New Bricklink Format

[whitswj]

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Edited December 3, 2021 by whitswj

[MikroMan]

I also had a poke around the site, but will probably wait till tomorrow as it's still running a bit slow, probably due to all the people logged on and testing the site. I feel this is a step in the right direction. Sure, there will be bugs and kinks to work out in the next few weeks, but overall I'm happy with the transition.

Some people on BL forums are crying bloody murder over "BAD BAD BAD update", but hopefully this stuff wil mostly subside in a couple of days as people get used to new interface.

[CM4Sci]

Wow, I love it! I was waiting for them to get a new, modern look. Everything still works the way I usually use it so I am happy with it. Glad it has happened !

[mpfirnhaber]

I guess the devs don't value consistency. Every uses a different style. It looks half-finished.

[Mesabi]

Call me a stick in the mud, but I kinda liked the old design better. It had an elegant simplicity to it. But I'm not sure if this is just me hating change. Either way, it still looks very nice.

[bonox]

it's ok, but i'm having a hell of a time trying to see my entire wanted list. You can see items per wanted list id, but not the collection of all stuff across your entire wanted list. Make it very hard to update things or see how much of a particular part you are trying to find across many simultaneous builds.

having said that, I like the % complete element of each wanted list.

[Littleworlds]

The new design is certainly a step into the right direction. The old one was quite dated looking and just not up to today's standards. A pity that the pages for the individual stores still look much like before, as well as the stores-list. But maybe that will addressed soon.

And yes, there will be always the complainer who wants stuff as they are used to it, even if it has its quirks and limitations, but a more tidy and efficient look is really needed on bricklink. People will get used to it. Important for me is that it isn't a step backwards in terms of usability and accessibility and if there are certain search-features missing now, they better implement them

[obsidianheart]

Well, I never (lies, it would have been, like a day, tops) would have checked if I hadn't seen this topic. I'm mostly indifferent, but the Wanted Lists changes provide an organizational dream I wasn't aware I had.

[bonox]

the more you dig, the weirder it gets. How do i search for stores with a certain part, part colour and minimum quantity now? Qty search field has vanished and I think your only option is to start sorting - but you can't multi sort by qty then price.

I don't see a problem with new skins, updating code to resize for any window/browser etc, but when you remove useful functionality, you're bound to get a backlash.

that's using menu SHOP - Search by Item.

Seems like the old functionality exists after one search when a sub-menu pops up, but not in the first instance. They keep messing with it, but it's only 'intuitive' to new users.

[obsidianheart]

Yeah, being unable to sort Wanted Lists by Item Type is a pain, it turns out.

[anothergol]

I didn't much enjoy using it, but I totally understand it's a matter of being used to the old one, which was frankly horrible & made no sense for newcomers.

I hope the little quirks will be fixed, though. Like not being able to get out of a popup zoom by escape or clicking anywhere outside. Painful to have to aim for that X each time.

[moustic]

I had a look on how to buy from wanted list now ! quite disturbing !

but at least I will buy less parts.

often when I buy from a shop I check all parts and buy few extra parts to reach min price or to optimize shipping cost.

now with the button 'select' it is easier and it is more difficult to parse others parts than the needed one.

[bonox]

i can't work out how to upload an xml file to a specific wanted list - all the ID numbers for wanted lists have vanished. Anyone got a clue?

[MikroMan]

i can't work out how to upload an xml file to a specific wanted list - all the ID numbers for wanted lists have vanished. Anyone got a clue?

Just go to Want > Upload. Select either file or paste XML directly. On the bottom there's a dropdown menu that allows you to select Wanted List.

[bonox]

also, i've purchased two orders, and the old "subtract from your wanted list thing has gone, and the % complete bar hasn't moved from zero either.

Looks like many people are getting the megabloks with the purchasing and wanted lists!

http://www.bricklink.com/messageThread.asp?ID=206352&nID=991592

Just go to Want > Upload. Select either file or paste XML directly. On the bottom there's a dropdown menu that allows you to select Wanted List.

did that. Even selecting a list, it all goes in the default one.

[MikroMan]

did that. Even selecting a list, it all goes in the default one.

That's weird, worked fine for me, both with .bsx import and XML. Are you sure you're uploading correctly? Anyway, if it really doesn't work, you can just go to your default list, multiselect all the elements and use Move to move them to another Wanted List.

[bonox]

The list goes in correctly - just to the default list instead of the one I select in the drop down list. I don't know how you can upload "incorrectly" but get the parts, colours and quantities you specified, but in the wrong spot. I've tried it with a rebrickable list too and get the same issue. I've raised a ticket with them.

In the end, I suppose I can understand why they're futzing with it, but it mostly looks like a dumbed way down version of the old one based on some people complaining that they didn't understand it. I'm all for improving things, but when you've got a live site, with paying clients keeping you alive (ie my store and every store pays for the site), then why would you just switch over to a new version that's radically different without some kind of way to access the old version (or functionality at least).

If your bank did this and you couldn't get money moved around, you'd crucify them. It looks like the v2 upgrade is a bunch of kiddies playing with code and no so much planning of the business aspects of their changes.

[whitswj]

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Edited December 3, 2021 by whitswj

[KenAdams]

These radical design overhauls are always a case of going one step back to be able to go two steps forward.

I'm sure there's tons of stuff missing/bugged/wrong now, but I'm confident they'll be able to sort it in due time.

I think we can all agree that a new modern design was long overdue though.

[MikroMan]

I played a little more around with the new BL this morning. I'm not one to hate something just because its new or unfamiliar but there are a lot of bugs and limits on functionality. There are a lot of haters on the Bricklink making non-constructive criticism and a lot of defenders not really basing their case on functionality. I reported the bugs though BL's reporting process. I would guess that BL makes a considerable amount of money off of its sales and that they will be attentive to the tickets. I am a PM for IT integration projects (Primavera /ERP). If we went live with this many bugs, I would be in a considerable amount of trouble. One thing to keep in mind, perhaps v2.0 was primarily done by volunteers or "after hours" work. If so, everyone needs to give them a major break.

Yeah, I agree. If there was a major company behind this, I'd be more critical of the update, but knowing there are a lot of volunteers behind this, I feel they've done fairly well, as long as they keep abreast of issues and start fixing reported stuff soon.

As many of you know I like to collect rare parts and the ability to search on the text of listed parts seems much more limited. Also the ability to see total available quantities per color in the brick listing was very handing in selecting/ planning the bricks for large builds.

What is a real alternative to bricklink? (Ebay really doesn't work that great for parts). If there isn't an alternative, there should be one, because after all competition usually results in better products and services.

There's a webpage called Brickowl, though I haven't used it yet.

And I agree there seems to be some degradation in certain aspects of Bricklink right now regarding selecting/searching/ordering partlists.

I also seem to be experiencing reaching some parts of the webpage - namely Forum, My Profile page and Orders, Stores... Pretty much only working page for me right now is Wanted List, others return 500 Internal Server error.

[MAB]

What is a real alternative to bricklink? (Ebay really doesn't work that great for parts). If there isn't an alternative, there should be one, because after all competition usually results in better products and services.

Brickowl.

[pirzyk]

I just tried to use the new BrickLink and it was unusable. The Catalog page never showed up. I wound up looking up the set number from BrickOwl

[notaromantic]

Yea, I can't use it either...

And I'm in the middle of an inspiring build and also starting a new minifig collection after I swore I was done with minifigs, and the GF is going on a trip this weekend, so my plans were to bury myself in BrickLink looking for parts, some HTF figs, seeing if the inventories for the new City sets had hit yet, and in placing some of those orders I've procrastinated on placing for a few weeks. Looks real doubtful, now.

Just when a man is trying to stay out of trouble...

[MikroMan]

I've noticed that all links starting with "https://www.bricklink.com/v2/" work, but others without "v2" do not (most of them.)

[1974]

What is a real alternative to bricklink? (Ebay really doesn't work that great for parts). If there isn't an alternative, there should be one, because after all competition usually results in better products and services.

No alternative and there never will be. Yes, there's BO but there's very little to buy there. It would be a MASSIVE effort to make a true competitor to BL. Even if you offered no fees, instant checkout, scam prevention etc, you'd still need all the sellers from BL. And they're not going to jump ship

And don't even think about eBay ;)

BL is BL, I liked the old style, never had a problem with it (both as a buyer and seller), now it's getting all fancy, sigh. Well, I'll just have to put up with that because there is NO place where I can get the parts/set that I want

Cheers,

Ole