[Software] Brickficiency - Find the cheapest BL stores to buy parts

[legolijntje]

Well, I have a problem too. I did a test-run on the inventory of 10124. When it's downloading the price guid, it gives this error after it searched for a bunch of stores:

Using cached Price Guide information for Brown Bar 1 x 12 with 1 x 2 Plate End and 1 x 1 Round Plate End

Error: Brown Bar 1 x 12 with 1 x 2 Plate End and 1 x 1 Round Plate End:Either this is not available from any stores you've selected or you need to log in.

But, I can't login. The calculate window only has a username textbox, where's the password box?

[mdoupe]

Enter your username and click start, it will ask for your password.

I've checked it after about an hour of running, and it seems to have "hung" on the first step. The output displays this "Getting Price Guide information for Brown"

I have restarted it, and selected the "logon for priceguide info" and have had the same results. Is there a log file you would like me to send to you for review? Thanks.

It seems to be specific to one or mroe of the brown parts in my wanted list, Removing all the brown pieces has allowed the utility to run. I will investigate it further and see if I cant provide better details.

Can you pm me the bsx file?

[legolijntje]

It doesn't ask for my password

strange.... I closed the program and ran it again after I changed the login settings and then it does ask for my password. I still get the error from my previous post though...

dvsntt has problems with a brown part, me too...

EDIT: when I remove the brown, everything works here too.

EDIT2: I think I may have found the problem: I was testing with only Europe selected. Every part I get an error isn't available (in the right quantity as a new part) in Europe. So, it gives an error. I need to test a bit more, but I think that is the problem. If it is, it would be nice if you could add some options, such as continue with the max. amount available, skip the part, stop the calculation etc.

Sorry for the messy post

[legolijntje]

Ok, I found another problem, with everything set to used, the quantitys are available in Europe. So, it can get past the download price guid step. Calculating 1 vendor and 2 vendor solutions works fine, but when it is calculating 3 vendor solutions, it goes very fast until at about 1/3. Then the loading bar stops. When I let it run, it goes to 4 vendor solutions after a few minutes, but then loading bar isn't working at all.

It also isn't showing the "millions of solutions checked:". It's just empty after the "millions of solutions checked:"...

I have to say though, it looks a lot better than the previous black window

[Vee]

Programming is a pain. And it is this pain that makes us feel so good when we fix whatever the bug was that was causing us the pain. And then it starts all over and almost never ends.

[mdoupe]

It seems to be specific to one or mroe of the brown parts in my wanted list, Removing all the brown pieces has allowed the utility to run. I will investigate it further and see if I cant provide better details.

That's very odd. I ran the list you sent me and the price guide step worked just fine for me. One of my high priorities is getting some error checking on the page download steps. There is almost none right now.

PS. There were no 5 vendor solutions for the BSX file you sent me. :P

Ok, I found another problem, with everything set to used, the quantitys are available in Europe. So, it can get past the download price guid step. Calculating 1 vendor and 2 vendor solutions works fine, but when it is calculating 3 vendor solutions, it goes very fast until at about 1/3. Then the loading bar stops. When I let it run, it goes to 4 vendor solutions after a few minutes, but then loading bar isn't working at all.

The bar is a VERY rough estimate. Every step of the progress bar is one store out of all possible stores that have the #1 most rare item on your list. IE. if the most rare item on your list is only available from 3 stores, the progress bar will have 3 steps.

If two of those steps don't have near enough of the quantities you need, they will go fairly quickly. However, if the third one has quite a few of the items on your list, it can take quite a while to find all of the possible matches.

I may try to figure out a way to make the progress bar more granular, or find another way to show that it is indeed working. :P

[legolijntje]

Well, the loading bar that stopped made me think that the whole program was crashed. Not very user-friendly . But, in your previous (black) version, the loading bar did work quite well. Can't you reproduce the technique you used there?

[legolijntje]

:laugh:

Look, this isn't quite right:

:laugh:

[dvsntt]

That's very odd. I ran the list you sent me and the price guide step worked just fine for me. One of my high priorities is getting some error checking on the page download steps. There is almost none right now.

PS. There were no 5 vendor solutions for the BSX file you sent me. :P

Perhaps it is an O/S issue. I am running it on Windows XP with .net framework 4.0 (4.5 is not available on XP I believe). I will be in my office tomorrow with many different Windows versions and will try it on Win7 and Win8 to see what results I get. Also I get 389 5-vendor combinations (worldwide search) after removing the 2 brown parts.

[Bob De Quatre]

I installed the latest version, launched it, it downloaded the parts catalogs from Bricklink, and then it gave an error saying it could not open the parts list file.

I get the same error whenever I try to launch the program

[mdoupe]

Well, the loading bar that stopped made me think that the whole program was crashed. Not very user-friendly . But, in your previous (black) version, the loading bar did work quite well. Can't you reproduce the technique you used there?

I looked back at the old code. the progress bar works exactly the same as it used to. Different lists will affect the progress bar in vastly different ways.

Look, this isn't quite right:

can you send me "Debug-priceguide.txt" from your "appdata\Brickficiency\" folder?

[legolijntje]

can you send me "Debug-priceguide.txt" from your "appdata\Brickficiency\" folder?

Does the debug-priceguid change when I load another .bsx? Because after I send the picture above, I ran another .bsx but I got an error (not your fault, I had a wrong part in there) and I quit the program and never ran it after that yet.

So, here's the (possibly changed) debug-priceguide.txt.

If needed, I can run it again with the first .bsx (the one that caused the problem), but I think I would get the same problem with another .bsx (haven't tried yet).

[Aza]

I have been looking forward to this release as the previous one didn;t work for me.

However I can;t seem to get past this:

Getting Price Guide information for.....

[mdoupe]

Someone much smarter than me figured out a workaround.

• Import the list
  
• File -> save as
  
• file -> open the list you just saved
  

Please let me know if this works. I'll try to figure out why it works tonight. :)

[Aza]

Thanks mdoupe, that seems to work :)

[Aza]

Hi

Here is an issue I have found with the latest version which would be helpful to address...

I open a large list, I then select half of it and delete it from the preview window.

However when I run calculate, the program still attempts to find the complete original list instead of the half list.

I have such a large Main Wanted List, that it would be much easier for me to remove half from within the program rather than try to create multiple wanted lists in Bricklink.

This way it will be much quicker for me to attempt various search possibilities without creating many different wanted lists in Bricklink.

I hope that makes sense :)

Edited March 7, 2014 by Aza

[Aza]

Or another alternative would bo to allow the import of multiple lists at the same time instead of just 1 only.

[mdoupe]

I was not even aware you could delete things from the list! :) I plan to add the ability to create/modify lists in the future, but for now I have not touched that.

The next version may have the ability to uncheck items so that they will not be included in the calculation.

[Vee]

I wrote here previously about a suggestion to create a "whitelist" but I was reading it right now and realized it was a confusing suggestion. So I thought about a simpler "whitelist" suggestion and here it is: you have now the blacklist to block a store (or stores) to ever be considered in the calculations. The new suggestion is to have a whitelist to force a certain store (or stores) to be part of the solution.

The reason again is that if there was such a feature, it would help me to deal with rare parts.

[FETT]

I've tested it today. But it stands now on "Getting Price Guide information for Black" and don't get further.

Is there a problem or what could i do?

i start the program

go to import

login to bricklink

choose my wanted list

press import

the i see all parts in the wanted list

the i go to calculate

change to my wanted countries

and go ahead

he starts to search for stores in the countries and stops on "Getting Price Guide information for Black"

what could i do...??

[legolijntje]

I had a similar problem. I don't know if it was exactly the same, but in my case, there was a part that wasn't available in the countries I selected. So you can try if it works by selecting all countries, or by removing the problem piece.

There isn't really a good error message that problem.

If it doesn't work, something else is wrong and maybe mdoupe would have an idea

[mdoupe]

press import

the i see all parts in the wanted list

the i go to calculate

There's (still) a problem with the import in 0.91. it's fixed in 0.92, which should be out tonight or tomorrow sometime. for now, the workaround is to save the wanted list as a .bsx file and then open it.

[Lego Otaku]

Just tried the latest, .91 at this time and I'm getting error after the initial download. After that it happens right away. I have not been able to log in or download anything yet.

Windows 7 64-bits

[Vee]

The site's only been up a couple days. Your ISP's DNS servers may not have updated yet.

FYI, I tried to download the file again, just as a test since I already have version .91, and I still cannot connect to your website. There is some permanent problem between my ISP and your server. I have no idea what it could be.

But, again, since I have VPN, it is not a problem. And I noticed you shared your application through Google Doc which I had no problem using.

[mdoupe]

Just tried the latest, .91 at this time and I'm getting error after the initial download. After that it happens right away. I have not been able to log in or download anything yet.

I'm working with another gentleman on nailing down this issue. I believe I know what it is, just waiting to hear back from him on the test fix.

FYI, I tried to download the file again, just as a test since I already have version .91, and I still cannot connect to your website. There is some permanent problem between my ISP and your server. I have no idea what it could be.

But, again, since I have VPN, it is not a problem. And I noticed you shared your application through Google Doc which I had no problem using.

if you PM me your IP, I can check with my web host. I got locked out of my own website for about a day when I was setting it up. I might need to switch hosting companies. I don't know of any that offer $2.50/month plans, though.

Just posted version 0.92. Here's the link: https://docs.google....X3otZ3hiT2FjN2c

Changes in 0.92:

• New toolbar
  
• The progress bar is now more granular when calculating.
  
• Fixed another bug in importing wanted lists (oops).
  
• Fixed a bug with displaying (or lack thereof) millions of matches checked.
  
• Matches in excess of the "Matches per combination" setting are pruned to save memory. Some very large lists were running out of memory before finishing calculation.
  
• Can now change status (by double clicking), condition (by double clicking), quantity, price, comments, and remarks. Also, deleting a line properly deletes the item. Stay tuned for more list creation and modification options.
  
• Items with status "x" will not be included in calculation.
  
• There is a button/menu item that will allow you to view the current/previous report. While calculating this will show any calculation levels that have completed, but not the current level.
  
• Added more error checking and debug info
  
• Calculation can now be cancelled at any time. The report will reflect any matches found at the current level.
  
• Names of stores for any given country are now cached between calculations (in addition to cached price guide pages that I failed to mention last release)
  
• Removed option to save bsx from the import window (don't worry, you can still file -> save as once it's imported)
  
• You can now double click a wanted list name in the import window to import it.
  
• Fixed a bug that would crash calculation if there were less items than the store combination you were searching for. You can now find a good combination of stores to buy 10,000 of a single piece from.
  
• Backend stuff nobody cares about.