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An Introduction to the Stash Manager

ipb

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We've got a new tool that'll be released later today - the Stash Manager. It's been something people have been wanting for years (literally! There are posts from 2004 asking for stash tracking), and it's something I've always wanted to do, but with the software I built our feedback off of, I was finally able to give you - I've had planned for a few months, and like feedback, it stalled as I had to wait for a patch to be released.

 

 

What is the Stash Manager?

At this point in time, it's a private tool that will allow you to keep track of what BPAL you've tried, how well you liked it, whether or not you've bought it/kept it/sold or swapped it, and your personal notes about it. It's got a few custom views, with more coming. Eventually, you'll be able to share your wishlist from the stash manager (no more having to constantly update your wishlist post - it's automatically updated from what you've entered in!).

 

Let's talk about the pages it's got!

Your Stash Manager: On this page, you can enter in perfumes and view what you've entered in - the perfume name, whether or not you've tried it, whether or not you've bought it, whether or not you're swapping it away, your rating of it (or a note that you haven't rated it), your notes, and a button to update the scent. With your notes is also a link to your review (or a link to add a review, as applicable). It's a very good idea to rate things (as you'll see later!). Your ratings are private - not shared with the Lab or the public in any way.

 

Your Wishlist: This page displays what BPAL you're wanting. Eventually, I will be adding something to the User Control Panel to allow you to choose to make your wishlist visible by other people. (If you choose to make yours public, there will be two additional filters for people who viewing your wishlist: "show perfumes I have" and "show perfumes I'm swapping" - convenient for people who like to go and add frimps of things the other person likes.)

 

Your Inventory: This page displays your current BPAL inventory, ratings, notes. You can edit or add perfume from this view as well.

 

Your Current Swap, Sale, and Purchase Activity: This page shows what you're getting rid of, what you intend to get rid of, and what you're getting. Your notes are viewable here, so you can note where you're getting it from or where it's going to (and what you're getting in exchange), any pertinent dates, etc. This is just one way to help you manager your swaps outside of PMs. Eventually, I plan on having a "show all things I want to swap or have listed" pop up that will let you copy and paste everything, to easily be added to your swaps page.

 

Your Untried Stash: Want to know what you've got and haven't tried yet, and your cat's knocked into your carefully separated box a few times too many? This is the place to go! It'll show everything you've listed as owning, but haven't tried.

 

Your Unlisted Stash: Analogous to Your Untried Stash, this shows everything you haven't added yet.

 

Your Loves & Dislikes: This is a page that's in the works. I'm in the middle of writing a tagging system for the scent database, for notes. Once that has been completed, this page will tag clouds of notes that show up frequently on scents you dislike (rated 0-1) or on scents you liked (rated 4-5). There won't be any analysis of combinations of notes. It'll be an easy way to track this. (I know we all have a general sense of what we like, but when there's hundreds and thousands of perfumes, things can sneak by you!)

 

Your Recommendations: One of the biggest reasons Netflix took off - or at least, amongst my friends! - is that it'll recommend you things based off of your previous ratings and what other people rate. This is a huge project, but I think in the end, it'll be a super useful tool for new forumites and old alike. This probably won't be out until May or June.

 

The Swap Matchmaker: Tired of going through swap page after swap page (and then their wishlist!) to find someone that's looking for things that you're trying to get rid of and, at the same time, is trying to get rid of something you want? Never fear - this is the page for you! Like the Wishlist, you will have to opt into the Matchmaker to be able to get results beyond "you have matches!". Because members have to opt into it, and it won't give you any results if you're banned from swaps, we do consider this to be part of the swaps section - so feel free to message anyone who pops up! It's still a work in progress (I have to get the configuration part written yet), but once it's up, I'm sure many will find it super useful. Right now, it just shows you how many matches you WOULD have if it was live. (I have two!)

 

 

 

How to enter in perfumes

There are two ways to enter in perfumes: import all of your previous reviews (from a button on the Stash Manager), or individually add them. If you import them, they import that you've tried them, but don't have them, want them, etc, so you'll have to individually edit that information into the database (along with any rating or notes you've got). You can keep importing your reviews as time goes on.

 

 

Have questions or comments about the Stash Manager? Found a bug? This topic is the place to go to let us know!



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There doesn't seem to be any way to edit or delete duplicates... maybe it's my view :(

 

Still cool feature which i will actually use

Thanks

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@Cour des Miracles: Eventually, the wishlist can be shared. I haven't decided if I want to allow the ability to share the inventory or not, and potentially, if the "loves and dislikes" page goes the way I want it to, theoretically, that might be something I set up so people have the ability to share it as well.

 

 

@BlackTauna: from the FAQ:

Q: How do I delete things I added by mistake?

Right now, there's no delete button. However: if there's something else you want, own, have tried, have purchased (but not yet arrived), or are swapping, you can easily update the entry to be something else. For instance, if you mistakenly put in "Dorian" twice, you can update one of the "Dorian" records & and add "Pumpkin King" - you've always wanted to try it, after all!

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QS, when will the newer scents be added? I tried to add The Phoenix in Spring today and it doesn't look like it's in the drop down list yet.

 

Just curious. :)

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Can we view others' stashes yet, or is that coming later? I don't see how to click on someone's stash from their profile page (though I can easily get to "My Stash."

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I am loving this! I am an obsessive list-maker and record-keeper, and I've been disappointed with the tools that have been out there so far--spreadsheets that are always out of date, solutions that don't leave me room for personal, non-review comments, etc. Since none of the solutions were perfect, I ended up with records and notes all over the place, with no "definitive" home for my BPAL record-keeping. This is really shaping up to be something special, and as I enter in my stash, I have high hopes that this will be the last place I have to move my stash records to!

 

May I put in some feature requests? In addition to the wonderful things like the swap matchmaker you're working on, there are a couple of little things that could make the functionality even better.

 

- I would love it if, in the Stash Manager view, I could change how things are sorted. Sometimes it's easier to see everything alphabetically by scent name; sometimes I'd like to see all the scents I haven't rated at the top of the list. Some of this is accomplished with the other views, I guess (which I just discovered! - in the Clean Cut theme, at least, it's not readily apparent), but I think it could be useful within any of the views.

 

- Also, one little annoyance I have is that when I update/add a scent, when I'm finished, it takes me back to page 1 of the Stash Manager by default. This is kind of a pain if I'm entering notes for a whole bunch of perfumes on, say, page four, and I have to go back to page 4 again every time I start a new one. I'm wondering if it would make more sense to return to the referring page by default. Or do you think that would be too confusing?

 

- Importing from a spreadsheet would also be nice, but I imagine that's a tricky feat.

 

- I can't be the only dork who likes to schedule what BPAL they want to wear. Right now I have a Gcal just for this, and I sometimes use dice roller apps to pick a random scent. I see that randomizing functionality has just been added in, which is exciting, but I would also love a scheduling tool to pair with it!

 

I hope I'm not being too burdensome by suggesting these features - it's just something I've thought a lot about, and have a lot of ideas about! I do work as a web developer, however, so I might be able to lend a hand to this project - feel free to contact me.

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Are discontinued GC scents not included in the database? I was trying to enter Dublin, Masabakes, and The Music of Erich Zahn, and didn't see them there...

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This is fantastic! I've gotten completely overwhelmed by my stash and trying to keep 294839 lists updated, so I'm horribly, horribly behind. I hope that this feature will help me keep a handle on things, and I think it should definitely help me stay organized whenever I start swapping again. (My life is way too disorganized right now, but having a list of what I want to swap already established should be helpful when I find myself with a free month...)

 

Thanks for all of the work on this! I look forward to seeing how it develops.

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This is fabulous! So much more effective than my notepad lists. :blush: Like @smellygood, I hope newer scents are added soon, since I bought a LOT of Nutcracker scents this year. Also Dublin, which I didn't think was new, isn't showing up. Sum total though, this completely rocks! :joy:

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The OCD listmaker in me has been loving the last hour and a half I've been puttering with this new feature.

 

Whoa.

 

And, um, if you're looking for scents to add... couldn't find Hakkotsu on the drop-down list, and I actually have a bottle I'd like to add to my list o'stash.

 

This is a wonderful feature, and especially liked that we could import our reviews. That saved me so much time trying to hunt down all the reviews I had.

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This is such a nifty tool! I did notice a few scents missing when I tried looking them up to add them (namely The Arabian Dance, Pink Champagne, and Champagne and Party Hats) but they're all recent scents so I imagine you just haven't gotten to them yet. Thanks so much for all your hard work in making such an awesome tool!

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I am loving this. It's so much fun to go back and read my old reviews and add the stars. My only complaint is that after editing a scent's stars it always takes me back to Page 1 of my reviews, and then only shows Page 1 and 2 to click through to. To get back to later pages to keep editing, it takes 1-3 clicks! If it could take me back to the last page of my scents after editing, that would be ideal!

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I'm just adding to the love. I'd also like to see the list of scents expanded, as I have several that are not on there ;__; but I can be patient. We've waited this long, what's a few more weeks? It's all good. ^__^

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Once I can get the import feature to work, this is going to be amazing. Right now it won't import my multitude of reviews for me yet (keeps saying the forum is busy, though I could get to this page), but when it will...well, wow!

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Yeah, I've now tried several times and each time the forum drops the connection. Sad! I wonder if this is problem for people who have a LOT of reviews? I'm so disappointed as I'd love to see all my old reviews!mecry.gif

 

I'll keep trying but since Schmoozy was having the same problem, I'm not certain it will work for me on another day either.

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I really love this, I almost finished updating my stash, there are a few scents not listed yet so I am waiting on those.

 

The only thing I would really like to see is a way to be able to sort the lists on the main page. I would like to be able to click one of the categories on the top and it would sort it that way you would have multiple sort options.

ie: Category, Perfume, Tried, Inventory, Wishlist, Swaplist, Incoming?, Rating

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Hmmm, I still try and nothing. I keep losing my connection as well. I know I have quite a few reviews- I wonder if that's the problem.

I guess I'll just keep trying. Maybe some cuervosueno's luck will rub off on me! :D

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I love this & think I'm going to find it very useful. Not to mention SO MUCH MORE ORGANIZED than my current wishlist. But is it just me, or aren't the BPTP perfumes an option? For example, I can't find L'Estate or Spanked in the dropdown box to add a perfume. And I only just discovered (way late to the game) that I love L'Estate, I'd love to be able to input it into my stash.

 

Speaking of wishlists, it would be neat if there were an option to turn that part public or not, all at one stroke. Just a thought on a nice way of keeping all the lists & their comments tidy.

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This. Is. BRILLIANT!

 

I heart you so hard right now, I don't even...

 

After multiple attempts (with subsequent dropping), I finally managed to import all 21 pages of reviews.

 

I am so in awe!!

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