Background Information
Database Structure
Contributing To The Database
Querying The Database
Background Information
As the name implies, the purpose of this new database is two-fold.
To provide a place where a gun collector can go to learn
more about the wide variety of firearms that exist and some of their
general characteristics. The database will provide a place to list
the make, model, variation, description, pictures, and other information
about each firearm that is entered.
To provide an idea of the general value of a firearm based
on a price history by condition of similar firearms. The actual
value of any particular firearm will depend on variables other than
the price history of similar firearms but this will hopefully be a
useful input into helping to determine a ballpark estimate of the current
value of any particular firearm.
The value of this project to the gun collecting community will depend
entirely on our level of participation. As the developer of the database
and its interface, I am counting on you, the on-line members of the gun
collecting community to help me by entering gun values and identification
information.
Therefore, I welcome you as a partner in this project. I invite you to
contribute your knowledge and specific transaction information. Be assured,
that once data entry is begun, I will preserve the data that has been entered
throughout the development life cycle. I can modify the database and the
application without risk of data loss. The only risk of data loss will be
due to catastrophic server failure and that should be mitigated by the web
host provider backup system.
To avoid any desktop security issues, the application was written without
the need for any client enabled scripting or cookies. Therefore, it
may seem somewhat clunky in some places. For example, since this application
does not use JavaScript (code that runs on your PC) after making a selection
from a drop down list you still must click the "Select" button to send your
selection to the server. If you do have cookies enabled, it will save
your session state in a cookie on your computer.
Database Structure
Understanding the database structure is key to successfully using it. Here
is the general breakdown of the structure and the reasoning for each level.
Some of the fields may seem to have been artificially placed. For
example, it is clear that the condition of a firearm can change over time
so it makes sense to allow a new condition to be entered with a new price.
However, although it seems reasonable to assume that the caliber won't
change and makes up the very basic definition of the firearm, it is possible
that an owner of the firearm may decide to change the caliber so it could
be argued that provision must be made to allow a new caliber to be entered
for each new price. The assumption made here is that the caliber will
not change. If it does change a new firearm entry can be made for
the firearm with the new caliber.
Level
Name
Fields
Purpose
1
Class of Firearms
type
contributorID
Store general information about a class of firearms
including technical and historical data. Includes representative pictures.
The contributor owns the data for this class of firearms.
2
Individual Firearms Of Selected Class
manufactureDate
contributorID
Store information about an individual firearm that
belongs to a class of firearms. Include pictures. The contributor
owns the data for the particular individual firearms that they enter..
Store condition and price for a particular firearm
at a particular point in time. If a single firearm is sold multiple
times then multiple occurrences of condition and price can be captured. Includes
pictures. This information is what is used to establish value estimates.
The contributor owns the price information that they entered.
Contributing To The Database
If you wish to contribute a little or a lot to this database it is greatly
appreciated. Contributors will have to register with a valid email address.
However, the email address can be kept private. The opportunity to enter
other personal and/or business information is provided should the contributor
wish to be recognized for their contributions. Please keep in mind that
all submissions become the property of nmCollector.net and are subject to
review and will be deleted if any of the following is discovered:
Copyright violations. Please do not copy, transcribe, or enter
in any way any other people's work on gun identification or value. The only
exception is if you obtain their express written permission and make an appropriate
citation. Please immediately report any copyright violations to dbproject@nmcollector.net
so they can be quickly deleteted from the database.
Suspicious or Outrageous entries of any kind will be deleted
immediately upon discovery.
Here are the steps to contribute to the Gun Identification and Value Database:
On the home page, click the "Contribute" button.
If you have not yet registered, click the register link and complete
the registration process. Proceed to next step.
Login with your UserID and Password and click the Submit button. As
elsewhere in the database, clicking the Reset Button will clear the
fields.
Once you are logged in, a whole new set of contributor buttons becomes
available for you to use. You can also edit your profile or log out
if you wish.
The buttons should be self explanatory. You can only edit data
that you own. Here we will step through the process for adding a new
price for a given firearm.
Click the "Add A New Price" button. You are then given the opportunity
to pick the class of firearms to add a price to. Hint: you can
quickly type in the classID if you know it. Then click the "Select"
button to make your choice known to the server.
Next pick the particular firearm from within that class of firearms
to add your price to. You can quickly type in the Firearm ID
if you know it. Once again click the "Select" button to make your choice
known to the server.
Now enter the new price information and click the "Add" button when
you are done. As usual, you can click the "Reset" button to clear the
fields.
If the addition was successful, a confirmation page will appear and
you can add more price information for that firearm or add pictures associated
with the price.
You can upload pictures as follows. From the "Add Picture" screen
simply browse your computer for the picture you want to upload then, once
you select a picture, click the "Upload" button. A list of already
loaded pictures will appear.
Querying The Database
Anybody can query the database without registration. Of course, this means
the service will be free. At this time and in the foreseeable future, nmCollector.net
can bear the costs of providing this service at no charge to the gun collector
community.
Hopefully the query features are self explanatory. Just keep in mind
the structure of the database when making your query selections.
