Today's update was major in that it was a huge amount of work, but subtle in that no one is likely to notice it. I sort of explained what I was going to do in my last post, but here's the nuts and bolts:
- figure records no longer have their own category id.
- figure records are now required to be linked to a package at all times, including at creation
- you can no longer link figures to packages on the package form. Now you must do the reverse, link a package to a figure on the figure form. This way we don't run the risk of winding up with "dangling figures", meaning figures that aren't linked to any packages
In short, you can still browse figures by category, but we figure out what category a figure is in by examining the package he's linked to. This is cool, because now you will see a figure in multiple categories, where appropriate. I'll give you an example. Look at this particular optimus prime:
http://www.shmax.com/part_details/139/Optimus_PrimeNotice that he comes packaged in "Optimus Prime", which is in Cybertron > Legends of Cybertron, and also "Movie Optimus Prime Cybertron Optimus Prime Movie Megatron Cybertron Megatron", which is in Movie > Exclusive > Other.
Here's the subtle bit--notice that if you browse either of those categories by figure, you'll see this "Optimus Prime":
http://www.shmax.com/Database/396?tab=1http://www.shmax.com/Database/505?tab=1Mmmmm, so much nicer.
This update wasn't exactly spectacular, but it will lay the groundwork for even more sophisticated browsing down the road.
- shmax
p.s. Oh, I also fixed the link widget such that it doesn't reset when you refresh the page.
