`flask seed reference-data` wrote a dozen generic model types and no vendors or
models at all, so adopting this platform began by retyping a catalog another
site had already spent a year building. That is the largest single obstacle to
standing a new facility up.
scripts/export_catalog.py dumps the catalog from a live instance to
shopdb/data/catalog.json, and `flask seed catalog` loads it. What travels:
vendors 53, models 128, modelsupplies 146, modeltypes 35, machinetypes 21,
computertypes 10, printertypes 9, networkdevicetypes 5, locationtypes 11,
operatingsystems 14, measuringtooltypes 8, notificationtypes 3,
accessprotocols 3
The 146 printer supplies are the most useful part after the models themselves:
every toner, drum and maintenance kit with its part number, colour, capacity
tier and page yield, already matched to the right model, instead of somebody
reading them off spent cartridges.
IDEMPOTENT and ADDITIVE. Records match on a natural key - a vendor by name, a
model by vendor plus model number, a supply by model plus part number - so a
second run adds nothing, and it never updates or deletes: a site that corrected
a description or pointed a model at its own photo keeps its version.
Catalog only. No assets, locations, employees, business units or anything with a
serial number: nobody wants one plant's machines appearing at another. Vendor
contact details are excluded too, since a rep's name and number belong to
whoever holds that relationship. supportteams, printerdrivers and customfields
are site-specific and deliberately absent.
Models and supplies reference their vendor by NAME rather than id, because ids
differ between databases and an id-keyed catalog would silently attach part
numbers to the wrong printer.
The installer offers it as a tick-box on a new "Starter data" page, defaulting
to on, passing -SeedCatalog to stage 3. Offered rather than assumed: a site that
machines nothing does not want 21 machine types cluttering its dropdowns.
Verified by loading into an empty database and running twice: every group
populated on the first pass, "Catalog already present, nothing to add" on the
second.
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