Database Organization re. Multiple Divers

[bubffm]

I have now been playing around with macDive for a few days and I keep wondering whether it would not make more sense to organize the Database more around divers (if there are multiple ones).

The way it is set up now, the library lists all the dives, regardless how many divers you have. The same happens for Gear (all gear is lumped together, no matter home it belongs to) and even the dive certicates are not allocated to each specific diver but just all of them show up under "certificates"

I dont feel this is a smart way to organize things. The main element should be "Diver" and then underneath each diver you get his dives, his equipment, certificates etc.etc... Just the way it is in Dive Log for iOS.

Maybe this is already possible and I just dont get it - in which case any hints would be greatly appreciated

bubffm

[nick]

The vast majority of users I speak to, and see data from, have one diver. Making that information accessible and simple is the primary goal.

As far as viewing your dives goes then yes, all dives is exactly that - all dives. You may not have noticed, but in the side bar is a "Divers" section. That provides default filters for all dives per diver. For any smart log you can also include "And Diver = X" in order to make custom lists of dives, so there is plenty of flexibility there. For example, Country = Thailand And Max Depth Is Less Than 20M And Diver = bubffm.

You can already type a diver name in the Gear or Certifications search box to filter both of these by a particular diver, but perhaps there could be a more explicit drop down as a convenience. This is a relatively minor update, but perhaps it would make the application more smarterer? Another option is to move certifications under the Diver profile screen, rather than being its own.

Comparing it to Dive Log in this regard really isn't helpful, as Dive Log only supports one diver per logbook. So you can't share sites for example. Of course it only lists the certifications for one diver, because it doesn't support having another!

If you want that exact behaviour, you can always use fast user switching/multiple user accounts and have separate databases, in which case you get the exact same thing. Or more specifically, the functional equivalent of Dive Log would be to swap your MacDive.sqlite file and simply use two, one for each diver. That's a more accurate comparison.

Thank you for the feedback.

[bubffm]

Hi Nick,

thanks for your swift response. I think the smart logs will mostly give me what I want.

Your suggestion to move certificates under the "Divers" profile sounds very good to me as you would then get "Stats", "Personal Information" and "Certificates" listed for each individual diver.

As compared to DiveLog, I certainly see the benefit having all dives in one database rather than having to switch.

Thanks again.
bubffm