Hey there guys! First let me say that i really like this community and am glad it exist!
Last year i spent several months working on a massive parts auto ordering file in excel. I had no previous VBA(Visual Basic for Applications) experience. I took all of the BOMs made over the years and reformatted them for naming continuity, parts continuity, and clarification. I made it using formulas for Excel 2016 to be a bit more accessible. It also can be adjusted for new modules and if you want a different part instead of what i have listed, you can change it. A couple caveats being parts URLs have to be Tayda or Mouser. These account for 95%* of the parts i used in the file. Some basic excel know how is necessary.
I simply can put in the inventory i have and check which modules i want parts for, and it will populate the carts on the webpage with the items. It will highlight cells to corresponding parts in different colors (green/success, Yellow/double check, red/out of stock or double check). It uses VBA and internet explorer to open up each URL and add the quantity necessary. I used it several times when i was building a lot of modules and it really sped up the ordering process. I haven’t built every module yet so i haven’t got to test every BOMs parts list. I learned of avenues that would make this even quicker using Selenium but I didn’t think the effort learning a whole new thing that others would also need to use this wasn’t worth the gain of speed and using chrome instead of Internet explorer. This brings me to my main question,
Would anyone really need this?
Pro’s, Cons, Concerns:
-I don’t know if people usually build in the volume i was?
-I believe on Tayda you can just save a list of items and name it. This could just be done for each module but may not cover every part you need.
-How long will VBA really be able to use Internet Explorer(IE) for? It’s old and when i mean IE i mean the OLD IE. lol not Edge.
-This would help if you have at least excel 2016.
-This file can be repurposed to order different parts from Tayda/Mouser easily. Others will need a bit of studying if even possible.
-Having reformatted BOMs is very nice.
-I am located in North America.
-If you already have a lot of components, this would not be as helpful unless you keep inventory.
*Parts URLs used by website:
Tayda 135 | 85.44%|
Mouser 9 | 5.70%|
Tubes and more 5 | 3.16%|
Included 5 | 3.16%|
Aliexpress 1 | 0.63%|
Ebay 1 | 0.63%|
Jameco 1 | 0.63%|
Couldn’t find 1 | 0.63%|