Sorry for not replying either--I wasn't sure if your post was directed at me, or meant for general discussion. I guess I still don't really understand the main thrust of your point--are you asking me to implement your tables, or asking for advice on how to do it on your own site?
Of course I'm always interested in hearing about new ideas, particularly when it comes to the collection system. I should mention that the collection system has been completely redesigned, with new UI, new features, and a whole slew of new data fields you can enter in. The new collection pages have statistics for what percentages of the factions you own, MISB vs. loose, etc. The mods and I have decided not to launch the new system until the parts database is more fleshed-out, but it should be appearing soon.
Your idea for the tables are interesting, but I have to confess that I really don't understand them--it's not clear to me what all the rows of numbers mean, nor what you mean by having a scale from "need" to "have" (surely "have" is a boolean value?). I also note that they seem to be centered around toylines (like Armada) that are sort of discrete and can be easily partitioned into a few factions. That might work for something like Armada, but anything I implement needs to be robust enough to work for any scrappy toyline or node in the category tree, with any level of complexity (consider something like "Titanium", with all its factions, or the Animorphs, which have none).
But there are infinite types of tables and graphs that can be generated that would foot the bill, and it's something I've been thinking about off and on. One thing I would like to do is have a page that lists rows for every collector, with statistics that can be sorted on any column (ie. #autobots, mold completion, # MIB, #mini-cons, etc). So the idea of a "Top Collectors" list would be enriched a bit, and one could navigate through the database categories, looking for sorts, scenarios and categories where their collection happens to be #1. But something like that will have to wait until after I launch the new system.
You've mentioned you'd like to be able to download your collection--that's fairly reasonable. It would be pretty easy to generate a csv or some other format that could be imported into your favorite spreadsheet program. Whether or not you would then be able to easily import, process, or otherwise use that data in your own schemes is up to you, but I can't see the wisdom in ever allowing users to compose and execute MySQL queries directly on the database. A more likely scenario would involve me exposing a simple REST-based API to the users, in which you could make requests and I would return XML, which you could use to do whatever you want. But that's going to be way down the line. A lot of this depends on the site actually taking off--so far we only get a few visitors a day, and it's hard to get motivated to engineer these huge features when the audience for them is so small (and yes, I'm the site's sole designer/engineer).
You had some questions about HTML in your other post--I won't go into much detail now, but you shouldn't really be worrying about the limitations of tables at this point. Just decide what you want to do, and know that between html, CSS, and javascript, there's always a way to accomplish what you have in mind.
I think you also mentioned something about being frustrated that you couldn't find any decent information on Tripredacus Agent. Not to ask stupid questions, but did you do a search on this site?
http://www.shmax.com/Package_Details/76 ... acus_AgentWell, I guess that's all for now. Good luck to you with your site!
Max
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
