New LEGO site created

[MarcoB]

Hello all!

New LEGO site has been created where you can browse your sets and parts.

The idea is like in Peeron, but with some improvements.

It's already usable, but still needs work to do.

I'm interested what features you liked to have in a site like this? And why.

Small preview:

[DLuders]

Looks interesting, but could you post the URL for the site so we can browse?

[MarcoB]

Looks interesting, but could you post the URL for the site so we can browse?

Well, I left out the link on purpose.

I wish to keep the site in secret for a while more.

I do not want anyone to disappoint because it's still unfinished.

[Superkalle]

Well, I left out the link on purpose.

I wish to keep the site in secret for a while more.

I do not want anyone to disappoint because it's still unfinished.

Hm, not much to comment if you can't try it. The title of the topic is "New Lego site created", so you expect to see a new site, right

But the general idea seems interesting.

A question though - where do you get the data to populate the database. If you're taking it from BL/Peeron, you may want to contact them and ask permission.

[MarcoB]

Hm, not much to comment if you can't try it. The title of the topic is "New Lego site created", so you expect to see a new site, right

But the general idea seems interesting.

A question though - where do you get the data to populate the database. If you're taking it from BL/Peeron, you may want to contact them and ask permission.

Well, ok, here:

Basebrick

Data, images (linked) are from bricklink and with permission.

[davee123]

Search needs some fixing. I searched for "plate 6 x 14", but I didn't get the expected 3456 element immediately at the top of the search results. Instead, it seemed to match every set in the database containing the word "plate", but only showed me the top 50 matches. Also didn't seem to return me any parts, just sets, unless searching the top for people's collections.

Speaking of which, you might want to default people's collections to "private" unless they explicitly specify them to be public.

For LUGBULK-- it looks like there's some functionality in there, or WILL be-- but I can't seem to figure out exactly what's going on with it. Is that only for members of your club?

DaveE

[MarcoB]

Search needs some fixing. I searched for "plate 6 x 14", but I didn't get the expected 3456 element immediately at the top of the search results. Instead, it seemed to match every set in the database containing the word "plate", but only showed me the top 50 matches. Also didn't seem to return me any parts, just sets, unless searching the top for people's collections.

Yes, search is not working well, but some things ("problems") in it are not in my power to change (server administrator's limitations). For example words less than 4 letter long are ignored. And there's also MySQL stop words..

But I will check that out.

Speaking of which, you might want to default people's collections to "private" unless they explicitly specify them to be public.

Your right, changed.

For LUGBULK-- it looks like there's some functionality in there, or WILL be-- but I can't seem to figure out exactly what's going on with it. Is that only for members of your club?

It's a full LUGBULK ordering system with all kind of features. It has been optimized with/to my club, but other clubs can try it if they are interested.

We have completed two orders and feedback was quite postitive how the system helped to order parts from lego.

Edit:

It seem that my mail administrator has some problems, so registration comfirmation mails are moving slowly.

But mail or not, accounts are approved normally (daytime) less than an hour.

Edited September 7, 2010 by MarcoB

[davee123]

Yes, search is not working well, but some things ("problems") in it are not in my power to change (server administrator's limitations). For example words less than 4 letter long are ignored. And there's also MySQL stop words..

:(

Can you pass it in as a word with spaces in it? I've written a few searches for LEGO elements, and I typically recognized "N x N" or "N x N x N" or "N x N x N/N" as actual words within the CGI, and used them to do the search. Technically, you want some smart regular expressions that treat "NxN" and "N x N" and "NX N" as the same thing. But those dimensions are typically REALLY important for LEGO element searches :)

It's a full LUGBULK ordering system with all kind of features. It has been optimized with/to my club, but other clubs can try it if they are interested.

We have completed two orders and feedback was quite postitive how the system helped to order parts from lego.

Interesting-- I've done a similar thing for my club, and made it potentially useable for other clubs. Ideally, I'd love to get a central system done to potentially leverage it with the LEGO company (get them to give us a full list of available things to search through, so they don't have to do it for every club!), but who knows if that's possible or not.

DaveE

[MarcoB]

Can you pass it in as a word with spaces in it? I've written a few searches for LEGO elements, and I typically recognized "N x N" or "N x N x N" or "N x N x N/N" as actual words within the CGI, and used them to do the search. Technically, you want some smart regular expressions that treat "NxN" and "N x N" and "NX N" as the same thing. But those dimensions are typically REALLY important for LEGO element searches :)

Thank you for highlighting the importance about these dimension searches.

I modified the search that now you can search dimensions, for example "liftarm 1 x 4 thin". All your examples should found.

If some other important keyword is not found, please tell me and I will add it.

But this is only for searching part collections / "my parts".

Adding that feature to set inventory searches needs much more work, so maybe in the future.

Anyway, search would not be 100% exact, because Basebrick do not have EVERY set's inventories, they are added when someone marks a set as "I own one".

Better to use Bricklink in this case. But, again, maybe in the future :)

Interesting-- I've done a similar thing for my club, and made it potentially useable for other clubs. Ideally, I'd love to get a central system done to potentially leverage it with the LEGO company (get them to give us a full list of available things to search through, so they don't have to do it for every club!), but who knows if that's possible or not.

How do you extract those 80 parts from all suggested parts to send them to Lego?

We use points, like importance points.

E.g. "This part I really need, I give this 20 points. This other one is not so important, it's worth of 5 points".

Then we sum all points per part and so on.

[davee123]

How do you extract those 80 parts from all suggested parts to send them to Lego?

We use points, like importance points.

We didn't actually have a problem reducing our list to 80, because our club organizers told members to submit no more than 5 parts each. As a result, we had something like 60-70 parts that were submitted to LEGO for evaluation. We also use a quantity, as in "approximately how many would you like to order?" Some things (cows, fences, etc) people only want 10-50 or so. Other elements (basic bricks, tiles, plates), people want to order a LOT of.

Our club has an "Executive Committee", which selected the elements manually, but used people's input to make the decision-- no official algorithm. Ultimately, they made the decision based on how many different people wanted the same elements, and what quantities they wanted them in.

For narrowing down the final 50 parts, I proposed that it be done based on:

1) the number of different members interested in a particular part

2) the total quantity ordered for each part

3) the total amount of money being spent on a part

Ultimately, the tool I wrote always allows those selections to be made manually, because sometimes humans simply know better. But it tries to give the order organizers as much information as possible so they can make fair decisions.

One of the most difficult parts I had was allowing people to submit requests for "unnamed" pieces. Some members might request "those new 1x2 cheese slopes", because they don't know the part number (since the element might not have been released yet, or because they didn't know how to find the part number), and another member might ask for "the double-wide cheese slopes". That made things difficult. How does yours handle custom inputs?

DaveE

[MarcoB]

We didn't actually have a problem reducing our list to 80, because our club organizers told members to submit no more than 5 parts each. As a result, we had something like 60-70 parts that were submitted to LEGO for evaluation. We also use a quantity, as in "approximately how many would you like to order?" Some things (cows, fences, etc) people only want 10-50 or so. Other elements (basic bricks, tiles, plates), people want to order a LOT of.

Our club has an "Executive Committee", which selected the elements manually, but used people's input to make the decision-- no official algorithm. Ultimately, they made the decision based on how many different people wanted the same elements, and what quantities they wanted them in.

For narrowing down the final 50 parts, I proposed that it be done based on:

1) the number of different members interested in a particular part

2) the total quantity ordered for each part

3) the total amount of money being spent on a part

Ultimately, the tool I wrote always allows those selections to be made manually, because sometimes humans simply know better. But it tries to give the order organizers as much information as possible so they can make fair decisions.

One of the most difficult parts I had was allowing people to submit requests for "unnamed" pieces. Some members might request "those new 1x2 cheese slopes", because they don't know the part number (since the element might not have been released yet, or because they didn't know how to find the part number), and another member might ask for "the double-wide cheese slopes". That made things difficult. How does yours handle custom inputs?

DaveE

Well, if someone doesn't know how to find a part number, there's always someone to help to find it. All our LUGBULK members are hangin' in the same place (forum) :)

Some use bricklink number, some Peeron, other lego element ids from a set instruction.

Basebrick is build to regonize all these numbers (not all availeable immediately, but added if needed).

How can you order a element that is not even released yet?

But about our system, it goes like this:

- Buyers can suggest any number of any part. If someone wants something badly, (importance) points can be used that the chance of a part to "survive" is better.

- Time limit is reached. Parts that have highest points are in places 1-80, the other parts are below the border and those parts are dropped from the list. I.e. the part that buyers want the most, usually has the highest score. 80 list > lego.

- When 80 list comes back, border is set to 50. Those parts which didn't pass through, are dropped from the list.

- Buying begins. Everyone has the same max limit to buy, but if someone buys (and confirms the order) less than the max limit, the remaining value is added to other buyers max limit.

For exmaple (numbers are fictional) : 10 buyers, max limit per buyer 50 euros (total max limit / buyers). Someone buys for 20 euros. 50-20 = 30. 30 / 9 = 3.33 euros. New max limit for remaining 9 people is 53.33 euros. Next one buys for 53.33 euros. Max limit unchanged. Next buys 35. New limit for 7 people is 53 - 35 = 18.33. 18.33 / 7 = 2.62. New limit is 53 + 2.62 = 55.62 euros and so on.

- Time limit is reached. Every part below 50 border is dropped and parts are ordered. All parts status wanted > ordered.

- Handlers receive parts from lego. Buyers can see all data and payments from their invoice. Parts > buyers.

- All done. Handler mark's LUGBULK as finished. Parts status > normal or added to user's old part quantities.

- All this is done automatically (exept time limits etc).

[davee123]

How can you order a element that is not even released yet?

There was some debate about this-- I believe pigs were probably *available* within LEGO during the first LUGBULK order, but they had not been released yet. We knew that LEGO was about to release them, but neither LEGO, Peeron, or BrickLink had any part numbers or design IDs. We knew that we could probably ask for "pigs", and Jan probably could have figured it out, but it made us curious.

The other issue would be what happens in the event that an element isn't in your system? Suppose (for example) that pigs were JUST released, but were not yet in your database? Would you have to manually add them before they could be included? What if the person ordering claims that they know what the Design ID will be?

Basically, this was a huge issue for me-- I don't expect to be constantly maintaining a database of available parts based on LEGO, BrickLink, and Peeron. So what happens when one of the users happens to know better than my system does?

- When 80 list comes back, border is set to 50. Those parts which didn't pass through, are dropped from the list.

When the list comes back with prices, how do you select which 50 different parts will be included in the order? In our orders, some people initially said that they wanted certain pieces, but when the prices came back from LEGO and were too high, they no longer were interested in them. Is there a re-evaluation after the prices are returned?

- Buying begins. Everyone has the same max limit to buy, but if someone buys (and confirms the order) less than the max limit, the remaining value is added to other buyers max limit.

What happens if someone wants to change the amount that they want to buy? Are orders "final" once submitted?

DaveE

[MarcoB]

The other issue would be what happens in the event that an element isn't in your system? Suppose (for example) that pigs were JUST released, but were not yet in your database? Would you have to manually add them before they could be included? What if the person ordering claims that they know what the Design ID will be?

If someone knows for sure pig's element ID, it could be added temporarily to the database. No problem. Anyway, if LEGO didn't regonize that part, that person can only blame himself.

But these are rare situations... And if that kind of situation happens, it must be handled so well as possible.

Basically, this was a huge issue for me-- I don't expect to be constantly maintaining a database of available parts based on LEGO, BrickLink, and Peeron. So what happens when one of the users happens to know better than my system does?

I'm not sitting 24h next to my PC - well, almost :D - but LUBULK takes some time to complete. There's time to add few new numbers.

Stating point is the Bricklink number, those are added often. New Peeron numbers are added if someone has problems to transfer data to Basebrick. Lego IDs are added mainly for LUGBULK.

But I'm realistic, I do know, that I will need some additional help in the future with this site....

AND I'm not saying that Basebrick or I are gonna do all the work for LUGBULK buyers :D Handlers will always have work to do. Seaching "double cheese slope" IDs for example!

When the list comes back with prices, how do you select which 50 different parts will be included in the order? In our orders, some people initially said that they wanted certain pieces, but when the prices came back from LEGO and were too high, they no longer were interested in them. Is there a re-evaluation after the prices are returned?

In that point, list order criteria is 1. Quantity > 0, 2. Importance points.

Ie. if part quantity is changed to zero, it will drop below parts that have quantity more than zero.

What happens if someone wants to change the amount that they want to buy? Are orders "final" once submitted?

Data can be changed easily just by clicking "edit". Buyers can change their part choises (within those 50) and quantities UNTIL "accept order" is clicked. Then changes are not possible anymore UNLESS handler unlocks it (buyer made a mistake?). But accepting order can only be done by the buyer.

[MarcoB]

Bump!

Please read the first post.

Basebrick main features:

- Item status (wanted, ordered, normal, for sale)

- Massupload (from peeron, brickset, bricklink)

- Privacy setting (public, invisible mode, partial)

- Set vs. my parts compare (aka: "Can I build this set?")

- Users new item updates list

- Next planned feature: User Groups

[Fugazi]

I just registered, this seems to be working quite well. The Massupload function is handy and well implemented. A minor issue: when sorting the set inventory by set number, this will happen:

10199

6666

801

Because the digits by themselves are considered instead of the number as a whole. Perhaps this could be improved some day!

edit: The same is true for part numbers.

Edited September 24, 2010 by Fugazi

[Siegfried]

Bump!

Please don't push your luck; I don't recall you asking us permission to promote your site. As someone with only 11 posts you're already looking like you're here just to use us as free advertising.

I'm moving this to community.

[MarcoB]

Please don't push your luck; I don't recall you asking us permission to promote your site. As someone with only 11 posts you're already looking like you're here just to use us as free advertising.

I'm moving this to community.

I'm sorry. I'm not trying to advertise, well maybe sort of.. Actually I'm just trying to offer LEGO fans something new and possibly interesting and needful. And the site is totally free.

You referring to my post count sounds like I should have "talked" more before posting this thread? Well, I just browse here and talk more elsewhere (in a Finnish forum).

But again, sorry I haven't asked your permission, just didn't cross my mind, and if you still feel that I have done "too much", delete this whole thread.

I have no hidden agendas

[MarcoB]

A minor issue: when sorting the set inventory by set number, this will happen:

10199

6666

801

Because the digits by themselves are considered instead of the number as a whole. Perhaps this could be improved some day!

Thanks for your comment.

You're right, that should be better, I don't like that either.

But one major problem is that those items can have id numbers containg numbers and letters. That's why sorting must be alfabetic. It's also a MySQL database desing issue.

Anyway, I will invetigate more to maybe find a better sorting solution.

[Siegfried]

I'm sorry. I'm not trying to advertise, well maybe sort of.. Actually I'm just trying to offer LEGO fans something new and possibly interesting and needful. And the site is totally free.

We're cool with that, it's just double posting in a topic promoting a personal site (free or otherwise) is always a bit questionable. If the topic was of interest to most members it would have more posts.

But again, sorry I haven't asked your permission, just didn't cross my mind, and if you still feel that I have done "too much", delete this whole thread.

I have no hidden agendas

The topic can stay, and you now have my permission to update it from time to time. But please no double posting, especially a "bump".

[MarcoB]

After reading more threads about Peeron issues, it came clear to me that there's still a lot of people who wants Peeron to rise from the ashes (the situation seems to be like that to me, don't know for sure). Well of course there are, stupid me

I would like to have little talk about lego fan's needs for a lego part database.

But first of all, some history about my site.

I'm also fan of Peeron and very grateful for their (and users behind Peeron) big work. I used Peeron for years (and still using), but at some point I got frustrated it's speed (I'm a impatient person ) and to slow invetory updates.

So I created a simple page for my own needs only, no databases of any kind. Then added more useful features, MySQL database and so on.

Then I got involved with LUGBULK and someone asked who would be willing to create a ordering system because excel pages are really unpractical to use.

My nameless site was suitable and LUGBULK order hanling system was designed and added (several other peoples were involved in that planning too).

Then I began to think that maybe someone else would like use this site and basebrick was born.

So I'm not trying to step anyones toes - I just want a site where I can browse my Lego collection easily.

I don't care is it basebrick or some else. Exept that I'm a database fanatic (huh ) and my other hobby is web coding, so basebrick has been very interesting to create. It's actually my fourth web database creation and one other (Movie Collection) has been running for eight years now. So basebrick is here to stay, at least for my own use.

Back to the point.

At some point I was sending mail to Peeron asking can I do something to help, but couldn't figure out what to say ... probably they will never answer; "who's this guy?"

Anyway, maybe Peeron could have some ideas from my site? Dunno.

But the question basically is, what do I do with basebrick and what lego fans want ?

Do they just want to wait and belive that Peeron will rise again?

Well, I hope that too. REALLY!

Edited October 17, 2010 by MarcoB