PVC windows calculator for JS site. Part 1. Analytics
This article will focus on the window calculator. Yes, I know that their sea, but the one I want to tell about is special. It allows you to consider the cost of window products on the site with an average deviation from the design program for the production of 0.002%. At the time of the launch of the project (May 2011), this calculator was the only solution of this kind. I don’t know how things are with this now, but judging by the periodic calls, I admit that little has changed.
High-quality preliminary analysis of the problem. It was she who determined the border that allowed creating a simple tool for the main target audience, which fully takes into account the specific requirements for ~ 90% of products requiring calculation. The first part will be exactly that.
Select HTML5 Canvas as the basis for the graphical implementation. Many developers still believe that this technology is “experimental” and is not suitable for services targeted at the general public. What is there to talk about in March 2011? .. This choice cost me a kilogram of neurons, but it fully justified itself. The second part will be devoted to this, as well as other specifics with which we had to contend with the task.
')
For those who are not interested in analytical calculations, I suggest that you immediately get acquainted with the demo version of the designer .
If you are engaged in the production of PVC windows, then you very likely have a dream that sounds like this: “It would be nice if I have on my site the customers themselves considered window designs with 100% accuracy, otherwise I already have no managers to service them let's calculate it so ... expensive ... and so? ”.
What is “one hundred percent” the accuracy of the calculation of the cost of construction? This is when the received price of the product coincides (with the permissible error) with the price of calculation in the production program from the manager of the order recipient. “Price without an asterisk” is about it.
If the cost calculated by the calculator on the site differs from the one for which the product is accepted for production, there is no point in such a calculator. Between “check with the manager” or ± 5% and “exact cost here and now” is a fundamental difference.
So: the client must independently calculate the final cost of the product, without contacting at the stage of calculation with the managers of the company (taking their time).
If roughly we have the following groups:
- this is “a man from the street”. He just wanted a window. He may even have some narrow-minded ideas about the coolness of the chambers of the profile and the presence of an “inert vacuum” in the double-glazed windows, but this does not correlate very well with reality.
A retail customer is usually not able to consciously choose a profile system for his window. Therefore, companies working with this consumer category often form narrow model series based on specific profile systems so as not to fool the head with an abundance of options.
Not unimportant point are the measurements. How much can you trust the measurements provided by the customer? Almost impossible. Therefore, companies have a staff of measurers, traveling to the place of the alleged work.
Under these conditions, there is no point in talking about creating a calculator for a retail buyer. And the reason here is non-technical. We need the exact price of the product, and it can not be obtained in the absence of credible dimensions and adequate requirements for the product. All this is made already at the stage of customer contact with the manager in the office or with the company representative “in the field”. In these cases, the site is usually no longer relevant.
So: the creation of a window calculator for a retail buyer who in practice would solve the problem of “100% calculating the cost of a product on the website” is most likely devoid of any meaning. They just will not use.
- These are the guys who, where you have no time. They are especially numerous in small towns and in the countryside. A large firm may not keep its representatives in settlements in the far north, however, along the Yenisei, barges loaded with windows float north to the north every summer. Naturally someone puts them on the ground.
In more general terms, it is a mobile intermediary between the consumer and the manufacturer. It is not always a legal entity. The key feature of this group is “Today I take from you, tomorrow from a competitor, but we don’t say goodbye”. Nothing personal.
What problems? There are many such intermediaries. And everyone needs to know the value of the product here and now. In the aggregate, they give a good volume of orders, but are able to urgently request any department for dealing with customers.
Conclusions: if you give these guys the opportunity to calculate the exact cost of the structure directly “in the field” and immediately report it to the end customer taking into account their mark-up - they are yours forever.
- These are the ones that if glass is immediately a neighborhood, well, at least a house. As a rule, orders are made for typical products, but in good batches. Quite often, they have their own structures equivalent to the average dealers in the style of environmental impact with all the consequences for the manufacturer’s sales department. Plus, the cart pathos.
Conclusions: In such organizations, people processing orders have become accustomed to comfort. These are office workers. They can tell you a lot about emotional balance on their pages on social networks. And calls to the tortured sales department of the manufacturer are not conducive to this balance. If you as a “serious manufacturing company” provide convenient tools for work, they will work with you.
- I learned about this category after implementation. I began to get firms that are engaged in their own developments in the field of window design calculation systems. One company from Omsk even sent me a demonstration of their product, which was written in SilverLight with a clear goal for integration with the web of computational components. The product was very raw, but perhaps the guys have advanced.
If in general, the motivation is always about the same: the current solutions for the industry of the road, so we write our own, with maps and girls. Personally, this approach is alarming for me, but for those who finance such projects more clearly.
Product Components:
~ 90% of orders are products in a rectangular frame with right angles.
The company is positioned in the market primarily as a manufacturer.
Share composition of the clientele (approximately, for a commercial secret):
In absolute values: censored .
The design program for production: SuperWindows version 5 (Currently version 7).
As a result, the decision is made to create a full-fledged window designer - as a tool for dealers who are appointed by the main target audience of the project.
The designer should work on the company's website in modern browsers that support HTML5 Canvas. It was decided that the dealer would be interested in such a calculator no less than the manufacturer, since he will get a time and nerve-saving tool when calculating various variants of the same product “here and now”. All that is required of him is to use a modern browser.
The decision is made to abandon the calculation on the website of non-standard products with oblique corners or curved structural elements due to the small number of such orders in the total mass. As a rule, “non-standards” still require consulting the client with the manager. There is no sense in the calculator in such a situation, and the requirements for the designer are greatly simplified.
As a concept, full constructive modeling of the product is adopted, with a detailed calculation of each component. No preliminary schemes for “standard two” and “threes”. Any “space” with right angles that can be made in production should be modeled by the designer without exception. Everything is fair. Only hardcore!
The designer must ensure that all elements of the product conform to technological limitations (size, area, compliance with the sets of selected accessories). Structures that have gone beyond the acceptable ranges should be marked as erroneous.
The designer should allow to equalize openings geometrically and “according to the light flux” for a design of any complexity (who cries in the subject).
The calculator should calculate the cost of the product with an accuracy as close as possible to the result of calculations on the production software (Super Window). It is also necessary to calculate the weight of the product in multiples of one kilogram. The calculation must take into account not only the cost of the components, but also the cost of all the operations of assembling the structure in production. All this is desirable in on the fly.
Everything listed in the previous section was implemented by me in two months. In addition to me, the project involved the head of the client company as a technical consultant and partner in numerous brainstorming sessions. Technical literacy and the adequacy of this person actually determined the success of the undertaking.
As I wrote at the beginning, the average deviation of the calculation results in the calculator from the calculation in the production software was 0.002%. What can be attributed to losses in algorithms for rounding values. For reverse engineering proprietary software with a closed code, it turned out very even.
Then came the development of a system of orders on the site. Development of a similar calculator for the calculation of aluminum structures. Development of a real-time system for the maintenance and control of production processes ... I also plan to write something about this too.
Subsequent operation of the designer both separately and as part of the order system confirmed the correctness of the chosen solutions. We determined to whom, as it should, and did what solves the task in specific conditions by 100%.
UPD: Functional demo constructor .
On the part of typos, please write in a personal.
Features of the project:
High-quality preliminary analysis of the problem. It was she who determined the border that allowed creating a simple tool for the main target audience, which fully takes into account the specific requirements for ~ 90% of products requiring calculation. The first part will be exactly that.
Select HTML5 Canvas as the basis for the graphical implementation. Many developers still believe that this technology is “experimental” and is not suitable for services targeted at the general public. What is there to talk about in March 2011? .. This choice cost me a kilogram of neurons, but it fully justified itself. The second part will be devoted to this, as well as other specifics with which we had to contend with the task.
')
For those who are not interested in analytical calculations, I suggest that you immediately get acquainted with the demo version of the designer .
The dream of "one hundred percent" accuracy.
Everyone has a dream. Even the old stump in the spring, if you believe one famous song.
If you are engaged in the production of PVC windows, then you very likely have a dream that sounds like this: “It would be nice if I have on my site the customers themselves considered window designs with 100% accuracy, otherwise I already have no managers to service them let's calculate it so ... expensive ... and so? ”.
What is “one hundred percent” the accuracy of the calculation of the cost of construction? This is when the received price of the product coincides (with the permissible error) with the price of calculation in the production program from the manager of the order recipient. “Price without an asterisk” is about it.
If the cost calculated by the calculator on the site differs from the one for which the product is accepted for production, there is no point in such a calculator. Between “check with the manager” or ± 5% and “exact cost here and now” is a fundamental difference.
So: the client must independently calculate the final cost of the product, without contacting at the stage of calculation with the managers of the company (taking their time).
Target audience of the window calculator on the site
If roughly we have the following groups:
- retail buyers;
- small and medium dealers;
- large dealers;
- window manufacturers and software manufacturers for window manufacturers;
Retail Buyer
- this is “a man from the street”. He just wanted a window. He may even have some narrow-minded ideas about the coolness of the chambers of the profile and the presence of an “inert vacuum” in the double-glazed windows, but this does not correlate very well with reality.
A retail customer is usually not able to consciously choose a profile system for his window. Therefore, companies working with this consumer category often form narrow model series based on specific profile systems so as not to fool the head with an abundance of options.
Not unimportant point are the measurements. How much can you trust the measurements provided by the customer? Almost impossible. Therefore, companies have a staff of measurers, traveling to the place of the alleged work.
Under these conditions, there is no point in talking about creating a calculator for a retail buyer. And the reason here is non-technical. We need the exact price of the product, and it can not be obtained in the absence of credible dimensions and adequate requirements for the product. All this is made already at the stage of customer contact with the manager in the office or with the company representative “in the field”. In these cases, the site is usually no longer relevant.
So: the creation of a window calculator for a retail buyer who in practice would solve the problem of “100% calculating the cost of a product on the website” is most likely devoid of any meaning. They just will not use.
Fact: I, as a person who personally wrote the window calculator and who knows how the window is arranged in the smallest detail, when my hour strikes, I still cannot decide for myself on the choice of profile and double-glazed windows, not to mention removing the correct dimensions from the opening. This is my official statement.
Small and medium dealers
- These are the guys who, where you have no time. They are especially numerous in small towns and in the countryside. A large firm may not keep its representatives in settlements in the far north, however, along the Yenisei, barges loaded with windows float north to the north every summer. Naturally someone puts them on the ground.
In more general terms, it is a mobile intermediary between the consumer and the manufacturer. It is not always a legal entity. The key feature of this group is “Today I take from you, tomorrow from a competitor, but we don’t say goodbye”. Nothing personal.
What problems? There are many such intermediaries. And everyone needs to know the value of the product here and now. In the aggregate, they give a good volume of orders, but are able to urgently request any department for dealing with customers.
Conclusions: if you give these guys the opportunity to calculate the exact cost of the structure directly “in the field” and immediately report it to the end customer taking into account their mark-up - they are yours forever.
Fact: now it actually happens. The guys come to the customer with a laptop with mobile Internet. Make measurements. Immediately consider the site design. They add their own and report the price. If the price does not suit, they can immediately change the profile, accessories and adjust the solution to an acceptable amount. The sales department of the manufacturing company, in the meantime, drinks tea with a cake, because Marinka from Accounting is her birthday.
Large dealers
- These are the ones that if glass is immediately a neighborhood, well, at least a house. As a rule, orders are made for typical products, but in good batches. Quite often, they have their own structures equivalent to the average dealers in the style of environmental impact with all the consequences for the manufacturer’s sales department. Plus, the cart pathos.
Conclusions: In such organizations, people processing orders have become accustomed to comfort. These are office workers. They can tell you a lot about emotional balance on their pages on social networks. And calls to the tortured sales department of the manufacturer are not conducive to this balance. If you as a “serious manufacturing company” provide convenient tools for work, they will work with you.
Fact: the issues related to the informal forms of establishing relationships are consonant with the behavior of artillery guns under the impact of shock loads on the carriage, I deliberately leave behind the scope of this article.
Window manufacturers and manufacturers of window manufacturers
- I learned about this category after implementation. I began to get firms that are engaged in their own developments in the field of window design calculation systems. One company from Omsk even sent me a demonstration of their product, which was written in SilverLight with a clear goal for integration with the web of computational components. The product was very raw, but perhaps the guys have advanced.
If in general, the motivation is always about the same: the current solutions for the industry of the road, so we write our own, with maps and girls. Personally, this approach is alarming for me, but for those who finance such projects more clearly.
Fact: write your SuperOkna, Facebook or in case of emergency Vkontaktik - it is always fresh. Do not let doubts kill your dream!
Arrangement for the company-customer at the time of spring 2011
Product Components:
- Six profile systems (now eight);
- Each system allows several sizes of fillings (double-glazed windows, sandwich panels), which draws the zoo along the glazing beads;
- Two types of accessories for valves (ROTO, VORNE);
- Two types of rubber sealing.
- In 2013, a profile lamination was added;
~ 90% of orders are products in a rectangular frame with right angles.
The company is positioned in the market primarily as a manufacturer.
Share composition of the clientele (approximately, for a commercial secret):
- 20% retail;
- 80% dealers of all calibers;
In absolute values: censored .
The design program for production: SuperWindows version 5 (Currently version 7).
Fact: Yes, licensed. No, I was not paid for advertising. Yes, it's a shame!
Technical task
As a result, the decision is made to create a full-fledged window designer - as a tool for dealers who are appointed by the main target audience of the project.
The designer should work on the company's website in modern browsers that support HTML5 Canvas. It was decided that the dealer would be interested in such a calculator no less than the manufacturer, since he will get a time and nerve-saving tool when calculating various variants of the same product “here and now”. All that is required of him is to use a modern browser.
The decision is made to abandon the calculation on the website of non-standard products with oblique corners or curved structural elements due to the small number of such orders in the total mass. As a rule, “non-standards” still require consulting the client with the manager. There is no sense in the calculator in such a situation, and the requirements for the designer are greatly simplified.
As a concept, full constructive modeling of the product is adopted, with a detailed calculation of each component. No preliminary schemes for “standard two” and “threes”. Any “space” with right angles that can be made in production should be modeled by the designer without exception. Everything is fair. Only hardcore!
The designer must ensure that all elements of the product conform to technological limitations (size, area, compliance with the sets of selected accessories). Structures that have gone beyond the acceptable ranges should be marked as erroneous.
The designer should allow to equalize openings geometrically and “according to the light flux” for a design of any complexity (who cries in the subject).
The calculator should calculate the cost of the product with an accuracy as close as possible to the result of calculations on the production software (Super Window). It is also necessary to calculate the weight of the product in multiples of one kilogram. The calculation must take into account not only the cost of the components, but also the cost of all the operations of assembling the structure in production. All this is desirable in on the fly.
This is not the end
Everything listed in the previous section was implemented by me in two months. In addition to me, the project involved the head of the client company as a technical consultant and partner in numerous brainstorming sessions. Technical literacy and the adequacy of this person actually determined the success of the undertaking.
As I wrote at the beginning, the average deviation of the calculation results in the calculator from the calculation in the production software was 0.002%. What can be attributed to losses in algorithms for rounding values. For reverse engineering proprietary software with a closed code, it turned out very even.
Then came the development of a system of orders on the site. Development of a similar calculator for the calculation of aluminum structures. Development of a real-time system for the maintenance and control of production processes ... I also plan to write something about this too.
Subsequent operation of the designer both separately and as part of the order system confirmed the correctness of the chosen solutions. We determined to whom, as it should, and did what solves the task in specific conditions by 100%.
UPD: Functional demo constructor .
PS
On the part of typos, please write in a personal.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/177297/
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