Re: Opinions wanted: Delcampe, StampWants

On Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:23:03 -0400, Tracy_Barber wrote:

I would also get delcampe's "Gold Plan" so you can use their
inventory / uploading software. I have not tried it yet, but when I
finally get an inventory together, I'll cough up the extra $ for the
privilege.

Aha! There's the main thing that I thought SW had that Delcampe did
not. I wonder if I can upload a .csv file, which is what I've done on
SW. Hmmm. Off to go read the help documents.

No, not cross-platform: it's a M$ Windows .NET application! Frustrating.
I use Linux, and while I could run most "regular" Windows apps under
WINE, I can't even begin to use a .NET application. I can't imagine
revenue from Delcampe in excess of what I would get on SW paying for a
whole new computer!

Rut roh... I guess there's a loophole against Linux. How about a php
or Perl script? If you knew the file layout, you could probably do it.

It's not that simple. The app connects directly to Delcampe -- it's not
just an issue of reverse-engineering a file format. I'd have to actually
hack the API, which I could do with a packet sniffer and a couple of
days, but it would require a working installation of their app -- and if
I had that, I'd probably just go ahead and use it! As it is, I'm chasing
my tail. I think it was foolish of them to lock into M$ in the first
place, but what do I know?

More realistic would be a Perl script that would automate adding items by
submitting HTTP POST requests through their CGI app, but that's non-
trivial too, because it would have to handle logging in, sessioning, and
so forth. Maybe *most* realistic would be a GreaseMonkey script for
Firefox, but I've never built one, so there's a learning curve there.
The whole situation's a pain in the neck, however you slice it.

FWIW: I just tried listing items manually. It took 90 minutes to scan
and list 13 items. Part of this is that, since my last distro upgrade,
it takes 10 - 15 seconds to launch a Gnome file browser window (don't
know why), but much of it is the painful, error-prone listing process
itself. There is no gold in these hills at that rate. I have to find a
way to accelerate this, or I might as well not sell in the first place.
I would get faster and more accurate over time, sure -- but even a factor
of four increase in speed would still be unacceptable.


--
Joshua H. McGee, Los Angeles, California, USA
Member: APS, ATA, ISWSC, AFDCS, MBPC, MCC, BPS
President: http://www.penguinstamps.org
Trade?: http://www.mcgees.org/stamp-offers/
.

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