database again.

Probably a bit too much info there, but hopefully it's answered your questions.

Thanks.

[ukric]

Just out of curiosity as I'm not likely to buy the software (mac user) ...when it comes to the uploading of information....

Is there an option to not upload information?

Also because I'm a picky person... when uploaded to your servers, who holds copyright on that information? Is it just expected that everything uploaded is public?

[AquaCom]

Is there an option to not upload information?

Yes, on any database record you can choose to allow "AquaLIVE" or not. So, you are welcome to create records and not share them (therefore they only stay on your own local database)
You may also choose to not share anything and not take advantage of the AquaLIVE features.

when uploaded to your servers, who holds copyright on that information? Is it just expected that everything uploaded is public?

By agreeing to the End User Licence Agreement (shown when installing the software) you confirm that you are either the legal owner of that information or that you are not in breach of any copyright. By uploading information to AquaLIVE, you are giving us permission to distribute it to the BrewTrax community.

By the way, we do have some users running our software on Mac's, but this does mean you will have to use Parallels or other virtualisation software to run it on a windows session. I'm guessing though you will know that anyway, so I don't mean to teach you to suck eggs

[Cellar_Rat]

At the moment we don't have the capability to offer a trial version I'm afraid. If you've got any concerns or doubts about the software though, let me know... thanks.

This perhaps sounds strange, but I think a lot of people would buy it once they had had chance to use it (and see the benefit) either for a limited period or as a cut down version.

I think many brewers are more mature, so will be a bit more careful about their purchases. So potentially you lose out on sales I think.

I also think that at £20 it is very good value for money.

[AquaCom]

This perhaps sounds strange, but I think a lot of people would buy it once they had had chance to use it (and see the benefit) either for a limited period or as a cut down version.
I think many brewers are more mature, so will be a bit more careful about their purchases. So potentially you lose out on sales I think.
I also think that at £20 it is very good value for money.

No, it doesn't sound strange. Exactly why I started this thread... I wanted opinions and I appreciate the input.
This is something I would like to discuss in the VWC meeting as I have some ideas on the topic. Will you be online tomorrow eve at the meeting?
Thanks.

[Cellar_Rat]

I always aim to be but have never achived it yet - PM me if you like