Topics

1

Help Us Build the Database / anyone want to scrape UPC #s?

March 13, 2021, 08:46:35 AM

I found a website that seems to archive UPC #'s that might be useful for here.
itemdb.com
I don't know how to code something to scrape the data and send it here, but they do provide the means on their end to do so, 100 entries a day for free. I'm sure there are ways to get around that, although I'd worry that exploiting that might eliminate the free service completely.
It looks like they in turn have been scraped from other stores and auctions (as their product names sometimes have odd words like "loose" chosen as the 1st result out of many) and they don't have ALL Transformer products, but they do have a surprising amount of old and obscure stuff that might not be here.

2

Feature Requests/Announcements / is there a faster way to update collections?

September 18, 2011, 03:02:21 PM

(Sorry to only come on here to ask for more features to be implemented. I haven't been on this site in months if not years.)

TL;DR: Could we have an edit mode without pictures or pull-down menus? Just text and check-boxes/radio-boxes so you can quickly go and update a few dozen entries, each with a single click rather than multiple clicks on a sluggishly scrolling page.

One click to open the drop-down menu for the figure, another to click the drop-down menu for the condition, a second to recognize what to click on (no matter how many times you do it. I actually get worse at it with time since it makes me so sleepy.), another click to select it. Repeat the click-scan-click process if you bought it new but opened it.
All the while scrolling down the page. For some reason it doesn't scroll so smoothly, especially when first loading. I'm guessing that's because of all the work it does when it interacts with the database. Maybe being able to quickly edit a person's collection would be too much work on the system.

One of these days I'm going to learn SQL and stuff and be able to code some neat collection visualization options like what I've imagined since over 10 years ago. :|

BTW, what is the difference between "opened" and "loose"? Is that basically whether the box is included? Why is that listed in a different section and in a different way from the instructions?

3

Feature Requests/Announcements / new visual way to display collection

November 30, 2008, 05:49:57 AM

Sorry. Getting impatient. After a few days with my post in general, I made another one here.

Many years ago, I manually edited HTML tables to keep track of my collection. I'd like one day to be able to display my collection from this website in the same way, but I need to learn some PHP and SQL I guess, since I can't really ask such a big job from whoever's capable of doing so here. (I don't know if it's anyone else besides shmax)

The purpose of this oh-so-pretty table is to give you an overall look at the current state of your ENTIRE collection all at once, in a visual manner, so you can see just how far you've gone, and just how far you have to go. Not just with numerical results, or a single bar graph for all TFs. Many people have different ways of taking in information, and there is no universal "best way" for everyone. Some think best in words, pictures, or numbers.

I have a lot of work to do, not just on learning how to implement dynamic web content in this manner, but also in how to code what previously was manually laid out, to be automatically laid out. There's lots of potential to make it even fancier, with percentage bar graphs in the gimmick section, and moving sections around. (although that would either require a GUI, or perhaps some scripting. I wonder if it would be possible to allow users to script the public data they're given access to. I've heard there are permissions and restrictions you can set when interacting with (My)SQL, so I would thing that theoretically it is.)

So here's what it looks like:

elaborate color codes: (also featuring a new layout for Armada, which offered the challenge of how to display 3 factions, with 'Bot & 'Con products including members from the 3rd faction) http://www.chaoticdescent.site90.com/tf ... 20egX.html
I'll probably re-do the color codes. I think ideally, every individual would want to customize their own color codes rather than having to use someone else's, which may not fit their needs.

One of the things I displayed was the series and sublines over the years.
http://www.chaoticdescent.site90.com/tf ... rview.html

the poor pathetic remains of my collection tabulation after I failed to backup my files and my HD crashed (also lacking color codes) : http://www.chaoticdescent.site90.com/tf-collection.html

4

General Transformers Discussion / cataloging TFs & series/gimmicks

November 29, 2008, 02:48:39 AM

I think right now this topic belongs here rather than suggestions for the database, even though I'd like to eventually suggest it.
Years ago I had my collection typed up in HTML tables with elaborate color codes for want-to-[don't want] and have-to-[don't have]. It was really pretty. I'd like one day to be able to display my collection from this website in that manner, but I need to learn some PHP and SQL I guess, since I can't really ask such a big job from whoever's capable of doing so here. (I don't know if it's anyone else besides the main guy)
elaborate color codes: (also featuring a new layout for Armada, which offered the challenge of how to display 3 factions, with 'Bot & 'Con products including members from the 3rd faction) http://www.chaoticdescent.site90.com/tf ... 20egX.html
the poor pathetic remains of my collection tabulation after I failed to backup my files and my HD crashed: http://www.chaoticdescent.site90.com/tf-collection.html

I'll probably re-do the color codes. I think ideally, every individual would want to customize their own color codes rather than having to use someone else's, which may not fit their needs. Right now my priorities have shifted to: a smaller personal collection; my existing collection which in some places I'd like to complete; a museum I'd like to open one day, which ideally would feature each figure in each mode, meaning my priority is on collecting a copy of each figure for each mode above 2, and the hopefully finding two collectors with complete collections to provide the majority of the display :> ; and finally, possibly providing the 2nd collection myself, which is still probably too ambitious for myself. (it basically means absolute completism) I'm also debating if there's any place for a MISB/MOSC collection in a museum, or whether that's fairly pointless. I think it would have to make a 3rd collection separate from loose figures.

http://www.chaoticdescent.site90.com/tf ... rview.html
One of the things I displayed was the series and sublines over the years. I'm going back to work on it now, but it's hard to get all the info on release dates. TFU.info lists one year, TFwiki lists another. (eg: Beast Machines - Dinobot - Magmatron. 1999 or 2000?. eg2: Transmetals. 1998-2000, or -2001? (BotCon Tigatron was in 2001 and is a Transmetal. everything else ended 2000. mainline Transmetals ended in 2000, but there was still the one officially released Transmetal.))
I'm not sure what featured gimmicks to include as a sub-line, or whether to include them all and just rank them by percentage of released product that year (with the higher ones at the top).
edit: god, this is pathetic! TFU.info and TFwiki neither of which have info on whether the TM2 Cheetor repaint Tripredacus Agent is actually a Beast Wars or Beast Machines figure! NOTHING! Are we living in the stone age of internet TF fandom? Ok, eBay shows it on a BW card. Both TFwiki and TFU.info show it as a 2001 release. A year after Beast Wars was over. WHAH??

and both with the featured gimmicks as well as the series, I'm wondering what kind of a visual logic I should show. Should I use the current layout, (with G1 and G2 filling the full height of the series rows since there were no other lines at the same time, and then in Beast Wars it shrinks to make room for the brief Machine Wars, and then by Universe, we end up with 3 simultaneous lines), or should I limit the height to it's role? (so that mainlines only ever take up the top row, and secondary lines below, and store exclusive lines are always at the bottom in their own row.)
I had been planning to make a separate row not just for the exclusive series names, but for the figures themselves. Should Commemorative Series go in with stuff like BotCon exclusives and store exclusive extentions of mainlines? It's in a strange category all of it's own, although I suppose it's like a BotCon exclusive in that it's not an extention of the mainline.

Also, RID was a filler line, but it was big, with accompanying fiction. Classics was also a filler line, but it did not have it's own fiction. Should I bump it down? It would also allow me to line it up with Universe/Classics 2.0 which is a continuation of it. I like the visual continuity, but it doesn't always make as much sense.

It's really tricky dealing with HTML tables.
There's no way to get non-rectangular cells, is there? The general answer seems to be no. But what about eliminating the borders between cells to simulate an L shape? I think I need to rewrite my table for that, and but the border=1 attribute in a separate table for each box rather than as the table for all series. (which is messy)
Currently the only place I need it is for Universe/Classics "2.0" to contain a bordered subseries of "25th Anniversary", since it's the same line under a new banner, I don't want to chop it off and make it separate. (plus it's possible we may get a few figures under the Universe packaging without 25th Anniversary... or not)

5

Feature Requests/Announcements / will we be able to download the database?

November 28, 2008, 06:04:43 AM

I was hoping the database was going to be downloadable so we could both have an offline record of our collections (for taking to conventions and such), as well as for potentially tinkering around with.
I can't remember if you said anything about this in the past... I had a feeling you were going to allow something, but I don't know if it was you or a previous project that was only going to allow a single spreadsheet output to be downloadable.
I dunno... there's also uses like being able to see what figure it is when you're less familiar with it. (like all my Micromasters. I can NEVER remember which ones I need to buy. and a name is not enough.)

6

Feature Requests/Announcements / a pile of suggestions

May 17, 2008, 10:33:56 PM

I'd like to suggest you make the database downloadable, in something easy to manipulate, like spreadsheet form, or something you can stick right back into a local copy of your database.

and... I'd like to dream about synchronizing local copies of your collection with your collection listed here. (just keeping track of what you have, not new entries) That way you could do something like update your collection while on a laptop checking your storage boxes in the basement, and then upload and DING, done. Pretty sure databases have some feature like that, right?

oh right. I mentioned filters. It would be nice if you could maybe save filter settings automatically, so you could do things like filter out packaging variants. I don't know. That might be really hard to distinguish from the figures inside being actual variants or exactly the same. (like the Wal-Mart Skyboom shield Mini-Cons that were packaged with storage tins and Cybertron deluxes. The Mini-Cons are different, but the deluxes aren't. Meanwhile, there are Cybertron deluxe 2-packs that are unchanged.)

BTW, with the UPC #s and whatnot, I had found some packages had more than one. On each part of the packaging that was separate (the card back, the insert inside the bubble) the number was slightly different. I'll try to fish around for a specific example at some point. I also know the #s change sometimes in different countries (because the packaging is different, for things like bilingual text. different packaging, different #)
edit: ok, I found an example. (lucky for you, I keep the packaging of everything) Universe Blackarachnia. P/N 6252740000 on the card insert in the bubble. on the card back, P/N 6238460300. Hrm. there's more numbers. C-1063A. and then indented: 32241.
I notice that the number you keep track of, "Product Code/Assortment #" has... part of the UPC (or whatever the bar-code is called). Do all Transformers have the same beginning of the UPC? 0 76930 ##### 4 ? (not sure about those single digits on the outside) *checks other packaging* nope. Universe Micromaster Devastator has 6 53569 00352 6. huh... and his product code doesn't match his UPC # the way Blackarachnia does. His Product code is 29472/29460 Asst.
So I guess my info is only useful for people collecting packaging variants, including bilingual/unilingual/etc.

Oh, and I had mentioned earlier with xZAOx, which he confirmed was a feature he was going to implement in his project, a way to match people's wanted toys with available toys. as well as things like maximum price to pay, or minimum price taken, perhaps with a second number for each to set a starting price slightly more ideal for the person offering/looking.
For your system, this would of course require an additional field, one of "for sale", as opposed to "in my collection". (heh. in MY toys, the line between the two is sometimes not clear at all... )