Arthur Fuller
artful at rogers.com
Fri Dec 24 22:54:58 CST 2004
Absolutely. We are very customer-sensitive, and especially so given the nature of the audiences for such bands as U2 and the Dead. We actually had a customer last year who flew from Japan to catch 12 U2 concerts in various cities in the USA and Canada -- and he travelled alone so he paid the extra single-room hotel price as well. IMO, U2 plays every concert note for note, so why in God's name would anyone want to attend 2 let alone 12 concerts in one tour? Mine is not to reason why, but only to write the sprocs. We want to give these junkies the fastest track possible into our money-extraction machine, while also allowing the first-time user to browse and decide whether she wants to see U2 in East Rutherford or NYC. So we have to be able to "claim" the tickets in the way that TicketMaster does. I guess the real question is, how to start N timers? I have no idea. But I need to do it. Funny how this business goes. U2 and Cher sell so quickly it makes your head spin. Elton (playing to the same basically gay market as Cher) sells SLOWLY. Who knows what's going to move quickly? Nobody. We have sold a LOT of tickets to the Stones, and most of the audience was born after their greatest records were released. Go figure. I would have thought they'd all be at a RadioHead concert instead. Maybe they attended cuz their parents bought the tickets. I don't know. I'm not even a big rock and roll fan, but we write the software the clients want. Gimme Cecil Taylor any day and drown all the Shanias, but a quick assessment of their relative sales will prove the irrelevance of my opinion. Andy Lacey wrote: >As a customer of these kind of sites (and I am) I'd soon stop using it if it >told me there were tickets, I said I'll take 1, went to the trouble of >putting in my details, then my cc details, then it told me my tickets had >been sold to someone else. It may sound like business sense not to hold that >stock, but the longer term good business is not to aggravate your customers. > >-- >Andy Lacey >http://www.minstersystems.co.uk > > > >--------- Original Message -------- >From: dba-sqlserver at databaseadvisors.com >To: dba-sqlserver at databaseadvisors.com <dba-sqlserver at databaseadvisors.com> >Subject: Re: [dba-SQLServer] TicketMaster-like Timer >Date: 20/12/04 10:11 > > > >>Hello Authur and Steve, >> >>I agree with Steve's approach, a self correctly architecture is >>desirable here, but Authur, I am pondering another aspect to your >>question. >> >>I do not know what % of orders are abandoned and for this discussion, >>the reason is irrelevant. Also, I do not know what stock levels your >>client currently holds. >> >>But, if you have a quite high % of orders that ultimately are only >>enquiries and reasonably low stock, you will effectively always have >>10 - 20% of your stock unavailable. >> >>Can you consider some other form of allocations, sort of like when you >>book your airline tickets, you have the seat but it could be gone by >>the time you actually try to pay for it. This may inconvenience some >>customers but the alternative is that the stock would not have been >>there anyway. Also, with the method discussed, the time wasters >>actually prevent real customers acquiring product. And of course >>there is the cost to your client of carrying extra stock to compensate >>for the lost 10-20% of stock. >> >>My logic my not be applicable depending on the actual numbers, but >>this may be food for thought. >> >>Let us know how you tackle it. >> >>Mark >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >>On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 01:11:13 -0500, Steve Conklin (Developer at UltraDNT) >><Developer at ultradnt.com> wrote: >>> Some of the details of this should be altered depending on whether or >>> not you want to fully track "shopping -cart abandonment." >> >> >Either your > > >>> InventoryTransaction table line-items can have 4 statuses (IN, OUT, >>> Pending OUT, Pending (back) IN), or you have 2 tables, Inventory Txn >> >> >and > > >>> Inventory Txns Pending. Either setup can then be queried for current >>> inventory (which should be a calculation, anyway), such as Product 1 >>> inventory = Product 1's (INs + Pend INs) LESS (OUTs + Pend OUTs). >>> Lets assume you also generate a unique order id, and keep that in the >>> inventory transactions, and the order has a status of either >> >> >complete > > >>> or pending, and the date-time of order start. >>> Run a job on the SQL server that executes every N minutes, and >> >> >selects > > >>> the Inv. Txns of Pend Out status for all orders that are pending with >> >> >a > > >>> date-time of less than Now minus N. Set all those orders to status >>> ABANDONED and insert a matching Pend IN for each of the Pend OUTs. >>> (Completed orders already have done the appropriate inventory OUTs.) >>> >>> Hth >>> Steve >>> >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com >>> [mailto:dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of >> >> >Arthur > > >>> Fuller >>> Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 12:05 AM >>> To: dba-sqlserver at databaseadvisors.com >>> Subject: [dba-SQLServer] TicketMaster-like Timer >>> >>> I have a requirement that I have virtually no experience in handling. >> >> >I > > >>> named the subject of this message due to the similarity of my >>> requirement and the functionality of that site. The general idea is >>> this. You want to grab some inventory and hold it for N minutes, >> >> >making > > >>> the available inventory equal P - Requested Qty. Then another sproc >> >> >will > > >>> >>> perhaps fire that seals the grab and sets Actual Inventory to P - >>> Requested Qty (i.e. the credit card was authenticated and the qty was >>> sold). Failing that, upon expiry of N minutes the Request is >> >> >cancelled > > >>> and the Available Inventory is reset to P. I hope this is clear. Here >> >> >is > > >>> >>> an example: >>> >>> Client wants 4 units. >>> Inventory is 10 units. >>> Set the timer to N minutes, and show available as 6 units. Client >>> completes transaction, then set actual inventory to 6 units. Timer >>> expires without completion, reset available inventory to 10 units. >>> >>> Note: >>> It could happen that Q clients request units (i.e. 10 available, >> >> >Client > > >>> 1 requests 4, Client 2 requests 2, Client 3 requests 2), so I need in >>> this case 3 timers and also the ability to display the available >>> inventory as the actual inventory minus the sum of the requests. 10 - >> >> >(4 > > >>> >>> + 2 + 2) = 2. >>> >>> My colleagues and I have kicked this problem around and we've decided >>> this is a back-end challenge. How convenient for them! I really have >> >> >no > > >>> clue how to attack this. Suggestions most gratefully accepted. >>> >>> TIA, >>> Arthur >>> >>> Arthur Fuller wrote: >>> >>> > Always happy to help, Francisco, especially given the number of >> >> >times > > >>> > you have helped me. But on this one I think I need a little more >>> > explanation. Are you wanting an empty row to appear for the >> >> >months > > >>> > that are missing, or what? >>> > >>> > Arthur >>> > >>> > Francisco Tapia wrote: >>> > >>> >> perhaps someone here can help me out so this reporting goes >> >> >a lot > > >>> >> smoother :) >>> >> >>> >> Here is a sample snapshot of my data >>> >> >>> >> 8/1/2003, 1, SampleText, Qty1 >>> >> 10/1/2003, 1, SampleText, Qty1 >>> >> 11/1/2003, 1, SampleText, Qty1 >>> >> 1/1/2004, 1, SampleText, Qty1 >>> >> 8/1/2004, 1, SampleText, Qty1 >>> >> >>> >> There is only data for these months... would you create a >> >> >temp table > > >>> >> to fill in the rest of the months within the criteria? >>> >> >>> >> ex: 8/1/2003 - 8/31/2004 >>> >> >>> >> >>> >> >>> >> >>> >> >>> > >>> > >>> >>> -- >>> No virus found in this outgoing message. >>> Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. >>> Version: 7.0.296 / Virus Database: 265.6.0 - Release Date: 12/17/2004 >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> dba-SQLServer mailing list >>> dba-SQLServer at databaseadvisors.com >>> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-sqlserver >>> http://www.databaseadvisors.com >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> dba-SQLServer mailing list >>> dba-SQLServer at databaseadvisors.com >>> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-sqlserver >>> http://www.databaseadvisors.com >>> >>> >>_______________________________________________ >>dba-SQLServer mailing list >>dba-SQLServer at databaseadvisors.com >>http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-sqlserver >>http://www.databaseadvisors.com >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> > >________________________________________________ >Message sent using UebiMiau 2.7.2 > >_______________________________________________ >dba-SQLServer mailing list >dba-SQLServer at databaseadvisors.com >http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-sqlserver >http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > > > -- No virus found in this outgoing message. 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