Collection Stash: A Collection Cataloging and Collectible Archiving Platform

[Something Sexy]

A user review would be cool. But I still think an approval rating would be needed or it can get bogged down with crap comments.

Then ... work in a... was this review helpful type of thumbs up or down. That will help rate the review and then you can order them as a result.

Ya I agree!

Also I am hopefully going to release this tonight/tomorrow but adding a new feature so that you can now link your photos to a collectible in stash. This will allow you to display the photos of the collectibles in your stash instead of the stock photo. Just another way to more easily show off your collection and tailor your stash to you.

 

[GeneralZodLives]

Ya I agree!

Also I am hopefully going to release this tonight/tomorrow but adding a new feature so that you can now link your photos to a collectible in stash. This will allow you to display the photos of the collectibles in your stash instead of the stock photo. Just another way to more easily show off your collection and tailor your stash to you.

I love this! It'll be cool to see my figure instead of the stock pic!

 

[Darth Madden]

Ya I agree!

Also I am hopefully going to release this tonight/tomorrow but adding a new feature so that you can now link your photos to a collectible in stash. This will allow you to display the photos of the collectibles in your stash instead of the stock photo. Just another way to more easily show off your collection and tailor your stash to you.

That could be cool... now I need to take better pics.

 

[jimjimmyjones85]

Ya I agree!

Also I am hopefully going to release this tonight/tomorrow but adding a new feature so that you can now link your photos to a collectible in stash. This will allow you to display the photos of the collectibles in your stash instead of the stock photo. Just another way to more easily show off your collection and tailor your stash to you.

Nice. Let me know if you need an extra hand with anything

 

[Something Sexy]

Nice. Let me know if you need an extra hand with anything

You know it!

We pushed out the photo linking feature over the weekend. If you go to your stash and click the camera next to a collectible in your stash you can now link photos from the photos you have uploaded. Then when someone views your stash or individual stash items your photo will show up instead of the stock image.

 

[EVILFACE]

Nice feature. I added a few.

Will we be able to go over 100?

 

[Something Sexy]

Nice feature. I added a few.

Will we be able to go over 100?

Ya I think so. I originally had it set that low because we were on a pretty ****** server to start. We have upgraded since then and have a decent amount of space now.

 

[Pixelpiper]

For future consideration:

Might you allow linking to one's Flickr (or Facebook or whatever) account(s) to pull an item's photo?

Even just the ability to post an HTTP image URL and then have CollectionStash download/cache that image the same way it does with a remote upload.

 

[Something Sexy]

Ya, I could open that back up. I originally didn't include it on the user's photo page, hoping that having to go the extra step of pulling it off their computer would stop people from just ripping off photos on the internet. In the end though, I guess I don't care much.

 

[jimjimmyjones85]

You can limit the site though can't you ? I think it would be better to fill the site with original pics rather than rando's from the net.

 

[Something Sexy]

You can limit the site though can't you ? I think it would be better to fill the site with original pics rather than rando's from the net.

Its one of those things where I understand if people use facebook, or imgur, etc to host their photos. If you want to add them to collection stash, right now you would have to download them to your computer and then reupload them. Although, I assume about flickr and imgur have APIs' that I might be able to interface with to automatically add photos.

 

[jimjimmyjones85]

I like the idea of adding it via photobucket, flickr etc.

Then just have the designated folder on those sites cycle through as part of your stash.

Eliminates server space I would believe.

 

[Pixelpiper]

Spotted a few issues:

When adding new items to the database:

1. UPC should be labeled "UPC/EAN" since UPC-only code use on products is only common for domestic/NA products only and getting more rare every day.
2. 13 digits are required to support EAN codes (all Hot Toys products for instance have EAN codes)
3. There's no info on the maximum character length for any of the fields (the description one is troublesome because it's quite short but no idea when it hits max)
4. Contents of lists such as the Category are not in alphabetical order - makes it really hard to find the correct item in the list and leads to possible duplicates when using sub-categories
5. The submit button is at the top of the page only - there should be another down by the SAVE so on doesn't forget to submit

These are questions but I couldn't easily find UI for them:
6. If you press only Save and not submit, what happens?
7. After submitting, how do you find your list of submissions if you need to make a change before they're approved?

I'm not big fan of having to pop-down a menu after searching for items to be able to check their details - clicking on the item's image would make a better default. Also, adding to stash would be a lot quicker without having to pull it from the menu too.

 

[Pixelpiper]

Oh, also consider changing the way the Dimensions work to make sure HEIGHT is available. The easiest would be to drop depth of combine it with Width. Depth is often the width, but height can't be covered by any of the fields available - yet it's super important to most collectors.

 

[Pixelpiper]

The pop-up for "Why do my values look weird" should probably disappear when you click elsewhere on the page.
Clicking the same link again to make the popup disappear causes the page to jump to the top.

Suggestion: include the Manufacturer/Company name preceding the product name in search results. When you do a search for "widget" and that item is made by 10 companies it can get a little sketchy picking the right one.

Suggestion: Sort columns for stash lists - click a column to sort by that column. I can't make any sense of the unsorted list. Offer an icon above the images on the left for the "custom order" - remember the sort order persistently.

Suggestion: persistent settings. If I change my stash to list instead of poster/thumbnails, the site should remember that so I don't have to do it every time I click back to that page.

 

[Something Sexy]

Spotted a few issues:

When adding new items to the database:
1. UPC should be labeled "UPC/EAN" since UPC-only code use on products is only common for domestic/NA products only and getting more rare every day.
2. 13 digits are required to support EAN codes (all Hot Toys products for instance have EAN codes)

Agreed. I have had a note to adjust this to be a 13 character field. I can do this for the next release.

3. There's no info on the maximum character length for any of the fields (the description one is troublesome because it's quite short but no idea when it hits max)

Ya in most places it isn't too big of an issue but description is definitely a problem. It looks like in the error message I am not indicating the length. I can fix that and probably increase it at some point as well.

4. Contents of lists such as the Category are not in alphabetical order - makes it really hard to find the correct item in the list and leads to possible duplicates when using sub-categories

Agreed! I will add a ticket for this.

5. The submit button is at the top of the page only - there should be another down by the SAVE so on doesn't forget to submit
These are questions but I couldn't easily find UI for them:
6. If you press only Save and not submit, what happens?

Maybe this is something you can help me with from a UX perspective. The problem is, some of the mechanics on the page are slightly different. It could be I just need more documentation. When you add artists, tags, parts, etc and you are submitting a new collectible. Those are added real time to the collectible once you select add. However, the main properties for the collectible, name, description, etc are only saved when you click the "save" button. That is only used for those fields, not anything else. So if you are submitting a new collectible you can work on it and come back.

It isn't until you click "Submit for approval" at the top that the collectible is fully validated and it submits it for admin review.

I do agree that the save button is a little misleading there but I can't come up with a better solution yet.

7. After submitting, how do you find your list of submissions if you need to make a change before they're approved?

Right now it is kind of hidden, you have to go to your Stash, then the "Activity" tab and it shows up there as "Submitted". I can update this to maybe show up on the Profile of your stash so it is easier to find.

I'm not big fan of having to pop-down a menu after searching for items to be able to check their details - clicking on the item's image would make a better default. Also, adding to stash would be a lot quicker without having to pull it from the menu too.

Agreed!

Oh, also consider changing the way the Dimensions work to make sure HEIGHT is available. The easiest would be to drop depth of combine it with Width. Depth is often the width, but height can't be covered by any of the fields available - yet it's super important to most collectors.

Ya, actually I apparently did this already when you view a collectibles details but not on the edit. I can update this label. I originally set it so length = height.

Hot Toys - The Dark Knight - Bank Robber Joker

 

[Pixelpiper]

Suggestion: Importers for contents from popular sources/sites (if they're structured). Example: Add an item and paste a URL - site goes and grabs all the details it can from that URL. Example: Sideshow's site is structured with consistent DIVS and other markers for the various basic parameters CS uses.

I don't suggest hard-coding this from scratch as there are probably some good crawling scripts/libraries/tools out there you can use to build it, as parsing HTML manually or with something like only RegEx is a crazy PITA. Anyway, importers are super powerful for the user and a wicked time saver.

 

[Something Sexy]

The pop-up for "Why do my values look weird" should probably disappear when you click elsewhere on the page.
Clicking the same link again to make the popup disappear causes the page to jump to the top.

Agreed! I got this fixed for the next release.

Suggestion: include the Manufacturer/Company name preceding the product name in search results. When you do a search for "widget" and that item is made by 10 companies it can get a little sketchy picking the right one.

So basically making it more obvious? The manufacturer name is there, at least on the list view. Or are you thinking on the tile view?

Suggestion: Sort columns for stash lists - click a column to sort by that column. I can't make any sense of the unsorted list. Offer an icon above the images on the left for the "custom order" - remember the sort order persistently.

What do you mean by that?

Suggestion: persistent settings. If I change my stash to list instead of poster/thumbnails, the site should remember that so I don't have to do it every time I click back to that page.

Good idea. Something I can think about adding in the future.

 

[Something Sexy]

Suggestion: Importers for contents from popular sources/sites (if they're structured). Example: Add an item and paste a URL - site goes and grabs all the details it can from that URL. Example: Sideshow's site is structured with consistent DIVS and other markers for the various basic parameters CS uses.

I don't suggest hard-coding this from scratch as there are probably some good crawling scripts/libraries/tools out there you can use to build it, as parsing HTML manually or with something like only RegEx is a crazy PITA. Anyway, importers are super powerful for the user and a wicked time saver.

Definitely agreed! This is something I have thought about doing many times but haven't found the time yet.

I was thinking of minimally starting with Sideshow and Hot Toys.

 

[Pixelpiper]

Re: Suggestion: include the Manufacturer/Company name preceding the product name in search results. When you do a search for "widget" and that item is made by 10 companies it can get a little sketchy picking the right one.

So basically making it more obvious? The manufacturer name is there, at least on the list view. Or are you thinking on the tile view?

In the list view. The manufacturer is only displayed below the description as a tag currently. For me, this is really difficult to pick out quickly from a long list.


Suggestion: Sort columns for stash lists - click a column to sort by that column. I can't make any sense of the unsorted list. Offer an icon above the images on the left for the "custom order" - remember the sort order persistently.

What do you mean by that?

The list that comes up by default when viewing one's own stash doesn't make any sense to me because I couldn't figure out how it was sorted - was it the order I added them in? No. So I'm suggesting being able to click on the title/header of any column to sort by that column. Because you also offer a custom/manual order feature, to toggle that one I suggest creating a header/icon above the photo that can be clicked on for that.

Which brings me to another issue I just found.

Clicking on the poster/list icons on search results blows away the results and shows an "ascending" list of what looks like random collectibles.


Another suggestion: Only display items in the FILTER options lists from the available search results. In other words, populate those filter options only from the searched results. For instance, when I search for "stormtrooper" there may be only 6 manufacturers, but trying to filter by manufacturer shows me every single one in CS's database.

One more: include more fields/db columns when searching. For example, if I search for Hot Toys Wolverine zero matches are found. I have to search only for "Wolverine" to get any results. You can probably find some search libraries to help with this. Doing a query on a single db column is too restrictive.