I am creating a recipe / mixing application in Java - for personal use.
I am wondering if anyone knows if there is a list of flavor vendors and the flavors they make like in a format that I can import into a MySQL database like CSV format as one example…
BTW, there are a few compilations by folks that i had in mind but search fu is a bit off atm, ie. thought there was a pg free list besides the thread. Containing information so it is easy to find, condensed to one thread has always been a problem here, leaving it up to search keywords. Perhaps “looking for data for a project” would be easy to recall to find various lists that one might be searching for, just a thought w/o intend to derail.
I’d inquire with the flavor companies directly. They may have a web-feed you can query on their products and info. If they don’t have one, they should think about getting one set-up.
I’ve got emails in to several flavor makers waiting for their response … and you are absolutely right … keeping such a database current would almost need to be a community effort I’m thinking … with some kind of oversight for accuracy verification etc.
Interesting that you say that because I was looking at the different ways the different companies describe their products from a database point of view and outside of the name of the flavor, there is pretty much no similarities between manufacturers … some have UPC codes that are different based on the size of the bottle, some just have one “part number” then your quantity is chosen at checkout … MY THOUGHTS were … what if we could somehow hand each company a database schema that would work for any vendor and ask them to to have their DBA populate it and make it available on a secure encrypted access pipe then we have our own database server that polls the manufacturers like once a day and consolidates the data into a usable format … think of the implications … recipe apps being able to access the data in real time … and maybe even have some suppliers “sponsor” the site and when they do, a button is right there for a quick purchase inside the recipe app … the possibilities are endless…
BUT, I’ve been in IT long enough to know that such a project is very similar to herding cats… and worse than that … you usually get personalities involved who are highly protective of their data and somehow feel that if they strictly govern it, they are protecting their income … but every situation is different so you never know until you dive in.