[New] EMC Market Buy/Sell Portal - Suggestions/Bug Reports

Alright, more has been done!

New Features

• Automatic transaction history reader! It goes through your transaction history page by page to find all the things you've bought or sold. If the item is not yet listed for that price and quantity, it gets added to the database. The transaction log doesn't show residence numbers, so these are guessed to be the primary residence of the user involved. This should help get some real data in the system very quickly.
• Statistics have been added to the front of the site!

Bug Fixes

• Layout errors still existed on a few pages. Notably FAQ and the bottom of the registration page.

Tweaks

• Made the bulk add tool a lot faster, removing clicks where I could. You can also easily duplicate listings (for example you buy/sell the same item or different quantities).
• When not logged in, your IP address is no longer displayed. (This confused at least one user.)

Back End

• A database of residence/username pairs is kept to know which residence corresponds to which user.
• Tracking the 'shop name' for each item. That's the value which appears in the transaction history or on a chest shop sign.

Thanks so much for all the feedback. Once again, if you have an idea for how you'd like to see the site work or a feature that you would find helpful, please comment!

As I told you in the pm, I think there are some problems with the automatic transaction auto reader.
You should watch out before you use it.

I didn't get a PM with problems. You mentioned that prices can change, which of course they can. Your transactions only update the price if they are newer than the last edit. I suspect very few people will have time to go through and add all their items (like you also said). So this is probably the only way that most of the database information will get added. If it's my tool and I haven't even found time to manually add all my items then I can't expect everyone else to do this. Once the tool becomes more popular, more people will add their shops, but never as many as would use a simple tool that takes a few minutes.

I'm sure that the database is not 'ruined'. Rather, it has a bunch of entries for stuff that's no longer for sale. In practice, each one may mean a potential one-time inconvenience for someone searching the listings. (They will go to your shop, not find the item, and remove it.) Once they remove the listing, the removed listing is the most recent edit, and if you ran the auto-reader again, it would not show up because it's outdated information. If you started selling that item again, and then ran the auto-reader, the item would appear again because the sale occurred after the removal edit.

This is really not a different situation than someone starting up a shop and selling out of stock or going inactive after. The market is obviously a dynamic place and most sales are temporary. I didn't build the functionality to quickly remove your listings but it should be easy enough. I will make the removal happen on-the-spot with JavaScript so you can just click through the items to be taken down. But again, I don't think this is as big a deal as to say that anything is ruined. It is far better to have a bunch of stuff that isn't sold anymore than to not know of any shop that may sell the item.

Some items have different names. For example, 'Melon' is called 'Melon Slice'. I have been going through and adjusting the names on items that I can, but of course it's a slow process. However I do know that the database only has 210 items and there are probably hundreds more. I will have a look at the error log and see what can be added, and I may actually consider having it just add those items to the database automatically.

I didn't test this and i didn't read all the posts, but it might be possible for a player to change the post (or whatever) of another player.

That is completely possible and is intended as a way to ensure false or no longer existing shops don't remain on the list.

This is exactly how it works! If you see an incorrect listing, please fix it!

More progress! Keep the great ideas/feedback coming.

New Features

• Loads of new items including dirt, planks, all the different types of armor, pickaxes, swords, axes, shovels, hoes, powered rail, cobwebs, snowballs, boats, ender pearls, eyes of ender, blaze powder, anvils, brewing stands, cauldrons, dispensers, droppers, bows, fishing rods, ender chests, compasses, clocks, bow, shears, flint and steel, maps, and others I haven't even mentioned. There are now 291 different items you can search and list.
• Even more items including spawn eggs, minecarts, quartz, flint, arrows, chiseled sandstone, mob heads, poppies. There are now 323 different items!
• You can now remove items from your shop quickly and easily from your account.

Bug Fixes

• Layout fixed on verification page.
• Various naming differences including melon, horse armor, sandstone, mossy cobble, nether warts.

Tweaks

• Removed/hidden items not shown on account.
• Account verification message is titled with username to be more personal.

Back End

• Added tracking for items which are not found by the auto-reader. The list will be populated as the script is run and even tracks which unlisted items are most popular.

Thanks again for all the feedback!

New Features

• Added all flowers, stairs, slabs, emerald blocks, XP bottles, charcoal, chiseled/cracked stone, clay bricks, cobblestone wall, crafting tables, daylight sensors, dragon eggs, fireworks, firework charges, flower pots, activator rails, detector rails, iron bars, mossy stone bricks, paintings, red mushrooms, stone buttons, pressure plates, and trapped chests. There are now 382 items you can list and search.
• Added a page with BBCode to put the site in your signature. Hopefully this will help us promote the service more widely!
• Added a tips feature on the site which displays random tips to help encourage editing and use of all features of the site.
• Added lots of FAQ questions and answers to the FAQ page.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a couple bugs in the Bulk Add feature. The 'bulk add' feature displayed a random error if not logged in, and also wasn't working due to a small coding error.
• Fixed an error in the Auto Reader that would cause a warning to be displayed and break the functionality. If you attempted to use the auto-reader recently, please try again.
• Lots of item names have been corrected to match the values in the rupee transaction history.

Tweaks

• Added border to the page, and slightly more padding before the bottom menu.
• Removed 'Not Logged In' to save space. It's obvious from the 'Log In' menu link.

* Please check serch for Clay, Hard Clay, Red Sand, Gold Ore

* Consider adding "Shop does not exist (any more)" message which would be available to logged in users (verified through the forum), so we can just signal that "911 shop does not exist" instead of editing / hiding all of its entries. When adding data through "auto-reader", you need to then ignore transactions that happened before the shop was closed (or res was reset ...).

For "bulk add" - after the user selects an item - I think it would be good to add 4 lines right away - 2 for "buy" and 2 for "sell".

Congratulations (again) - I'll be glad to contribute

The new clay blocks and red sand are not added yet. I am in the process of adding those next actually. Gold ore is, but you have to type 'gold o' to find it because it was at the bottom below all the other gold stuff. Now that I searched it up once it will be closer to the top in the future.

It's a great suggestion because I know a lot of shops will probably disappear in full. Most users would use it at the appropriate time when a shop is completely gone. I have to think about where to put the feature so it would be convenient but still unlikely to be used accidentally or maliciously. (As at the moment there really isn't a public 'restore this shop' feature.) I think I can have it appear for logged in users when the last two edits to a shop were removing/hiding items.

I have to think on this. One thing you may not but probably do know is that you can click the '+' beside the entry to create another entry for the same item. You may have discovered that already.

My hesitation is this: I know for you, you always buy and sell at two prices. However, many shops only sell at one quantity/price, and they would be annoyed by having to remove the 3 extra entries for each item. Or they may just leave them, and be annoyed at having a really long page. So at the least, this setting would have to be configurable.

I wanted to get your feedback on what I think may work better. It would save you having to twice enter the quantity a second time, having to select 'Sell' twice, and two clicks of that '+'. Each entry by default features a buy and sell price, for a single quantity. (Same as a shop sign.) If the shop does not buy or sell the item, they leave the price empty. (As opposed to '0' for free.)

I also am considering accepting the upload of CSV (comma separated value) files, which means you could put the price list in Excel/Calc and then import it right in. Would you find such a feature useful?

No problem! Thanks so much for your suggestions. They are really helpful.

I know, but if I want to be really fast, I'll reduce mouse use. Keyboard is faster.
So it would be <Tab>, digits and <Enter>

Yes, just leave them empty, and 3 (or only 1, see below) additional open lines wouldn't make the page too long.

Reminds me that a "log out" button should be there...

What takes time is the '+' and having to go back to the quantity, because the price field gets automatically selected.

On the shop sign, you have the quantity above (before) the price, so I think it would be better to keep that in the Web App as well. First quantity, then both prices:

Stone at [ 12162 ], Qty [ 64 ], Buy for [ 55 ], Sell for [ 50 ] r.

Bulk adding:
<icon> Stone x [ 64 ]: Buy [ ], Sell [ ]
<icon> Stone x [ 8 ]: Buy [ ], Sell [ ]

1st Qty is selected / focused, so it would be:
- If only selling at one price: [<qty>]<tab><B-price><Enter>
- If selling and buying one qty: [<qty>]<tab><B-price><tab><S-price><Enter>
- If selling and buying, 2 Qtys: [<qty>]<tab><B-price><tab><S-price><tab>[<qty2>]<tab><B-price2><tab><S-price2><Enter>

The suggested quantities can be selected based upon what people mostly use.

Very useful for people who are already able to download the transactions or maintain a spreadsheet with prices. I don't know if you have read my posting in your other thread (Name&Banner) - I have a good implementation of rupee log "downloader".

I see this as a very good start. If / when people start using it, a spectrum of new possibilities will open.

Not disagreeing with your suggestion but it is possible to tab to the + on the browser in the meantime while I build the new bulk adder.

It depends how many items you are adding at once... If it's 1, of course not. 3, not really. 12, maybe. 40, umm... 112... it could get pretty annoying.

Easy enough to just add one.

That's exactly how it will look.

Sounds good. I'm going for those keystrokes. What does the enter key do?

This is already in place. It is usually stack size but in some cases (like enchanting tables) the default is individual.

That may be useful, although the advantage of having them use the site directly is that it's faster so they can contribute regularly if they choose. I may also allow download of the prices to a spreadsheet.

People are already using it quite a bit. We are up to over 800 listings now and the search volume per day has increased quite a bit. Some people are actually reporting finding good deals through the tool.

Maybe you should change the title because now people may think that it doesn't exist yet.

I don't have the ability to change the title but if a staff member can change it to say '[New] EMC Market Buy/Sell Portal - Suggestions/Bug Reports' that would be great.

I was adding one item at a time then submitting. Submit took less time than 3-4 clicks with the mouse.

Submit. After the submit, the focus should be on item search, so you can simply continue to type in the search field.

This would also allow for further Apps to use the data.
I have a "shop owner's view" (what did people buy/sell from/to my shop within a chosen timespan; also: who did abuse my shop sign mistake) that could also be easily adapted to be convenient for non shop-owners (what did I buy/sell and where). Perhaps we can join the projects somewhere.

Information "shop X sells item Y at price B and buys at price S (with date)" is available to everyone - this is already either the information that shop owners want to publish and/or shop users want to share.

For more sophisticated uses, I think a "share with the group" principle would work: if you share your data (only buying from shop and selling to shop, average quantity and average price), then you can use anonymized data of others who also share. But, that are possible future steps (as I see them).

We need that EMC rupee log API with authorization token...

For the TODO list ...
- move updates to HTTP POST instead of GET and do redirect to realod the page after POST, so that browsing / reloading afterwards doesn't repeat the POST
- Time zones ... display time in the users (browsers) time zone.

This looks cool and I've been adding some items from big malls on SMP1 to try and help with my own pricing.

I think it would be great if it gave an average price/unit as otherwise you are forced to do mental arithmetic as everyone is selling in different quantities.

It is missing water lily and pumpkin seeds, or at least I couldn't find them.

Thanks so much for all the great feedback and support! We have just over 1,000 listings now and total search volume has exceeded 2,000!

New Features

• Added a multitude of new items including nether brick items, clay, hardened clay, stained clay of every colour, clay blocks, red sand, all variants of red sandstone, glass panes, stained glass of every colour, chest minecarts, hopper minecarts, furnace minecarts, TNT minecarts, and fence gates. There are now 428 items available to buy/sell.
• Built a modified version of the bulk adder which allows you to easily add buy and sell entries for the same item. It should be a lot faster to use for shops buying and selling. The old bulk adder is still available if preferred.
• Added even more new items including all types of potions, various mob heads, all colours of carpets, glass bottles, water lilies, hay bales, fire charges, snow caps, iron weighted pressure plates, gold weighted pressure plates, and pumpkin seeds. There are now exactly 500 items available to buy/sell.
• You can now log out.

Bug Fixes

• Critical bug with usernames fixed. Usernames with _ and - now work. Fixed in multiple places now.
• Fixed bug which allowed entries to be overwritten by older entries. (It was comparing the time of creation, not last modification.)
• Fixed a residence listing bug. The residences of SMP3 and Utopia were reversed, so no entries could be listed from those two servers.
• Lots of item 'shop names' have been adjusted. You should get significantly less errors when using the 'Auto-Reader'.
• Errors showed up twice on login page.

Tweaks

• Have decided that rather than deal with all the timezone complexity, I would just deal with how long ago an update occurred or the date (which is not timezone dependent). So I've made that display change which also shortens the column and allows for more information.
• Both bulk adders submit with POST instead of GET.
• Update statistics on auto-adder to be less ambiguous/unclear.

Back End

• Added a volume statistics page! You can see which items have been most searched on what day. Statistics will always be one day behind.
• Added code to handle 'oddball' items. These are items which appears to have more than one name such as 'Wood Step'/'Wood Stairs', 'Iron Chest'/'Iron Chestplate', 'Gold Chest'/'Gold Chestplate'. Luckily these are (hopefully) odd and uncommon cases. I'm still getting a lot of entries which merely say 'Head' or 'Enchbook' which I am leaving alone for now.

Alright I'm going to bump this because there's still a lot of shops and offers which aren't even listed and I want as much help as possible to build up the database.

I also had an idea to add a page for each shop. It would list the items bought/sold at that specific shop. It could be customized with a description and custom banner by the shop owner. Would this be useful, and if you owned a shop would you use this page? What features would be useful to have as a shop owner?

I would add promotional items to the database and also enchanted books. Great idea, and I am using this a lot