Program Ideas

[chtxdrgn]

Sorry for creating a new thread, but this does not relate much to the previous one I created imo. Plus, instead of creating more threads, i think I'll just update this one.

Here are some ideas for the PTCGM program that I wish were already in the program:
1a. Ability to add a small text note in the beginning of every list, for example, the collection owner's name. Implemented.
1b. Even better, allow there to be an additional text note for every specific set, so the user can indicate the location of the set the collector put it. On Hold
2. Combine all the lists for one set into one html file. This would make it easier to navigate. Implemented. (Altered)
3. Organize the cardset menu in the program by generation instead of by manufacturer. This, also, will make it easier to get to things. The Promos should be kept, still, in their respective manufacturers. Implemented. (Altered)
4. Add another column at the end that indicates the card's current price. IMHO the price should be obtained every time the user builds the lists, or add another option to get/update the prices, instead of whenever the user builds the list. This way the user won't have to be online to check the prices, and instead get the prices while at home with an internet connection. Omitted
5. Update the help files with current screenshots. It was confusing at first, because I didn't know what set I was on or what.Implemented.
6. Display card info that has been changed within the last 5 days or so in red font (it would be great and much better if this setting was user set rather than preset), that way when you share your lists with people, they can tell what's new. On Hold
7. At the bottom of the list, add a row that indicates the total number of cards in the set/available for swaps. Implemented...
8. Any lists not modified by the user should not show up at all in the files, or at least be notated with a text mark such as "-e" (for empty) So, for example, the lists "List" and "Swap" won't show up (or be notated by an "-e") while the "Needs" list will still show up. This way, when a user is sharing lists with a friend, the friend doesn't have to go through empty lists, since all of them would relate to what the user has/needs. I hope that made sense. Implemented. (Altered)
9. Change the splash screen to something cooler. ;D Implemented. (Altered)
10. Display a simple pop-up warning (You selected a quality without a number! OK) to the user when they input a quality, but the number of cards is 0. I do this a lot (since I often miss pressing the up button since it's so small D:), and it would help prevent errors :) Optionally, you could make the buttons bigger, but I just think it's my screen resolution, heheh. Implemented. (Altered)
11. Display a simple pop-up warning to the user when he or she exits without generating a list. I've noticed that when you reload the program, your changes are still there in the program. Does this stay that way even when you reboot? If so, then this is not necessary at all; instead you could tell the user that the changes stay in place in the program, but won't change in the list until they generate it. Been Done.
12. When updating, display a message telling the user from what version to what version they updated to. It's a bit... strange when you update and all the program tells you the sets have been updated. Could the user at least know from what version they had to what version they updated to so they can look it up on the site and know what has changed? :O Implemented.

These I'm just throwing out there:
a. Ability to add info for every single card in the collection; for example if you have 6 Charmander cards you can indicate the condition of each and which is a 1st edition.
b. If 'a' is implemented, then allow additional check boxes to indicate how the card was obtained (Bought, Traded, Gifted, Found)
c. If 'a' is implemented and 1a and 1b are not, then allow the user to add a note to every card, ie. the current location of the card or other things the user might want to put, like a star to indicate that that card is one of their favorites
d. Talk to those guys who made Redshark and see if you can do some program linking, to get the lists users make on the PTCGM available in Redshark so the users know how much they currently have and stuff. All omitted

Thanks for taking the time for reading my suggestions, this software is pretty awesome! :D

[Pidgeot]

1a. Ability to add a small text note in the beginning of every list, for example, the collection owner's name.
1b. Even better, allow there to be an additional text note for every specific set, so the user can indicate the location of the set the collector put it.

1b is a bit trickier than 1a, but these could be nice to have.

2. Combine all the lists for one set into one html file. This would make it easier to navigate.

...but the amount of data to navigate through in that file increases greatly. I'm not sure this will work very well, but I'll keep it in mind.

3. Organize the cardset menu in the program by generation instead of by manufacturer. This, also, will make it easier to get to things. The Promos should be kept, still, in their respective manufacturers.

The menu is getting a little large, yes. I have the structure in place to do this now - I just need to determine a suitable grouping. You refer to "generation", which I would normally relate to the corresponding generation of Pokémon, but the TCG sets could also be divided into "eras" or "series", which would probably be more appropriate here. I still need to consider this a bit, but it would be fitting to add this when the next set is out (since it marks the start of a new era).

4. Add another column at the end that indicates the card's current price. IMHO the price should be obtained every time the user builds the lists, or add another option to get/update the prices, instead of whenever the user builds the list. This way the user won't have to be online to check the prices, and instead get the prices while at home with an internet connection.

I don't know any price guides for the TCG, so I can't really add that or provide the service. While it's possible to implement it to let the user provide them manually, it's not really possible to take a random web page and attempt to yank out some random data - I would need to code the program to parse that specific page.

5. Update the help files with current screenshots. It was confusing at first, because I didn't know what set I was on or what.

I didn't consider it very important, because the user interface is virtually unchanged. However, if people thinks it would help, then I'll get around to it.

6. Display card info that has been changed within the last 5 days or so in red font (it would be great and much better if this setting was user set rather than preset), that way when you share your lists with people, they can tell what's new.
7. At the bottom of the list, add a row that indicates the total number of cards in the set/available for swaps.

I'll keep these in mind as well. For 7, are you thinking of the number of individual cards, or the number of different cards?

These I'm just throwing out there:
a. Ability to add info for every single card in the collection; for example if you have 6 Charmander cards you can indicate the condition of each and which is a 1st edition.
b. If 'a' is implemented, then allow additional check boxes to indicate how the card was obtained (Bought, Traded, Gifted, Found)
c. If 'a' is implemented and 1a and 1b are not, then allow the user to add a note to every card, ie. the current location of the card or other things the user might want to put, like a star to indicate that that card is one of their favorites

Additional per-card data is something that would require much thought, especially on this scale, since it would require some major changes; not just to the internal handling, but also to the user interface. That makes the ideas less likely to happen, due to the complexity involved - not only in the coding, but also in the handling of legacy data.

I can see the value in adding these things, but at the same time, I don't think this is something everyone would want to use, and I don't want to make it overly complicated for them.

d. Talk to those guys who made Redshark and see if you can do some program linking, to get the lists users make on the PTCGM available in Redshark so the users know how much they currently have and stuff.

I don't use Redshark, but from what I know of it, I'm not sure I can see the relevance. As far as I'm aware, Redshark focuses more on the gameplay, so adding some integration doesn't seem very relevant to either program - but perhaps it's just because I'm not sure what you have in mind.

Thanks for taking the time for reading my suggestions, this software is pretty awesome!

Thank you for taking the time to write!

[chtxdrgn]

2. Combine all the lists for one set into one html file. This would make it easier to navigate.

...but the amount of data to navigate through in that file increases greatly. I'm not sure this will work very well, but I'll keep it in mind.

I guess that's true, maybe splitting all the html files into different subfolders based on the cardset organization in the program would be better.

The menu is getting a little large, yes. I have the structure in place to do this now - I just need to determine a suitable grouping. You refer to "generation", which I would normally relate to the corresponding generation of Pokémon, but the TCG sets could also be divided into "eras" or "series", which would probably be more appropriate here. I still need to consider this a bit, but it would be fitting to add this when the next set is out (since it marks the start of a new era).

When I referred to generation, I was referring to the wikipedia terminology for it.

I don't know any price guides for the TCG, so I can't really add that or provide the service. While it's possible to implement it to let the user provide them manually, it's not really possible to take a random web page and attempt to yank out some random data - I would need to code the program to parse that specific page.

On second thought, that sounds too hard, nvm.

I'll keep these in mind as well. For 7, are you thinking of the number of individual cards, or the number of different cards?

The total number of all your individual cards. I am already aware you provide the number of different cards in the set, but a number at the bottom of the list, like a grand total, of all the cards for that set would be nice.

Additional per-card data is something that would require much thought, especially on this scale, since it would require some major changes; not just to the internal handling, but also to the user interface. That makes the ideas less likely to happen, due to the complexity involved - not only in the coding, but also in the handling of legacy data.
I can see the value in adding these things, but at the same time, I don't think this is something everyone would want to use, and I don't want to make it overly complicated for them.

Hmm, I see you're point, I guess I'm just one of those rare organization freaks.

I don't use Redshark, but from what I know of it, I'm not sure I can see the relevance. As far as I'm aware, Redshark focuses more on the gameplay, so adding some integration doesn't seem very relevant to either program - but perhaps it's just because I'm not sure what you have in mind.

IMO, I think it would be cool if the user could, when building a deck, see what cards he/she already has. That way the user can easily tell which cards they need or not. Anyway, I haven't actually used Redshark yet either, hence the reason i was just throwing that out there. Actually, it's probably not a very good idea (now that I've checked the program out).

Thank you for taking the time to write! :)

Heheh, np. Actually, I thought of more stuff ""OTL

8. Any lists not modified by the user should not show up at all in the files, or at least be notated with a text mark such as "-e" (for empty) So, for example, the lists "List" and "Swap" won't show up (or be notated by an "-e") while the "Needs" list will still show up. This way, when a user is sharing lists with a friend, the friend doesn't have to go through empty lists, since all of them would relate to what the user has/needs. I hope that made sense.
9. Change the splash screen to something cooler. ;D

[Pidgeot]

2. Combine all the lists for one set into one html file. This would make it easier to navigate.

...but the amount of data to navigate through in that file increases greatly. I'm not sure this will work very well, but I'll keep it in mind.

I guess that's true, maybe splitting all the html files into different subfolders based on the cardset organization in the program would be better.

That's a pretty good idea. The list generation will more or less be rewritten for the next release, so making this kind of change is entirely feasible.

The menu is getting a little large, yes. I have the structure in place to do this now - I just need to determine a suitable grouping. You refer to "generation", which I would normally relate to the corresponding generation of Pokémon, but the TCG sets could also be divided into "eras" or "series", which would probably be more appropriate here. I still need to consider this a bit, but it would be fitting to add this when the next set is out (since it marks the start of a new era).

When I referred to generation, I was referring to the wikipedia terminology for it.

This would make it equivalent to the video game generations. For reference, the era grouping I refer to can be seen on Bulbapedia - click "(show)" in the Pokémon Trading Card Game Expansions box at the bottom of the page.

It'll probably come down to a matter of balance: If I group by generation, there will be 16 cardsets for the third generation - about the same amount of cardsets currently in the Wizards grouping - but only 7 in the first generation. If I group by era, we're down to 10 for the EX era, but the e-Card era only contains 3 sets. 3 sets in a submenu isn't a lot, but the number of cardsets in each submenu would more uniform, instead of having the first and second be vastly smaller than the third and fourth.

It's still something I need to consider, but feel free to add your input after comparing the two groupings.

I'll keep these in mind as well. For 7, are you thinking of the number of individual cards, or the number of different cards?

The total number of all your individual cards. I am already aware you provide the number of different cards in the set, but a number at the bottom of the list, like a grand total, of all the cards for that set would be nice.

8. Any lists not modified by the user should not show up at all in the files, or at least be notated with a text mark such as "-e" (for empty) So, for example, the lists "List" and "Swap" won't show up (or be notated by an "-e") while the "Needs" list will still show up. This way, when a user is sharing lists with a friend, the friend doesn't have to go through empty lists, since all of them would relate to what the user has/needs. I hope that made sense.

Both of these seem entirely reasonable. I'll work on them for the next release.

9. Change the splash screen to something cooler. ;D

Actually, the plan is to remove the splash screen in the next release and just show the main screen right off the bat. I still need to do a quick test to make sure it really does load the data sufficiently quickly - if it doesn't, I'll have to add some sort of loading screen, but I think it will work just fine without it.

[chtxdrgn]

I guess that's true, maybe splitting all the html files into different subfolders based on the cardset organization in the program would be better.

That's a pretty good idea. The list generation will more or less be rewritten for the next release, so making this kind of change is entirely feasible.

Awesome :D

This would make it equivalent to the video game generations. For reference, the era grouping I refer to can be seen on Bulbapedia - click "(show)" in the Pokémon Trading Card Game Expansions box at the bottom of the page.

It'll probably come down to a matter of balance: If I group by generation, there will be 16 cardsets for the third generation - about the same amount of cardsets currently in the Wizards grouping - but only 7 in the first generation. If I group by era, we're down to 10 for the EX era, but the e-Card era only contains 3 sets. 3 sets in a submenu isn't a lot, but the number of cardsets in each submenu would more uniform, instead of having the first and second be vastly smaller than the third and fourth.

It's still something I need to consider, but feel free to add your input after comparing the two groupings.

Actually, grouping by era rather than generation looks pretty nice. There will be a lot of sub menus, but yeah, it'll be more uniform :)

I'll keep these in mind as well. For 7, are you thinking of the number of individual cards, or the number of different cards?

The total number of all your individual cards. I am already aware you provide the number of different cards in the set, but a number at the bottom of the list, like a grand total, of all the cards for that set would be nice.

8. Any lists not modified by the user should not show up at all in the files, or at least be notated with a text mark such as "-e" (for empty) So, for example, the lists "List" and "Swap" won't show up (or be notated by an "-e") while the "Needs" list will still show up. This way, when a user is sharing lists with a friend, the friend doesn't have to go through empty lists, since all of them would relate to what the user has/needs. I hope that made sense.

Both of these seem entirely reasonable. I'll work on them for the next release.

Awesome :D I can't wait x3

Actually, the plan is to remove the splash screen in the next release and just show the main screen right off the bat. I still need to do a quick test to make sure it really does load the data sufficiently quickly - if it doesn't, I'll have to add some sort of loading screen, but I think it will work just fine without it.

:O Sounds good to me.

And since I'm so annoying, I'm adding more to the list.
10. Display a simple pop-up warning (You selected a quality without a number! OK) to the user when they input a quality, but the number of cards is 0. I do this a lot (since I often miss pressing the up button since it's so small D:), and it would help prevent errors :) Optionally, you could make the buttons bigger, but I just think it's my screen resolution, heheh.
11. Display a simple pop-up warning to the user when he or she exits without generating a list. I've noticed that when you reload the program, your changes are still there in the program. Does this stay that way even when you reboot? If so, then this is not necessary at all; instead you could tell the user that the changes stay in place in the program, but won't change in the list until they generate it.
12. When updating, display a message telling the user from what version to what version they updated to. It's a bit... strange when you update and all the program tells you the sets have been updated. Could the user at least know from what version they had to what version they updated to so they can look it up on the site and know what has changed? :O

I hope I'm not being too annoying D: I feel like I'm pushing so many demands on you.

[Pidgeot]

10. Display a simple pop-up warning (You selected a quality without a number! OK) to the user when they input a quality, but the number of cards is 0. I do this a lot (since I often miss pressing the up button since it's so small D:), and it would help prevent errors Optionally, you could make the buttons bigger, but I just think it's my screen resolution, heheh.

There are two points in time I can show a message:

1) Say something as soon as the user clicks a quality
2) Say something when they try to leave the card

Neither option is very good, really. If I do 1), then I'm effectively forcing you to do things in a very specific order, and that wouldn't be user friendly. If I do 2), the detection logic is going to be pretty complicated.

What you can do, if this is a frequent problem for you, is type the value into the field instead of using the arrows.

11. Display a simple pop-up warning to the user when he or she exits without generating a list. I've noticed that when you reload the program, your changes are still there in the program. Does this stay that way even when you reboot? If so, then this is not necessary at all; instead you could tell the user that the changes stay in place in the program, but won't change in the list until they generate it.

Whenever you change something, I store the changes to disk in separate files. Your cards are persisted even if you never touch the lists. I can add a note about it in the help file when I'm changing it to reflect the changes, but I think it follows from the list generation being a separate menu item.

12. When updating, display a message telling the user from what version to what version they updated to. It's a bit... strange when you update and all the program tells you the sets have been updated. Could the user at least know from what version they had to what version they updated to so they can look it up on the site and know what has changed? :O

Starting with v2.0, when you check for an update, the program first sees if the program itself has been updated. If there isn't, it'll download a file containing metadata used to construct the Cardset menu. Based on the contents of this file, and the files stored on your hard drive, it will download any files that the metadata file that you don't have (new cardsets) or that have newer versions on the server when compared to the age of your existing files (fixes to existing cardsets).

What I can do is show a message saying if anything was actually updated. If there's any major change, I'll tell about it on the webpage, so you can tell what has changed.

For the record, until v2.2 is out, there won't be any stand-alone updates, so for now, just know that nothing actually changed. This will be the case for around a week, possibly more (depending on when I can expect to know which cards are in the new set).

I *might* be able to add some more detailed information than just "did something update", but I'm not making any promises - I may not have the time required to do that.

I hope I'm not being too annoying D: I feel like I'm pushing so many demands on you.

No problem. User feedback is the best way for me to improve the program to be more usable.

[chtxdrgn]

There are two points in time I can show a message:

1) Say something as soon as the user clicks a quality
2) Say something when they try to leave the card

Neither option is very good, really. If I do 1), then I'm effectively forcing you to do things in a very specific order, and that wouldn't be user friendly. If I do 2), the detection logic is going to be pretty complicated.

What you can do, if this is a frequent problem for you, is type the value into the field instead of using the arrows.

Well, typing takes longer, because I'd have to switch between mouse and keyboard. Instead of displaying a message to the user, could you make the card number field flash red (or change color, something subtle, etc.) when the card number is 0 and they select a quality? This way it's just a simple reminder and it won't really get in the way (since the user can just ignore it if they wanted) and they can continue to fill in the number if they do it that way.

Whenever you change something, I store the changes to disk in separate files. Your cards are persisted even if you never touch the lists. I can add a note about it in the help file when I'm changing it to reflect the changes, but I think it follows from the list generation being a separate menu item.

Oh, ok. That isn't a problem then. All you have to do is generate the list to look at the cards. Got it

Starting with v2.0, when you check for an update, the program first sees if the program itself has been updated. If there isn't, it'll download a file containing metadata used to construct the Cardset menu. Based on the contents of this file, and the files stored on your hard drive, it will download any files that the metadata file that you don't have (new cardsets) or that have newer versions on the server when compared to the age of your existing files (fixes to existing cardsets).

What I can do is show a message saying if anything was actually updated. If there's any major change, I'll tell about it on the webpage, so you can tell what has changed.

For the record, until v2.2 is out, there won't be any stand-alone updates, so for now, just know that nothing actually changed. This will be the case for around a week, possibly more (depending on when I can expect to know which cards are in the new set).

I *might* be able to add some more detailed information than just "did something update", but I'm not making any promises - I may not have the time required to do that.

IMO just telling the user something updated is good enough. That way you'll kinda see the traffic you get on your site about some of the active users using the program, otherwise they simply won't visit the site.

No problem. User feedback is the best way for me to improve the program to be more usable.

Ok. >___<

[Pidgeot]

Instead of displaying a message to the user, could you make the card number field flash red (or change color, something subtle, etc.) when the card number is 0 and they select a quality? This way it's just a simple reminder and it won't really get in the way (since the user can just ignore it if they wanted) and they can continue to fill in the number if they do it that way.

I'll have to do some testing here, because such a highlight would go outside the user's color scheme, and I want to make sure I don't introduce any issues on that point (conflicts with their other colors, color blindness issues, etc.). In other words, I'll look into it, but I'm not promising anything right now.

[Pidgeot]

Here's just a quick summary of the status for each of the ideas on the list.

1a: Implemented. You can add both a header text and a footer text.
1b: Skipped for v2.2. Might be implemented some time in the future, but not a high priority.
2: Implemented by mirroring the menu hierarchy in the list folder.
3: Not done yet. That's purely a data change, as the code to allow this was already in place.
4: Not feasible.
5: Not done yet. Due to all of the other changes, I pretty much need to rewrite the help from scratch, so that'll take a few days to get done.
6: Skipped for v2.2. Might be implemented some time in the future, but not a high priority.
7: Implemented.
8: Implemented. When generating lists, the contents of the list directory is deleted first, and lists that won't contain any lines will be skipped.
9: Splash screen has been removed.
10: The number field changes background color when the user selects a condition other than "Trashed", and the count is 0.
11: Not applicable; lists do not affect the operation of the program.
12: I've added a message saying whether or not something was updated.

Additionally, you can now customize all of the colors used in list generation, you can make the lists not show the suffix of the card numbers ("/102" in "1/102), you can change cards with the plus and minus keys, and I've reworked the program to more easily support additional translations (in case anyone wants to translate it to some other language).

(Phew!)

I don't know exactly how long it'll take me to change the help file, but that's really the only major thing left to do - once that's done, I just need an hour or so to get all of the data updated and published. All of this should be ready within a week.

EDIT: Version 2.2 is now out! Go download it.

[chtxdrgn]

Yes. This is awesome. Sorry for making you do so much xD +Rep

Maybe I'll translate it into Spanish for fun :P Since that's the only other language I know. Kinda. It will take me a long time though.

[Burzaan]

Hi.

I like the idé to the program, but the system in whit drop down menys when you put in the cards i dont like.
and then the plus and minus is litle to small.

//Burzaan

[Pidgeot]

I'll make the buttons bigger for the next release. In the meantime, note that you can also use the arrow keys to change the value, and you can just type in a new value.

Are you thinking of something specific to replace the drop down box? I can always try out a few ideas, but if you have any wishes, I can try them out and see if they'll work.

EDIT: I've tried to come up with a suggestion:



The list you see here is always there - it's not just the drop down (I've still left that at the top for now, but that's just so I don't delete the stuff that's currently working). The window height would be adjustable, so you'd be able to control how many items are visible at once.

Also note the larger buttons on the number inputs.

Would this work for you? How about everyone else? Would you like to be able to choose between the two, so you can keep the more compact drop-down as an option?

[Burzaan]

This looks relay nice.