journal/Archive/Business Ideas/Weather Log Concept.md

Problem Statement

Custom spray applicators and farmers need records of weather conditions, product, and time when fields are sprayed

Overall desires

• Lightweight and low cruft
• Works offline
• Log this information:
  • Time sprayed (time in and out for event)
  • Field sprayed
  • Product and rate
  • Other notes
  • Weather data (from NOAA API is fine: https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api)

Existing systems/problems

• https://www.thecombineforum.com/threads/any-good-spraying-record-keeping-apps.197233/

• https://www.spraydiary.net/pricing/ - $15 AUD /mo

• https://www.myagreport.com/ - $250/yr

• https://www.fulcrumapp.com/apps/spray-records/ - $468/yr

• https://farmspraypro.com/ - $495 one-time

• https://www.abcsoftware.com/solutions/abcspray/

• Expensive

• More cruft and validation than necessary

Data to be logged

• Timestamp
• Plain text notes
  • Product & rate
  • Field name
• Current weather conditions

Data format

Some options (multiple may be used, I suppose?)

1. .csv format
2. .xls format (one sheet per event?)
3. JSON/YAML/TOML/HCL/XML format
4. .pdf report
5. keep everything in a sqlite3db and allow queries / reports on it

Data flow

Option 1 - .csv files over Android "share" functionality

Just attach the file with the android share functionality

Option 2 - automatically send reports over email

Use a passthrough email service, or hi-jack a user's email (email a file to yourself)

Option 3 - dropbox/webDAV/etc. integration

Automatically put reports into cloud storage