[Solved] Looking for ... inventory management, I guess?
from DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 26 Apr 06:56
https://sh.itjust.works/post/36776944

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for a system that:

… and honestly, I don’t even know where to start looking. Do you guys have any recommendations?

Of course, I could just use a spreadsheet, but where’s the fun in that?

EDIT: Thank you all so much for the engaged discussion and all the suggestions, you’re the best!

#selfhosted

threaded - newest

StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org on 26 Apr 07:07 next collapse

There’s a couple of options.

I’ve used Grocy. It’s not intended for that particular use case but it would work. More for Grocery management.

Might want to check out awesome-selfhosted.net

DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works on 26 Apr 07:19 next collapse

Oh yeah, I was planning to deploy Grocy anyway, but I never thought about using it for this. Thank you!

irmadlad@lemmy.world on 30 Apr 13:28 collapse

I’ve used Grocy.

I use Grocy daily almost, but I think that is a bit more than what OP is looking for. I use it for my pantry inventory. I am somewhat of a prepper, tho I don’t prep for EOTW scenarios. Mostly for localized incidents, weather related disasters, imminent social uprisings, etc. I figure, if we start dropping nukes, point me towards the bright light and let it rip. I have no interest in ‘repopulating the earth’.

I took a hand-scanner, disassembled it, and re-assembled it into a more form fitting box and mounted it conveniently in the pantry. When I bring groceries into the house, I scan them into inventory. When I use an item, I scan it out. I also use the Grocy mobile app. So, at any time I can view my inventory and see that I either have enough of an item, or need to replenish the stock.

just_another_person@lemmy.world on 26 Apr 07:12 next collapse

Snipe-IT and Shelf.nu are two of the most popular ones.

Maybe also consider just kicking one out yourself with NocoBase or something like that though.

DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works on 26 Apr 07:23 collapse

HA, the term I was looking for is even on their website: “Asset Management Software”. My non-native speaker ass didn’t come up with this.

Thank you, I will check those out.

Though it sounds interesting for tinkering, I’m probably not doing down the NoCode route. You make it, you maintain it forever, and I don’t have that kind of time.

blumlaut@hounds.online on 26 Apr 07:02 next collapse

@DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works we've recently deployed Netbox which seems to somewhat do what you want, although its more targetted towards datacenter and network engineers (and maybe not lightweight enough for you?)

If you really need nothing special then maybe a good ol' spreadsheet is a better solution for you.

DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works on 26 Apr 07:18 collapse

Yep, maybe it really is. I just wanted to see of there’s something nicer out there before settling.

I think I recall seeing Netbox a while ago, and I remember thinking that it would be something I’d like to use at work, but we already have idoit there (which I hate passionately).

mcmic88@feddit.org on 26 Apr 07:29 next collapse

I’m suggesting HomeBox.

demo.homebox.software

Small, selfhosted and centered around home use.

jordanlund@lemmy.world on 26 Apr 07:51 next collapse

I’d just roll your own with either a spreadsheet or a relational database depending on how fancy you want to get.

In fact, I’ve done that for comic books.

SrMono@feddit.org on 26 Apr 07:51 next collapse

This might be an unpopular opinion/solution but even for two small size sister companies we are doing inventory in a version controlled markdown file 🫣

just_another_person@lemmy.world on 26 Apr 08:13 next collapse

Wut

jonne@infosec.pub on 26 Apr 08:55 next collapse

Honestly, a spreadsheet would be fine for this? I’m not super familiar with what an inventory management system does tho, so maybe it does things beyond what a spreadsheet can do.

haverholm@kbin.earth on 26 Apr 09:04 next collapse

Simplest possible solution, Occam's Inventory 😄

I use markdown extensively, but I'm honestly not fond of its tables function (which I assume you use for this purpose?). It works, but it's a bit static in my experience. Do you run up against the same, or is it actually an advantage in your use case?

SrMono@feddit.org on 26 Apr 09:21 collapse

We’re using headings for different types of inventory (hardware/office items/…) and then a block of subheading, bulletpoint combination (serialnumber, date of acquisition, whereabouts,…) for each item and associated item.

The toc is generated automatically and helps browsing through.

haverholm@kbin.earth on 26 Apr 09:52 collapse

Even simpler, I love it! 👍

DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works on 26 Apr 11:54 next collapse

Not at all, I like .md, and I’m familiar with Git. A spreadsheet is not something that I would throw into Git, but an .md

SrMono@feddit.org on 26 Apr 12:22 next collapse

That is the reason Markdown and Git are used for a lot shenanigans these days. Knowledge bases, awesome-lists, documentations. You name it.

If you got the right tools (sphinx, typora, mkdocs, …obsidian) you got a powerful toolchain.

2910000@lemmy.world on 26 Apr 21:08 collapse

I use markdown too, except I keep the markdown file in a self-hosted wiki (wiki.js)

It’s versioned and accepts git as a backend

fishynoob@infosec.pub on 26 Apr 22:43 collapse

I’m looking for something that can automatically handle markdown tables for me in git. If an application can do that then I can get off excel/LibreOffice calc.

2910000@lemmy.world on 26 Apr 23:07 collapse

I haven’t searched about this so I don’t know, but it’d be cool if there were a way to import/export markdown tables into LibreOffice

Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org on 26 Apr 16:35 collapse

a version controlled markdown file

There’s a lot of genius in this idea …

steventhedev@lemmy.world on 26 Apr 08:19 next collapse

I get very far by just keeping a set of folders for each piece of equipment in a git repo.

Pictures, etc, and sometimes the PDF manual if I bother.

The difficult part here is being consistent over time - making sure you mark down when you bought things, serial numbers, etc. a proper website/app will force you to do this, but there is flexibility in having whatever convention you like most

DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works on 26 Apr 11:56 collapse

Well, I do have a PaperlessNGX already, so I could use a custom field for SerialNo or something like that, but I just feel like PNGX isn’t really designed for this task.

conrad82@lemmy.world on 26 Apr 08:38 next collapse

I use homebox and it has been good for my home usecase. I have put qr codes on boxes to easily check contents from my phone

github.com/sysadminsmedia/homebox

MartianFox@lemmy.ml on 26 Apr 10:28 next collapse

Also using Homebox. Quite intuitive UI, not too many features but also not too few. For instance you can upload the receipts, manuals, etc for euch equipment, etc

DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works on 26 Apr 11:52 collapse

Thanks, that sounds really nice!

N0x0n@lemmy.ml on 26 Apr 17:43 collapse

While I do agree on the general sentiment to not overcomplicate things, homebox seems rather easy to use and intuitive.

Being able to create qr code to put them on boxes and also have them directly accessible through the web interface is neat !

However, there’s one thing that’s quite cumbersome… There isn’t a one button move everything to a new location. Someone already posted a feature request and got some traction :) so cross fingers this going be implemented in the near futur !!

conrad82@lemmy.world on 26 Apr 18:05 collapse

Yes, I agree, batch moving stuff is important. I haven’t had that problem yet, so let’s hope they add it before I move or something 😅

MummysLittleBloodSlut@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 26 Apr 09:00 next collapse

LibreOffice Calc

Blackmist@feddit.uk on 26 Apr 09:29 next collapse

Indeed. What you are looking for is a spreadsheet.

Don’t overcomplicate things.

WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works on 26 Apr 20:49 next collapse

its just a spreadsheet, until you want to track what happens to it over time. maintenance, failures, …

Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 26 Apr 22:06 next collapse

Time to pull out the second page

WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works on 27 Apr 10:39 collapse

oh, the history of this laptop must be on the 37th worksheet, now I just need to scroll there and find it

Darkmoon_UK@lemm.ee on 26 Apr 23:11 next collapse

You’re just not Spreading hard enough, friend. Excel is like the OG low-code App Dev platform!

sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net on 28 Apr 03:07 collapse

I think Apache has an enterprise resource planning software, but it's exactly as complex as you'd expect enterprise erp

suzune@ani.social on 27 Apr 08:36 collapse

Yeah, I’ve even seen people making presentation slides in Excel. Why ever use anything else? 😉

Blackmist@feddit.uk on 27 Apr 11:07 collapse

I once asked somebody for a spreadsheet (they were trying to import the data into my software and it was failing), and got back a .doc file containing a screenshot of Excel running the spreadsheet.

I was in awe of how somebody could misuse so many pieces of software at once.

antsu@lemmy.wtf on 26 Apr 20:09 collapse

+1
This is a problem a simple spreadsheet is perfectly adequate for.

GrumpyDuckling@sh.itjust.works on 26 Apr 09:51 next collapse

A google forms alternative would be convenient. You could make an easy to fill out page that inouts to a spreadsheet. Put warranty reminders in your calander for a month before it expires.

Biscuit@ani.social on 26 Apr 15:24 next collapse

NocoDB is pretty fun if you want an AirTable-like.

Xanza@lemm.ee on 26 Apr 15:25 next collapse

NocoDB.

johntash@eviltoast.org on 26 Apr 18:43 next collapse

Snipe-it is a bit overkill but it’s pretty good.

Grocy also has an inventory tracker. I’m not sure how different it is tho

shrugs@lemmy.world on 26 Apr 19:55 next collapse

+1 for netbox

teawrecks@sopuli.xyz on 27 Apr 02:38 next collapse

A CSV file should work.

zer0squar3d@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 27 Apr 03:09 next collapse

Spiceworks? Been a while since ive used it

jagged_circle@feddit.nl on 27 Apr 04:18 next collapse

A CSV in git

ouch@lemmy.world on 27 Apr 10:58 next collapse

Besides CSV, if you want to have lots of optional fields, a YAML file in a git repository is an option. Use yq or to query it.

github.com/mikefarah/yq

DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works on 28 Apr 06:49 collapse

Interesting option, I’m familiar with Git, YAML and yq. Thank you!

yournamehere@lemm.ee on 27 Apr 11:10 next collapse

you want a gui. so cvs is weak. give nocodb a run. can do ANYTHING. cool product overviews, easy to create tables even with attachment like images.

whoisearth@lemmy.ca on 27 Apr 11:14 next collapse

Get Ralph it’s awesome. Use it in conjunction with Zabbix too if you’re monitoring your infra as well.

Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 27 Apr 12:57 next collapse

HomeBox is perfect for your use case. You could also try InvenTree, but I think HomeBox is going to better suit your needs.

Saltarello@lemmy.world on 28 Apr 01:07 next collapse

Another shout for Homebox. I used to use a spreadsheet but over time found I simply didn’t maintain it but I’ve found I always maintain Homebox.

Homebox allows parent/child relationship between items & exports to spreadsheet.

I dont utilise the QR code facility because my family members would not bother to use QR codes. Instead I’ve numbered all boxes in each location (attic, garage, basement etc), printed contents of each box & put the printout into physical folders left in each location so even the most Luddite in my family can easily locate stuff then, in theory, remember where they took it from & if the stars align & its my luck day, put the item back in the same box that they removed said item from. When that happens I always check my lottery numbers too!

They can’t filter/search a physical printout but at least they can find stuff (I guess I should simply add a QR code to each printout for a best of both worlds solution).

Overall I’ve found Homebox a useful, simple & fun tool

tankerkiller125@lemmy.world on 28 Apr 12:31 collapse

Howdy, the Hay-Kot version of Homebox has been archived and will no longer be getting updates. However, a team has taken over the development (and I’m one of the devs) over at homebox.software and we’ve already fixed some bugs and made some improvements (including Postgres support), and we’re working on the next big release now.

Saltarello@lemmy.world on 28 Apr 21:11 collapse

Thanks, I’m running the new version but linked to the old in error

InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world on 28 Apr 04:09 next collapse

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adempiere

qaz@lemmy.world on 28 Apr 04:50 next collapse

I’ve been looking for something like this myself. I’ve tried:

  • NocoDB
  • Baserow
  • Homebox
  • Snipe-IT

In the end I went with Grist. It may not be specifically designed for it, but it is very flexible.

WalnutLum@lemmy.ml on 28 Apr 06:19 collapse

Libreoffice has a database engine and frontend that’s pretty applicable to Microsoft Access