I've worked on going paperless since about 2002. It's a maddeningly dull, time consuming affair if one is not a computer programmer capable of designing a database. I am not. Just a person, a computer user. I call this project "PaperHater".
schema
critical, tax, code, projects, auto,categories
Can it be done without a database? We have the Dewey Decimal (since 1876) and Library of Congress system for books and mags (ISBN, ISSN), so we can use their system to an extent, possibly for our library and citations grouping. But at home I have receipts from vehicles, medical lab reports, HS diploma, and on. This is also not exactly business style records management, since the categories include personal areas. Probably benefits from electronic records management (ISO 15489). File naming conventions, folder conventions and metadata conventions. Yet still might end up requiring a database.
file naming conventions (10:00) Simpletivity, 2018. Ad first 1:36. Uses 3 part naming, succinctly described. Probably best at .75 speed. Comments excellent.
Ffmpeg advanced techniques pt 2 (1:23:57) Nicholas Andre 2013. Windows-based lecture, but clear thinking fellow gives good context for what we're after. Backgrounder. Corning (NY) Community College course.
clutter issues
By mid-2002, I was regularly scanning. Everything from bank statements to letters from my deceased grandmother. I learned that the number and variety of the generated files grew rapidly and could not easily be organized; I was spending significant time categorizing and renaming the files using customary file-naming and folder-naming conventions. In spite of this effort, and with only a couple thousand files (albeit growing in number), I had to admit to myself that I was wasting more time arranging and not finding files than I previously had spent hassling with the inconvenience of paper documents. What good was the computer accomplishing for me?
A proper database sitting between thousands of stored electronic files, and the user attempting to retrieve one of those files, appeared to make all the difference. However, since an immediate solution looked neither likely nor affordable at that time, I reverted to storing documents in bankers boxes. I did this for several years, but with began to slowly acquaint myself with database programs.
By 2009, I had become routinely frustrated with paper accumulation again. Stuck between a computer and a pile of papers, there appeared to be no easy way out. Since early 2009, alternating Saturdays have been spent reading and learning installation processes, webserver configurations, and the like -- LAMP stuff. It seems to have paid off. I'm roughly at the 2/3 mark on this project. Over the next several months, I intend to add an entry here and there about PaperHater's progress to summarize for myself and to possibly help other home users who might be attempting to design and implement something similar on their own system(s). Good luck to all of us. It would be helpful if expert organizations with CMS-type experience could release reasonably priced PC/Mac database solutions instead of gouging us.step 1
Design the database. I mostly use localhost for this, since it's fast and secure, but sometimes run things on the cloud server. In other words, I spent the many weekends required to learn how to configure reliable LAMPs on both my localhost and server site, and to have them running with the permissions and tweaks (think, eg. php.ini, config.inc.php, etc) I wanted. Following that portion came additional reading, head-scratching, and back-of-envelope sketches; then downloading and installing working applications. Finally, using phpMyAdmin and MySQL commands, I reviewed and modified table structures until I could determine a desirable schema. I also worked on php scripts. Eventually, I had a set of working databases, some copied to .sql scripts, and some partially completed php scripts. That's mostly where it stands now, but I'll move on to describe what's going to come next.step 2
Copy the structure of a localhost or online database I've designed and tested and want to use for interaction. We put this into an .sql script.(localhost)$ mysqldump --no-data database >/home/foo/database_template.sql
(online)$ mysqldump -h whateversite.com -uuser -ppassword --no-data -D database >database_template.sql
Then go to whatever web address I keep databases on, create a new database there (thanks to this site), and give it the structure we want from the .sql script.
$ mysql -h whateversite.com -uuser -ppassword
mysql> CREATE DATABASE newdatabase;
mysql> USE newdatabase;
mysql> SOURCE /home/foo/database_template.sql;
mysql> quit;
The new database is now ready to accept data-entry and to run queries.
