Some ideas

[ArcherPigeons]

Hey Timo, here are a few ideas I had for your amazing software. I'm trying to learn Python to help out more, but I'll leave these here for you if you want to pick any up!

Ring letters, or different ring formats. In my country we use the format [CLUB] [YEAR] [NUMBER], for example AUST 2018 12345. It currently seems like the only option is for [NUMBER] [YEAR]?

Date of birth, option to record a bird's birthdate and have the age calculated.

Make colour in pedigree default on, having a bird's colour in a pedigree is a good way to help ensure accuracy, might be good to have it default to on?

Highlight inbreeding in pedigree, many other programs highlight inbreeding in a pedigree by colouring the bird if it appears more than once in the pedigree. I'll try to find an example.

"Archive" bird status, allow birds to be marked as "archive" so they do not appear in the bird list, but are not deleted. For example, I may add historical birds to fill out a pedigree, but don't want them to actually appear in my bird list.

Expanded race tracking, this one will probably be a lot of hard work, but I'll include it anyway - it would be great if we could have more detailed race options. Being able to generate a race, print a race sheet (all birds going to the race), enter the results and print the result sheet, being able to look up a certain bird's results... so many options but a lot of work to implement..

Genotype tracking, this one is probably of not much use to many people, but for people trying to breed certain colours it would be helpful to be able to record easily what genes a bird has.

Again, thanks so much Timo for the work you've done - it is so amazing! I'll try to help out when I can and submit patches for you, but feel free to take up any of these suggestions if you think they're worthwhile  :)

[ArcherPigeons]

Here is an example of the pedigrees that highlight inbreeding:

[Timo]

Thanks, all ideas are welcome. Lots of things were added because of user feedback.

Ring letters, or different ring formats. In my country we use the format [CLUB] [YEAR] [NUMBER], for example AUST 2018 12345. It currently seems like the only option is for [NUMBER] [YEAR]?

This is something I thought about in the past. One of the possibilities is to provide a format option in the settings where the user can choose their preferred layout. Your example doesn't make much sense over here, but the current one doesn't for you. I don't think there's a one-for-all layout. Also a separate country field is nice as well.

So the band can be split up into:
- number
- year
- country
- club
And let the user decide how they want to have it displayed.

Small note that you can enter anything in the number field at the moment, it's not limited to digits.

Date of birth, option to record a bird's birthdate and have the age calculated.

Good one and easy to add. Just need to put it in a nice place in the interface. The pigeon details on the right is a bit limited on purpose to make sure it's all visible on smaller screens. Maybe a bit more responsive so it scales when the window is maximised would be nic.

Make colour in pedigree default on, having a bird's colour in a pedigree is a good way to help ensure accuracy, might be good to have it default to on?

I agree. Setting is now enabled by default for new installs.

Highlight inbreeding in pedigree, many other programs highlight inbreeding in a pedigree by colouring the bird if it appears more than once in the pedigree. I'll try to find an example.

This is a bit trickier because the pedigree boxes in the interface are already coloured (blue/pink) and the new version has a setting to do the same on the printed pedigree. A quick idea is to use some kind of badge/label perhaps. I'll attach some images.

"Archive" bird status, allow birds to be marked as "archive" so they do not appear in the bird list, but are not deleted. For example, I may add historical birds to fill out a pedigree, but don't want them to actually appear in my bird list.

This is already possible, but perhaps not that clear. When deleting a pigeon there's a checkbox that asks to keep the pigeon in the pedigree. When checked it's actually just hidden from the main list and still available throughout the program. You can see them all by enabling View->Show all pigeons from the menubar. Also, if you add parents/edit the pedigree directly by clicking the pedigree icon in the toolbar, the added pigeons are hidden by default.

Expanded race tracking, this one will probably be a lot of hard work, but I'll include it anyway - it would be great if we could have more detailed race options. Being able to generate a race, print a race sheet (all birds going to the race), enter the results and print the result sheet, being able to look up a certain bird's results... so many options but a lot of work to implement..

There's an extensive filter for results. In the results tab at the bottom click "View all". In the toolbar at the top is a Filter button where you can filter on every possible field for the results, including per pigeon.

Printing/reporting can be improved, but that's actually for everything at the moment. It's really basic.

For the extra options something should be planned out properly. Maybe in the future.

Genotype tracking, this one is probably of not much use to many people, but for people trying to breed certain colours it would be helpful to be able to record easily what genes a bird has.

Same here, I don't have a good idea for this yet and needs some planning.

Hope the above helps.

[ArcherPigeons]

So the band can be split up into:
- number
- year
- country
- club
And let the user decide how they want to have it displayed.

That would be perfect! Ahhh the beauty of open source software, customisation  ;D

This is a bit trickier because the pedigree boxes in the interface are already coloured (blue/pink) and the new version has a setting to do the same on the printed pedigree. A quick idea is to use some kind of badge/label perhaps. I'll attach some images.

Yea, the badge idea works. Maybe give the user the option? Personally I'd rather have all boxes white except highlighting when a pigeon appears twice, but I'm sure others would rather the blue/pink system.

This is already possible, but perhaps not that clear. When deleting a pigeon there's a checkbox that asks to keep the pigeon in the pedigree. When checked it's actually just hidden from the main list and still available throughout the program. You can see them all by enabling View->Show all pigeons from the menubar. Also, if you add parents/edit the pedigree directly by clicking the pedigree icon in the toolbar, the added pigeons are hidden by default.

Again, perfect, thank you! Perhaps make it a little more obvious? But yes, works wonderfully now.

Thanks for your hard work Timo :)

[ArcherPigeons]

A few more quick ones:

Options for formats when printing pigeon lists: Would be nice to be able to print a checklist or something, just different formats?

Notes that do not appear on pedigree: An extra "notes" section apart from the "extra" that appears on a pedigree, so we can keep notes of the pigeon without broadcasting it on the Pedigree.

Common ancestors report: Just a fun curiosity here with no real urgency, but it would be cool to be able to select two pigeons and have a report of which ancestors they share.

:)

[ArcherPigeons]

Hypothetical pedigrees: Select a male and female then view what the pedigree of their young would look like without actually creating the bird in the system.

[Timo]

All noted, thanks! The following is interesting:

Notes that do not appear on pedigree: An extra "notes" section apart from the "extra" that appears on a pedigree, so we can keep notes of the pigeon without broadcasting it on the Pedigree.

I created something for this a couple of years ago, but seem to have deleted it all (stupid me!). The idea was to have some extra information (like notes) that take a bunch of visual space and put it in a tab at the bottom (like the pedigree, relatives, results, ...). I even had a star-rating for a couple of categories so you could rate pigeons. Fun gimmick, nothing more. But perhaps it's time to add such a tab for extra details and info.

[ArcherPigeons]

I noticed the work on Launchpad, nice work Timo  :)

[Timo]

Yes, some work is being done :-). I'm slowly integrating a new band entry that supports more fields (country, letters, number and year) and a custom band format instead of the fixed number/year now. This is the last thing I'll do before releasing a new version, the rest needs tro wait for the next. Otherwise I'll never get to it. Also this new band entry takes some time because it's really the core of everything, so it's really easy to break stuff.

[ArcherPigeons]

Yes, some work is being done :-). I'm slowly integrating a new band entry that supports more fields (country, letters, number and year) and a custom band format instead of the fixed number/year now. This is the last thing I'll do before releasing a new version, the rest needs tro wait for the next. Otherwise I'll never get to it. Also this new band entry takes some time because it's really the core of everything, so it's really easy to break stuff.

Very exciting, I can't wait!! Maybe in the future I can help you with the race databasing. Have you seen how some other programs organise races? Perhaps I can show you.

[Timo]

Sure, if you have some screenshots or examples to explain things that'd be great.

[ArcherPigeons]

Cool, I emailed you.
Another suggestion, maybe have the option to filter multiple status? EG, I'd like to select "breeders" and "active", but exclude all other statuses. At the moment, you can only select one or all, not some.

[Timo]

Good one, was thinking something similar. The filter includes all fields but is a bit limited in that regard.

Best case would extend it to:
- Multiple fields of same type
- Exclude a field value (select all but a single status for example)

Need to think a bit on how to handle that.

[ArcherPigeons]

Re: Highlight inbreeding in pedigree, maybe you could just highlight the background behind the pigeons ring details if it appears more than once?

I'll email you one of mine to show what I mean.

[ArcherPigeons]

I'm about to download 3.0, but I just thought of another suggestion - currently "year" is required, is there the possibility of "unknown year"?