Collection V2++

{"ops":[{"insert":"Collection V2++ "},{"attributes":{"header":1},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"tl;dr - highlighted changes"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nCollection V2"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nMajor update to add card workflow"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Syntax searching/filtering now works for collections"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Image view added to collection"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Text (table) view’s columns can now be configured "},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Paging is now per page vs an infinite scroller (page size selector & jump to page options available)"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Card details overlay now exists for collections"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"“In decks” column moved to a tab in the card details overlay to improve load times. Now shows more details of what decks your collection cards are played in "},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nDeck page"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nNew tabs across the top (“In decks”, “Collection records”)"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Layout changes"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Color tag form input added to the card details"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"View as “Scroll” removed "},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"View as “Grid” is now more dynamic (will mostly fit more cards on smaller screens)"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Drag-and-drop disabled on the deck page from touch inputs by default (can be reenabled in Account Settings) "},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nFolder page changes"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nCertain deck flags can now be updated in bulk (i.e. set all decks in a folder to private)"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nA bit of a preamble"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nFirst things first: My name is Michael and I’m the lead dev on Archidekt. Jeremy usually writes these dev notes but I was kinda feeling it for this one. If you’re reading this and wondering why it’s written so differently, that’d be why. We’re not sure if this format will stick around, but if you prefer my little insights on why certain things change vs. just the things that changed, let us know. This update has been a (really) long time coming and I hope it will have been worth the wait. I’ll go into a bit of detail as to why this took so long further down.\n\nIf you don't care about the \"why\" about some of these changes, that's totally cool, the changes are listed above, and your feedback is more than welcome in the comments here regardless. \n\nDeck page changes"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nThe biggest changes this update are on the collection page itself, but since that’s obvious and because most people will notice the deck pages changes first, we’re gonna start with those (also, there’s way less of them). \n\nThe clearest change to the deck page is when opening the card details overlay. There are new tabs at the top that will allow users to see other decks the card you’re viewing is in, and which (if any) collection records you have that match the card. We’ve also added a color tag picker to the card details for easier findability. This is what card details looks like now:\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#000000"},"insert":{"image":"https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/VAm5bCfZf0jLJHj4B6vsj8mMbguYX5r6r4dEIS5tHiTBiK-on7wnYClsgqYOnY6RzrzINZ-GHj9hFfHeipwSN2MUPWtemBXgHoRIm0TTw2Ns4W5LHWh38KMkzR-FHE6rHoxz5LvgBNnw9UFg0Lw65og"}},{"insert":"\n\nOver the past few months, we’ve been sitting down and talking to users - specifically newer users - about their experience on the site within their first few days and weeks of using it. One thing we found was that there were a few key features (color tags, categories, setting a commander, etc.) that were too difficult to find due to either being buried in a sea of other buttons, or just generally being lower on the page. The changes we’ve made to the card details overlay were made in large part to help new users find the controls that they need easily, while also freeing up space for extra UI, so as we continue to add features to the deck builder, we have places to put them.\n\nAs alluded to, we now have a handful of extra controls and options that were not present previously. The “In decks” and “Collection records” tabs don’t really expose a ton of new information, but between them, we’ve moved the information you need while brewing to somewhere it’s more easily accessible. There are quite a few options / meta info stuff going on with those tabs (designed with our power users in mind), so please play around with them! If there are any options missing that we didn’t think of, I’m happy to add stuff wherever possible. A lot of the changes to this panel were made to help improve the fluidity between a user’s collection data and their deck data; being able to edit collection card records was a part of that. \n\nMoving on, the search panel’s UI was tweaked, if only slightly. The changes were made largely in an attempt to bring some visual cohesion to the overlay UI (to match it to the card details above); but beyond that, the overlay was entirely rewritten to make it possible for the overlay to jump from any state to another and back. You probably don’t super care about the internal workings of an overlay, but what matters is now you can go from the searched cards grid > card details > collection records > edit a collection record, and all the way back out to the grid of searched cards without losing context of what you were doing.\n\nAs previously mentioned, all of the deck page changes come due to us talking to new users. Under normal circumstances, I prefer to build changes as small as possible, so you might be wondering how I ended up five paragraphs deep into the collection V2 update notes and I’m still talking about the deck page. \n\nBasically, when we set out to do collection V2, one of the goals we had was to bring a visual cohesion between the deck page and the collection page in an attempt to lower the barrier to entry for collections in general. Combine that with the fact that we’d just spent a few weeks chatting with users about the deck page, we knew that a lot of the menuing on the deck page would need to be changed in the near future anyway. So you can kinda see our catch-22 here: we either update both pages at once, update the deck page first (and continue to back burn collection users), or do the collection page knowing that the UI would be being changed in the near future. We settled on the first choice**.\n\n**"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Because we didn’t do everything we wanted to do on the deck page."},{"insert":"\n\nWe have a handful of UI organization changes we still plan on making to the deck page. So any and all issues you have with finding options, UI organizational issues, workflow issues, etc.– now’s the time to let us know. For those of you out there who aren’t a fan of the changes made in this update and really don’t want us to continue making changes, we’d love to hear from you as well. I promise, we don’t make changes simply to aggravate existing users, we’re just trying to make the site as good as it can be for all users, new and old.\n"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Alrighty, I think that covers it for the deck page, time for collection V2!"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nObviously the whole page has an updated look to it. Stuff like Image view and being able to hide / show columns while on Text (table) don’t really need much explanation, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least hit the highlights for you. Here’s a speed round of that kind of stuff:\n\nImage view has the ability to change the image size. I know the next thing people will want is the ability to do this on the deck page, perhaps with the aforementioned deck page changes when we (ideally) have more room for UI elements. As it stands, changing the size of the card images in stacks would be extremely difficult and basically require a whole rewrite, so I know some people out there probably want it, just sit tight, I’ll try my best."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Collection records can now have a purchase price "},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Applied filters can now be seen at the top of the page, and removed with a click"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"There’s a new “Labels” view for those who like to use collection labels like something akin to folders"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Collection labels can now be edited (both name and color)"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Viewing all decks that a card is now is is faster"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"You can find collection records that match the card you’re viewing more easily"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Paging is now done via a paginator rather than an infinite scroller"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"There’s a scroll back to top button"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"You can now use syntax search to filter your collection (huge, huge change. Probably understating this for a lot of people)"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nI want to touch on the renaming of collection *tags* to collection *labels* for a second. When chatting with users, a lot mentioned how they wished that the collection manager supported folders or binders. This confused us a bit because in our minds, tags could be used to do that with a lot more power since cards can have multiple tags. We chatted with users in a few places ("},{"attributes":{"link":"https://discord.gg/GyAAANU8uJ"},"insert":"Discord"},{"insert":" mostly, come say hi!), and noticed that the word “tag” wasn’t super synonymous with a handful of users looking specifically for “folders” or “binders”. We’re hoping that this change helps. Sorry if it’s confusing to existing users, but the functionality has only improved, so no worries there.\n\nOkay, now for the part that really interests me in this update, we’ve completely overhauled the process for adding individual cards to collections. There are a ton of options for adding cards since apparently everyone does it differently. If you use the new tools and find that you don’t like the process we’ve designed, try checking out the options– there’s probably a setting in there that suits your needs. If there isn’t, let us know and I’d be happy to add anything to smooth out the (admittedly) tedious process of adding a bajillion cards to your collection.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#000000"},"insert":{"image":"https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/k2ecdfMqaWcme-CeFTr8W5ye2rgqpAczwiU9Y3UwHXQJty_5y6UKOCUlh7pgy4ljYcAusymBxx-9TqxHT5q1_i2gM8k1jlq_ScZqx0OiGILn4FnuhoCdCRmQz11xoOKcznw6Cxx97ENoXotSs1ZnHsI"}},{"insert":"\n\nSince I know users tend not to dig hugely into options, here are some highlights for specific workflows that I think users will really enjoy:\n\nUsers can now limit search to a predefined set / syntax query (persistent extra search fields). For example, if you’ve cracked a box of Karlov Manor and are inputting explicitly those cards and only those cards, you can say so before searching for the card name, and we do our best to pick the exact printing of the card you’re looking for the first time."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Users can now “quick add” cards by immediately adding the card after you select it from the card autocompleting dropdown. In conjunction with this, you can lock the previous inputted value for any field (eg: foil). So as an example, if you’re going through a stack of only foils, you can lock the value of the cards you’re adding to foil so you don’t need to keep changing it."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Users can now allow the site to auto increment the quantity by one if one exact copy of the cards you’re trying to add is found."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nThere’s a lot that can be done with these options; we tried our best to make it so that the workflow of the site can adhere to whatever workflow any user could need. If there’s any we missed, let us know!\n\nBeyond the card adding process, most workflows have stayed the same with one notable exception. The “In decks” column has been moved from the collection table itself into a tab within the card details. This was done primarily to speed up the collection query, which will result in faster load times for collections, and keep the site running more smoothly for all users. This is the only known thing that could be seen as an objective downgrade from collection V1, and I’m sorry that I couldn’t make it work at the column level. For a lot of users it would have been totally fine, but for others, the query made a significant impact on our database usage when it ran for an extended period of time. In response to this change, the “In decks” tab was added so that the information was still available at the card level, and with a lot more detailed information per card.\n\nI’m sorry that we’ve been a bit more radio silent for the past few months. This update has taken what feels like forever between both the deck and collection pages. We’ve been pretty communicative about updates and progress for users on our Discord, but that doesn’t do much for most people who are simply using the site. We haven’t gone anywhere, and we will continue to update and build Archidekt to make it the best that it can possibly be. As always, if you have any suggestions, comments, issues, feedback, etc, feel free to post them as comments here, on our forums, or on our discord. \n\nI hope these changes help smooth out the experience of using the site! \n"}]}