This is the first of many tutorials I will be creating on the new inventory system, trade manager, showcase and other features on SCF.

Our new inventory system will change the way SCF member manage and organize their cards. Members can individually upload cards, bulk upload from excel or other spread sheets, add images and soon trade items in their inventory to other members. All the data and images will transfer with the trade to the other member's inventory (once the trade is complete). This will save member's considerable time as they will NOT have to update their trade list/PC collection every time they make a trade, this system does all the work!

Inventory System

Member wishing to modify their existing inventory or add a card to their inventory must first click on the User CP (http://www.sportscardforum.com/usercp.php) in the navigation bar. We will have these options in the navigation bar soon!

http://sportscardforum.com/images/tradesystem/control-panel.gif

Once in the User CP, you will notice on the left side a "Card DB Management" with 4 options.

Add Card

If you click on the "Add Card" option you will be prompted to a screen asking for the details of your card. Simply fill out the details and upload up to 3 images (optional).

http://sportscardforum.com/images/tradesystem/inventory.gif

Click "Save card" and you will be brought to your inventory screen.

http://sportscardforum.com/images/tradesystem/your-inventory.gif

At the top you can search your inventory. At the bottom a list of your cards will be displayed. You can use the check boxes and "mass" change card statuses to PC, for sale, trade or sale/trade.

http://sportscardforum.com/images/tradesystem/inventory-options.gif

Card Information

If you click on one of your cards you will notice:
A Card ID is created with a bar code. Click on this for a high resolution image that you can print out and stick to a bubble mailer or back of a top-loader.
Card information that you typed in. You can edit the fields as needed.
At the bottom you can delete the card from your inventoryhttp://sportscardforum.com/images/tradesystem/card-in-inventory.gif

Manage Inventory

If you click on the Manage Inventory Option under "Card DB Management" you will be brought to your overall inventory by category. Click on the category you wish to manage.

http://sportscardforum.com/images/tradesystem/inventory-management.gif

Import/Export

If you click on the Import/Export Option under "Card DB Management" you will be brought to a screen that will allow you to import a spread sheet or export your inventory into a spread sheet.

http://sportscardforum.com/images/tradesystem/import-export.gif

Edit Showcase

If you click on the Import/Export Option under "Card DB Management" you will be brought to a screen that will allow you to select up to 10 cards to showcase in your SCF member page.

http://sportscardforum.com/images/tradesystem/showcase-edit.gif

Here is what it looks like in my profile.

http://sportscardforum.com/images/tradesystem/showcase-profile.gif

To see a member's inventory simply click on their user name in a thread/post and click on "View Card Inventory."

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii233/mikesilvia/trade-invent.gif

WOW!! Thats phenomenal!! Thanks Mike!! Looks very similar to the software I use, but integrated into trade manager sounds fantastic!!

If this works as advertised - it's officially AWESOME!! thanks for all your work Mike

I've been urged to conversate as it's been a few weeks since I've posted...

You spelled add wrong (ad)...

lol

Congrats on the addition of this new inventory system, it sounds fantastic!!!

Cheers!

MIXEDUPMITCH

You spelled add wrong (ad)...

?????

You add a card, not ad a card. Care to explain?

This is just what I need! no buying expensive software now. Super thanks!!

Wow.. an inventory manager.. is this JUST for trading or does it actually work to keep track of stuff we have that we aren't looking to trade etc? (I haven't been here in a while, but some day I'll want to get into the trading part, just not until March when Im less busy again :)

Add: Strike that ;) I just saw the section that mentions card status as for sale, trade, sale/trade, or PC (personal collection?)...

this is by far the best idea yet. great job on this one mike. it sure will help save lots of time in the long run. may take awhile to get it all typed up and together but i can't wait to see the end results when i finish.

dave

mike >> I think he was referring to your first post, second paragraph where it says:

ad images and soon trade

Ah! Thanks for the info. Fixed!

no problem... thanks for the mod :D

How does this thing handle multiples? I.e. if I have 3 of a card? Do I have to enter it 3 times? Or can we add a quantity field?

Shinino, good idea. I will add a quantity field once the rest is done, and this will create a separate entry for each card - this is the purpose of the system.

Mike,

This is spectacular. Trading sometimes becomes too time consuming with continuously updating inventories, making posts, reupdating, etc. This is a most welcome feature on the best trading site on the net!!! Well done!!!

Steve

ok, gotta ask since it just happened to me- are all future trade postings going to be based only on what is in my trade inventory? IE- do I have to upload something before I can trade it through the trade manager? If thats the case, it is going to be a major pain to do huge trades with low end cards- I really dont want to have to upload thousands of low end rookies one at a time just to hope to trade them in the future
Ed

ok, gotta ask since it just happened to me- are all future trade postings going to be based only on what is in my trade inventory? IE- do I have to upload something before I can trade it through the trade manager? If thats the case, it is going to be a major pain to do huge trades with low end cards- I really dont want to have to upload thousands of low end rookies one at a time just to hope to trade them in the future

Addressed in the other post. You can use the inventory system or the trade manager as is.

This might seem like a silly question, but....

Would there be anyway to search everyone's DB's for a specific card.

Kind of like the old beckett site.

I would also like to add my thanks, I'm sure this project took a lot of time and energy. It is appreciated.

Paul

Sure, just go to http://www.sportscardforum.com/cardshow.php?do=inventory and then search for a specific user and card fields you prefer in the Advanced Search box (you may have to click on the arrow on the right of the box to open it).

You can do very precise searches taking advantage of the options, and all you need to limit them to a user is enter his username. If you are already into a user's collection page, the Owner Name field is already filled with that user's name. If you want to search cards in all users' inventories, just leave the Owner Name field empty.

Let me know if this is what you were asking for.

Harry,
That's it in a nutshell, and it is what I was looking for. It's going to take a while to add all my inserts, but I think it will be worth it in the long run.

Paul

Good. By the way, I added a little simple feature when adding a card - if you check the "Multiple Insert Mode" checkbox on top, instead than being brought back to the inventory you will be brought to another add a card form.

is it possible to have an upload option for tab-delimited files?

and also an option to export ALL types of cards, not just 1 sport? just a thought :)

Another Silvia masterpiece! Thanks Mike!

is it possible to have an upload option for tab-delimited files?

and also an option to export option to export ALL types of cards, not just 1 sport? just a thought :)

Hey, thanks for the feedback.

Can you post a small sample of your CSV file to see what can we do? If you are just using a different delimiter than the comma, you could probably just do a search an replace before importing, or you might import in excel and then save a CSV file.

About the second idea, this is actually possible, but I will eventually activate this later. There are some concerns that made us start with just category uploads; one of these reasons, not the most important, is that for obvious reasons we must set a limit to the maximum number of CSV rows accepted by the system.

wow, very nice mike!

Is there a post anywhere that explains how to creat a .csv file, i am having some trouble with excel 2007 uploading.

Brandon, feel free to post here issues you might have. The process should be simple - you can basically create any CSV file structure, as long as it contains the required fields (Card Year, Manufacturer, Player First Name, Player Last Name, Card Condition - not necessary as you can set it for all your cards when uploading). So you create a table with these columns and then save the CSV file with Excel.

If you want, try entering a couple of cards into the system, then download the CSV and open it in Excel - you will already have the official layout used by system in place, so editing it will be easier. Once in this format, additionally, you might use your spreadsheet to do all kinds of stuff with your cards, like sorting them by a field, sum their values, and so on - so, in other words, it will be much better than having a simple txt list of your cards in the long run.

OK my turn.
I added 4 cards today. I LOVE IT !!!
BUT I seem to be having an issue with Images.
How do I know if the Pic is there .
I do not seem to see it on the left like the guide shows.
Also is there anyway to import a photo bucket pic ??

I apologize, it is my fault - I am moving the image directory to another place so I disabled uploads on new cards. This should be back to normal in 10-20 minutes.

I apologize, it is my fault - I am moving the image directory to another place so I disabled uploads on new cards. This should be back to normal in 10-20 minutes.

Thank You !!!

Ok, I have renabled it and should work without issues!

Ok, I have renabled it and should work without issues!

Nope just tried 3 times :confused0024:

Hmmm very strange, it is working for me... which images are you trying to upload? Which size?

Hmmm very strange, it is working for me... which images are you trying to upload? Which size?

I got it working. It was my image size.
Thanks For the Assistance.
Rich

n/m

Found my problem.

I get this error after I get all the way after step 3 and click all good...

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /carddb_import.php on line 199

Is this because I am trying to import too many cards at one time? How many cards can we put in our iventory at a given time?

Thanks

Thanks, I will check this. The setting is currently 250 cards at once, that should not be the issue, as the system simply ignores cards in excess.

Yes, there is indeed some issue on big files, I suppose it's a server limit. I will investigate and get back to you. Can you let me know how many cards were you trying to import at once?

Found and solved the issue ;)

I had a baseball spreadsheet consisting of over 3000 cards for trade (probably way too many to list at once)

Found and solved the issue ;)

Nevermind...I found it
~AJ

Hehe yes, that would have not worked in fact... theoreically the system could now handle more than this, but the current limit is set to 250 cards at once. Mike can probably increase it to 500 or 750 if you think this is necessary.

I am not listing every card I have just to make a simple 1 or 2 card trade. Why can't there be an option to use the system as it was? I already have my cards in an inventory system, I do not need a redundant system.

Guess for simple trades, I'll just deal with the other party directly.

You may have a good idea, but way too many bugs before you put it into production.

My $.02.

I am not listing every card I have just to make a simple 1 or 2 card trade. Why can't there be an option to use the system as it was? I already have my cards in an inventory system, I do not need a redundant system.

Guess for simple trades, I'll just deal with the other party directly.

You may have a good idea, but way too many bugs before you put it into production.

My $.02.

that is an option and has been mentioned in several threads

when you go to post a trade, there is an option in the "trade type" pull down menu for "other (old trade manager)"

Thanks for the help.

You may have a good idea, but way too many bugs before you put it into production.

These are not bugs, but improvements over the script. We put it live in beta phase on the website because, like you, the community here is very demanding. Getting their feedback about needed fields, features, and adjustments is the best way to get things right.

You have not even used the system, you do not plan to use it (and that's fine, that's why the old TM is in place, as written in all threads on the subject), but you are already complaining. I accept feedback and constructive criticism by all the people that spent hours on the system and added more than 2,000 cards with relatively little issues. Of more than 100 users, only 3-4 reported actual bugs.

I ask a bit more respect (and attention, since your questions has been asked 10 times) - if not for our efforts, for Mike, who is spending a lot of resources in this website. When he first came here, there were countless bugs a bit everywhere in here - he spent money, hired developers and system adminsitrators, bought an amazing server, and he is thinking everyday about improving the website.

And do not blame my tone to the rest of the Admin team, because I am not an administrator or moderator in here.

These are not bugs, but improvements over the script. We put it live in beta phase on the website because, like you, the community here is very demanding. Getting their feedback about needed fields, features, and adjustments is the best way to get things right.

You have not even used the system, you do not plan to use it (and that's fine, that's why the old TM is in place, as written in all threads on the subject), but you are already complaining. I accept feedback and constructive criticism by all the people that spent hours on the system and added more than 2,000 cards with relatively little issues. Of more than 100 users, only 3-4 reported actual bugs.

I ask a bit more respect (and attention, since your questions has been asked 10 times) - if not for our efforts, for Mike, who is spending a lot of resources in this website. When he first came here, there were countless bugs a bit everywhere in here - he spent money, hired developers and system adminsitrators, bought an amazing server, and he is thinking everyday about improving the website.

And do not blame my tone to the rest of the Admin team, because I am not an administrator or moderator in here.

I have tried to use your new system. I uploaded a .csv file but got error messages. Don't remember exactly what they were. I was in trade talks with another member who also expressed concerns over this new system. He was to post our trade, but the new system would not accept it. Like myself, he did not see the option to use the old system.

If my comments did not seem professional to you, I apologize. I guess I still have a bad taste in my mouth from previous bad experiences on this site. The former administration did not seem to care for member relations. I had a bad trade for over a year and the old mods did very little to help resolve the problem. I finally said to heck with it and gave up. I have only recently returned to this site.

I do plan on staying here for awhile. Guess I'm just set in my ways.

I think that this system looks very promising. I've been trying to take a programming class for the past 4 months to build up something similar off-line, but with this, I now have something that can be interfaced with. I have a few suggestions that I hope you find helpful.

I question the need for both a card type and card classification. I would suggest that the two be consolidated into just Card classification as you already have it with check boxes allowing for multiple selections.

A way to include more than one player on a card, such as for dual autos. Perhaps allowing a link to a card's unique identifier but adding a second player name?


Looks really great no matter what you do though. Cheers!

Hmmm, actually those fields were added after requests from the community three days ago - let's just see what others think.

About the multiple names, this might be added in the future. We had a generic card name field for these kind of things, but it was redundant to most users.

I think the feature is GREAT!! However, I hope you guys still keep the old trader manager around cause sometimes, it's too much to fill in all that info when trying to post a quick trade. :)

Once I figured out how to get the CSV file right (big thanks to MANIC), I really like the new system now. I've already loaded at least 750 or more cards from my spreadsheet and the only major problem I had was my fields didn't quite match up to the fields on trade manager at first. For instance...I just had PLAYER NAME as a column so I had to go back and add a column so I could change it to have First name and last name in separate columns. For the great benefits the program has, it was worth the work I have and will still have to do to my spreadsheet to make it work on trade manager.

I am also happy that we have the option of using the old system too and I think that was a great move. For one...it's quicker for smaller trades and not everyone wants to post all their cheap cards in their inventory. I am using both the old and new trade manager until I can get my spreadsheet totally tweaked.

I have to agree with a previous post...we need a way to post a card that has multiple players such as dual autos or league leaders subset cards without having to list them more than once (once for each player on the card). I don't know if that would screw things up, but it's a good idea.

Lastly...I like to export a lot of cards at once, but can live with only loading 250 at a time. Being able to load 500-750 would be really nice though and save time.

A big thanks to all those who put so much time into this. Not everyone is going to like it, but many of us will and once people learn the system like I had to, i hope more come around to use it. Thanks!!!!

A Previous NEW TRADE MANAGER skeptic

Once I figured out how to get the CSV file right (big thanks to MANIC), I really like the new system now. I've already loaded at least 750 or more cards from my spreadsheet and the only major problem I had was my fields didn't quite match up to the fields on trade manager at first. For instance...I just had PLAYER NAME as a column so I had to go back and add a column so I could change it to have First name and last name in separate columns. For the great benefits the program has, it was worth the work I have and will still have to do to my spreadsheet to make it work on trade manager.

I am also happy that we have the option of using the old system too and I think that was a great move. For one...it's quicker for smaller trades and not everyone wants to post all their cheap cards in their inventory. I am using both the old and new trade manager until I can get my spreadsheet totally tweaked.

I have to agree with a previous post...we need a way to post a card that has multiple players such as dual autos or league leaders subset cards without having to list them more than once (once for each player on the card). I don't know if that would screw things up, but it's a good idea.

Lastly...I like to export a lot of cards at once, but can live with only loading 250 at a time. Being able to load 500-750 would be really nice though and save time.

A big thanks to all those who put so much time into this. Not everyone is going to like it, but many of us will and once people learn the system like I had to, i hope more come around to use it. Thanks!!!!

A Previous NEW TRADE MANAGER skeptic

Yeah, I see the issue about player name and player last name being in separate fields. We had a generic card name in place before, but we were asked to remove it because it was redundant and could have confused most users. The same field could probably have been used also for multiple player names/last names but obviously that would have not been a great solution.

Anyhow, it was suggested to insert only one player name, and the others in the description field.

sorry if this was asked already, i didn't read every single post ;)

but, for nba cards do we list them by the first or second year? can this be added as an option (to have it says 07-08 rather than just 2007 for example)


edit: sorry another question, do deleted cards stay in your count? it says I have 2 cards. I only have one. When I uploaded it, it uploaded twice, so I deleted one of them. But it still says I have 2 cards.

For basketball use the last year.

I will see if Harry can look into the stats updating after you remove a card.

thanks for the info and looking into it!

Thanks, we have fixed the reported issue, and updated the old stats.

hi,
can the cards i list be searched by other collectors by card type player set etc?is there a limit on how many i can list.do you have a tutorial on spreadsheets or any advice that would help me use a spreadsheet for this purpose. i have never used a spreadsheet with any ideal what i was doing.
thanks,
andy

can the cards i list be searched by other collectors by card type player set etc?

Search by any of the fields. There are a lot of them!

is there a limit on how many i can list.

No

do you have a tutorial on spreadsheets or any advice that would help me use a spreadsheet for this purpose.

I suggest loading one card into your inventory then download it. It will be a nice template with one card loaded. Simply type away and then import when you are done!

hi,
thanks for responding to my questions.
sorry to keep asking questions.
what would be the easiest programs to use to import/export?
when i used the export it brought it into my computer and opened in note pad.
is there anyway to get the look of whats on the website on my computer with all the various feilds to enter the card info in.


this is what it looks like.
Category,Year,Card Manufacturer,Set,Player First Name,Player Last Name,Card Number,Condition,Condition Notes,Description,Production Notes,Serial Number,Card Type,Card Classification,Graded Cards,Value,Status,Card ID
"Baseball Cards",2001,"Upper Deck","Upper Deck",Ichiro,Ichiro,271,"Near Mint/Mint",,"may trade must be something i really want",,,base,rookie,,15.00,inventory,SCF-12857-BYVJ2RY6L14H


thanks,
andy

hey andy-- i'm not of much help, but Microsoft Excel is a good program to use to open a CSV file if you have Windows (what kind of computer do you have?). CSV just stands for comma separated value, which is why everything in the notepad file was separated by commas. If you open it with Excel it will be formatted like a spreadsheet.

If you don't have Excel, Microsoft has a free Excel viewer on their site that you can download (just can view files, not open them).

Also, I think Google has a free spreadsheets program, so maybe you could try looking for that if you want.

A few questions:

1) Is it possible to show more than 20 cards at a time in the inventory view screen on here?

2) Is there a way to remove /everything/ from inventory in one shot?

3) When importing, can we have a field so that it auto checks rookie, AU, GU or whatever?

1) Is it possible to show more than 20 cards at a time in the inventory view screen on here?

2) Is there a way to remove /everything/ from inventory in one shot?

3) When importing, can we have a field so that it auto checks rookie, AU, GU or whatever?

Right now it is no to all three, but these are excellent ideas that I will look at for our next upgrade. Thanks for the input!

Thanks. Since I'm having a problem rmeoving things due to the system choking. :D

Here's an inventory search issue that needs fixin' ...not sure where to go to for this problem. It does the same thing for me. If you type in 2007 in the "Year" search field, it does not limit the search results to 2007, but lists all years of cards:


Quote:
Originally Posted by molly1984 http://www.sportscardforum.com/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.sportscardforum.com/showthread.php?p=2921362#post2921362)
I think the year search might not work properly... For example, I type 1996 in and hit Go and it does not seem to filter the year.

Help, trying to load my cards but I am having a problem with the CSV file. I am using excel saved to a CSV file and when I load it get an error message for the year. I tried it with a 2006-07 in one column, a 2006 2007 in seperate columns. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

hmm might be because the year can handle i think only 4 digits? if you have a multi year card you just have to pick one of the years.

Tried that, also load a couple of cards for the format and then added the rest of the cards and still get this error message

I have entered in a card into the Inventory manager, downloaded the .csv and opened it in Excel. Then to test the system I entered two more card's info and tried to import the new .csv file into the inventory manager. Everything seems to work great except for the fact that the new cards are not listed. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks,
Eric

Hello,

can you please share the CSV file? Send the file to development at psfantasy.com and I will check what might be wrong. Please also check that all required fields (listed in the Import page) are included in the card rows you are adding.

Thanks.

Email sent with .csv file attached.

Thanks.

so i take it the trade list is no longer changeable, where to use this system?

Is it possible to upload images from photobucket? If so, can you please tell me how to do this? Thanks!

I thought you could just paste the link into the URL box on the inventory page for the card, but I get an "error for failure to upload temporary file" even though the size is less than 50kb. I usually just upload from my computer files. I'm pretty sure there should be a way to do it...anyone with any ideas?

Is it possible to upload images from photobucket? If so, can you please tell me how to do this? Thanks!

What is the best way to enter a card with 2 players on it? (such as a dual signed card)

This sounds like an awesome idea....