Topics

1

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 03/03/204

March 03, 2024, 10:52:28 AM

We've launched a complete rewrite of the /modify_part page! Shiny new features:
- "quick nav" menu on the left
- real-time validation
- dynamic fields react to the current "part type" (eg. "faction" doesn't appear unless you mark it as being a "figure")
- added tons of help text (often with little clarifying images)
- tree pickers (ie. "form", "toyline", and "mold") now show a breadcrumb path at the top to show where you are
- completely redesigned the mold picker. In 10 years I don't think anyone other than the moderators has ever dared meddle with it, but the new one has a search feature, a more streamlined interface, and better help. We'll see if it's a little less intimidating...
- more dynamic "Link to Products" section, meaning that the editable column and current part name will update as you tinker with the other fields in the form.
- there's also a more nuanced dynamic between the photo gallery section and the various pickers on the page, particularly around deleting photos. It's a bit difficult to explain, but basically deleting a photo no longer immediately creates any corresponding changes to the image pickers, meaning you can go back in to edit your submission and un-delete a photo, and the pickers will revert to their previous state.
That's more or less the gist of it! Please don't be shy about leaving feedback or making suggestions for improvements.

2

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 01/16/2024

January 16, 2024, 11:13:16 AM

- rewrote the /part_details page using React/Material-UI ( https://shmax.com/part_details/9 )

Please holler with any issues or feedback.

3

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 01/07/2024

January 07, 2024, 10:33:57 AM

- fixed functionality of the "Match these colors exactly" checkbox on the advanced search
- (possibly) fixed issues around persistence of sort order in cookies on profile page tabs

4

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 01/03/2023

January 03, 2024, 08:59:18 AM

- fixed handling of malformed "partType" filters coming in from the wild
- removed the "Parts" & "Products" tabs from the /photos page
- restored the "products" and "parts" filter checkboxes on the /photos page
- fixed missing product id in the sku picker on the /modify_part page (reported by Engledogg)
- fixed bad /part_details link on the photo admin page (reported by Engledogg)
- fixed broken "primary photo" sort on parts/products pages

5

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 12/23/2023

December 23, 2023, 10:34:11 AM

Haven't done one of these since July, so we're overdue. Unless otherwise mentioned, most of these issues and features were reported or requested by Engledogg, our fearless lead moderator.  Recent updates:


- fixed the SSO log in options (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
- fixed broken /faction_guide page
- fixed broken "print page" functionality in the forums
- plugged hole that allowed faulty front end code to assign non-existent photos to photo fields on sku and part records (reported by KidTDragon)
- fixed issue where secondary photos assigned to part records weren't sticking (if you made any such changes in recent memory, might want to resubmit them)
- fixed issue where submitted part-form data on part records wasn't sticking
- fixed various issues around the "TODAY" link in the collection UI
- added the ability to easily clear the "date bought" field both on mobile and web
- slightly tweaked the formatting of the "portlet" header on the main page (don't know why I put that off for so many years)
- upgraded us to new version of material-ui. Doesn't seem to have much of a major visible effect, but the date picker is a bit beefier, now
- fixed broken wishlist functionality
- restored ability to download wishlist (reported by Bjallen2880, thank you)
- fixed the "parts I'm missing" functionality on download collection feature (Bjallen2880 again, thank you). Also improved formatting a bit.
- fixed issues around submitting a blank "name" when editing a mold category node (reported by KidTDragon)
- upgraded us to new version of ActiveRecord (an OSS project I maintain, and the source of many of these other problems, including the wish list fiasco. I won't list all of the fixes related to that here, but big thanks to Engledogg and KidTDragon for patiently reporting everything that went kerflooey)
- fixed off-by-one issues in date picker (reported by Phantom Dusclops, thank you)
- fixed the "releases" link on the product details page
- fixed bugs and improved formatting around the submission confirmation emails
- fixed issues around approving/rejecting individual submissions in the review flow
- added a "Product not found" message to the product details page when an invalid product id is passed in
- fixed issues around SEO; essentially, we had fallen completely off the map, and google didn't know we existed
- fixed ability to upload custom avatars
- added some alert messaging when you try to upload a photo that is too large
- fixed a few part fields that were erroneously marked as "required" (reported by KidTDragon)
- fixed a few issues around mold picking/validation in the UI
- migrated collection date bought database column from a DATETIME to a DATE in an attempt to reduce confusion around timezones (took some doing, but I think we nailed it)
- increased max year on date picker by 1 year

And some other miscellaneous stuff that either isn't interesting enough to mention, or I don't remember.

I also wanted to mention that as of this writing, we are officially out of open bugs on shmax.com! I think this may literally be the first time we've ever managed to pull that off, so if you want to pause long enough to run around in circles in the street naked for a few minutes, that's what I'll be doing.

Thanks again to Engledogg and KidTDragon and the rest of you for reporting all this stuff like champs.

6

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 07/06/2023

July 06, 2023, 04:37:00 PM

Today we launched a complete rewrite (using React.js) of the /modify_product page. We devoted more time and testing to this than usual but there's still a high likelihood of breakage, so please don't be shy about reporting issues as you see them, and feel free to share any feedback. Enjoy.

7

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 03/25/2023

March 25, 2023, 04:31:42 PM

The struggle to drag shmax.com kicking and screaming into modernity continues:
- converted photo guidelines page to React
- split out the photo tutorial material into a new page, also using React

8

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 03/23/2023

March 23, 2023, 08:12:00 PM

Just wanted to mention that we sorted out a few bugs today that were preventing users from sending direct messages to each other. Not sure how long it's been broken, but it seems to go back quite a ways, so sorry about that.

9

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 02/14/2023

February 14, 2023, 04:55:38 PM

Now that the shmax.com back end is sorted out, we've started overhauling the front end. If you dabble in front end development yourself you may have heard of the popular framework React: it is now powering our /product_details page (of particular note is the shiny new collection UI), as well as the item rows on the /products page. We've already caught and fixed a few minor issues, but please do speak up if you notice anything we missed.

10

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 09/16/2022

September 16, 2022, 11:38:53 AM

Hey folks, sorry for not doing an update in a while, but I wanted to let you know that we recently did some back end maintenance, and as always it led to a number of glitches and breakages (particularly in the forum software). I'm fixing them as they pop up, but please don't be shy about reporting any problems you notice.

11

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 03/09/2021

March 09, 2021, 01:48:22 PM

Hey folks, sorry for all the bugs popping up recently. It's a good sign, in a way, as we recently launched a rewrite of the back end, and these little issues are just an indication that wheels are in motion. This was a massive project over 2 years in the making, and entailed transitioning from my old, oddball homemade framework to one that is community-built and based on a standard. Since it's just a back end rewrite you shouldn't notice too many changes (other than bugs), but it does put us in a position to move forward to the next huge project (which is rewriting the front end), and after that, finally to new features.
So, thanks for hanging in there through all this. We've logged each and every single bug that you've reported during this time, and our priority now is to work through them all before getting involved in anything else. Please don't be shy about reporting any weirdness you see.
Thanks much.

12

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 01/01/2017

January 01, 2018, 04:07:39 PM

* fixed Facebook login
* fixes for deletion of user accounts (reported by Engledogg)
* fixed styling of photo boxes on profile page (Engledogg)
* fix styling of long release comment strings (Engledogg)
* fix for issue with modifying photo records (Engledogg)

13

Help Us Build the Database / Disney Label Rereleases

October 01, 2017, 06:11:35 PM

I was rummaging around in Akihabara yesterday and many of the stores are featuring what appear to be releases of those old oddball Disney Transformers from some years back. They had the color and B&W Mickey, and maybe a Buzz Lightyear. I looked them up in the database here and didn't see them, so thought I'd mentiond it. Let me know if you need me to gather more info.

14

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 09/08/2017

September 07, 2017, 04:23:45 PM

* When filtering browse results by store, show the store name instead of the store id at the top of the page
* fix issue where toyline names with @ in their name (eg. "Be@rbrick") were showing as "[email protected]" (reported by Engledogg)
* fix issue with reviewing user-submitted deletes (Engledogg)
* allow the term "null" in site searches (Engledogg)
* added "See all parts" functionality to collection tab of profile page (suggested by Engledogg)

15

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 08/26/2017

August 26, 2017, 08:25:23 PM

Bug fix roundup:

* Fixed issue with "Top Product Submitters" counts getting out of sync after deleting records (reported by KidTDragon)
* Fixed behavior of site search when clearing out the search input box and resubmitting (Engledogg)
* Normalized appearance of "Date Created" in both sort separators in browse view and in "Recent Additions" portlet (Engledogg)
* Fixed the little-known "Remove Collection Item" link behavior in the collection item edit form dialog on the collection tab of the profile page (Jazz1992)
* fixed the breadcrumb paths on the "Ask the Database" page (Engledogg)
* Modified the price history chart such that it 404s and serves our 404 image for sku records that can't be found
* Now disregarding the time component when gathering data points for the price history charts, so that any data point that happens today will appear on the chart (Engledogg)

16

Feature Requests/Announcements / Announcement: I Blew It

July 30, 2017, 09:47:20 AM

So I was working on bugs last night, and the first thing I usually do is sync data in my local environment to the data on the production site. Unfortunately, I got confused and ran my script for doing this on production itself, which means I blew away the current production data with older data. The good news is that we lost only a single day's worth of data. We're updating the script logic to make it harder to do this kind of thing, and I've been sent to my room without video games until I think about what I've done, so it's not likely to happen again.

So anyway, if you're wondering what happened to some little change (or forum post) you made yesterday, now you know. Sorry, folks.

17

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 07/08/2017

July 09, 2017, 12:53:06 AM

Some bug fixes for the new tagging feature:

* collection items are now ordered; they retain the order they're created in
* suggestion results when typing in a tag input give precedence to tags that start with the characters you typed

18

Feature Requests/Announcements / Update 07/5/2017

July 05, 2017, 09:03:03 PM

Has it really been nearly a year since I last posted an update? I guess that's what I get for discovering Game of Thrones 5 years after everyone else did. Stupid nothing-knowing Jon Snow.

I do have a few things to report. First, we've moved again. We're now on AWS. I think this is the last move we're going to do for a while; we have Unlimited Storage and Power, now, and it's bizarrely cheap.

That's kept me pretty busy for the last month or so, but I have managed to find time to do a little polishing here and there...


New Features:

* There is now a "Tags" field in the collection UI. You can type in stuff like "Found at Garage Sale", "Gift from Grandma", or whatever you want. These tags will be tied exclusively to your collection, and when you go to add new tags the old ones will autocomplete to save on typing. (requested by Engledogg)

Enhancements
* The filtering interface on the profile page has been spruced-up and expanded quite a bit. You can now filter on date bought, price paid, and even the "tags" previously mentioned. (requested by Engledogg)
* The "Exclusives" store picker widget doodad on the modify product page has been retired and replaced with a tag input.


Bug fixes:

* fixed data source for the wishlist tab (reported by robofinch)
* sku links on the wishlist tab items now work as expected
* fixed removal of items from the wishlist
* fixed various issues with changing usernames (reported by Spiff-o-matic... formerly Spliffdizzle)
* fixed mold widget (reported by Engledogg)
* fixed issue where reparenting a category with a lot of collectors associated with it would cause the site to chug (reported by Engledogg)
* fixed similar issue where changing the release date on a toy collected by hundreds of users would cause chuggage
* optimized collection download code so that it doesn't choke on truly epic collections (engledogg again)
* fixed issue where the browse "view" would change from "details" to "brief" when doing a sort (engledogg)
* fixed issue where changing a toyline on a toy with multiple toylines would cause strange behavior
* optimized loading of "shared names" for part records with a lot of shared names (such as "instruction booklet". Reported by Engledogg)
* fixed issue where the "package type" would not be displayed correctly in the original column when doing submission reviews (Engledogg)
* fixed issue where adding multiple "forms" to a part record would result in only a single form being added (Engledogg).


And lots more. I'd go on, but I'm tired of typing and this is time that could be better spent fixing more bugs. Or playing Mass Effect. Big thanks to Engledogg for his tireless bug-chasing efforts.

19

Feature Requests/Announcements / We've moved...

June 24, 2017, 11:37:57 PM

Yes, we've moved the site yet again. It's been in the works for over a month. I wish I could say that I don't expect any issues, but every other time we've tried this something has exploded. As always, please be on the lookout for bugs, missing images, issues with logging in and out, and any other monkeyshines. Don't assume I already know about it, because as of now, as far as I know everything is perfect.

20

Help Us Build the Database / Macross?

November 11, 2016, 01:17:29 PM

Hey mods, I received an email from a user wanting to add this guy to the database:

http://hlj.com/product/ACA82128

but it seems we don't have a home for it. What do you think? Top-level "Macross" toyline?