113 replies to this topic

[Sinner]

Having trouble finding a review? This will (hopefully) become a thing of the past with the new Eurobricks LEGO Set Index! While it's currently incomplete (included are all Sci-Fi, Licensed, Technic and Fabuland, but only some Town and Star Wars) in a month or two it should contain at the least all recent sets making it the place to go first. Depending on how this goes it could replace all set related indexes on Eurobricks. Aside from links to reviews it also contains basic set data and links to other major LEGO sites where you can find out more about the set or even buy it! Please note though that not all set numbers are 100% official, so in some cases the links will be mixed up or just plain wrong, especially when there are two sets for a particular number. For example with 8858 Brickset disagrees with the rest. Also, sets from 2006 onwards have a Shop@Home link, but obviously not all are still available. (6212 is one of the few.)

So how does one find the Index? To make things easy for all you just need to press the "Set Index" button in the top navigation bar! (N.B. It won't be shown in the Pirate Forum as there's no room at the moment.   ) Alternatively you can just use this link.

Originally this was going to be launched as a Sci-Fi forum only index, but I was persuaded to add Fabuland. Then Shadows and Hinckley helped me with the Licensed and Town forum thus as a result it's over qualified for Sci-Fi, and under qualified as a complete index.    Long term I have a lot of plans for this already, but since the database is incomplete it's a good time to post any suggestions. One thing that will be added is user editing for long term (not just Staff/Fellows) members for those that want their review indexed now now NOW!   Until then there is a "Feedback" button which will send me a message of what needs to be done. You can also use this to tell us of any errors, but other comments/questions I would prefer to be made here.

It's important to note that while it looks somewhat like EB and it's hosted on EB it really isn't part of EB. Thus there are no links to your member profile and you won't get PM notifications while you're using the index.


For those wanting to use the Set Feedback Form the current secret knock is tinkle.


Status Update 1: Star Wars is waaay incomplete. Please don't report any problems there...
Status Update 2: Star Wars updated with reviews, but it only includes the original trilogy. The rest is next.
Status Update 3: Added UCS Star Wars sets
Status Update 4: Town 2011 and 2009
Status Update 5: Added Star Wars Episode 1
Status Update 6: Added Action Figures
Status Update 7: Added Star Wars Clone Wars

Edited by Siegfried, 11 September 2011 - 07:26 AM.
Update

[KielDaMan]

Ah I knew it! I just noticed it today and this new Set Index looks very useful. Thanks for doing this set review database Sieg! (so this was the major board upgrade that you are excited about as stated in you profile?)

Siegfried, on 21 October 2010 - 04:43 AM, said:

Status Update 1: Star Wars is waaay incomplete. Please don't report any problems there...

Understood. But in terms of completeness of the reviews I think almost 95% of all released SW sets have been reviewed here in EB. Looking forward seeing those in the Set Index in the near future.

[Skafte]

Wow, this will be very useful! Finding a review on EB can be quite a challenge if you don't know where to look  

Thanks for doing this!  

[RileyC]

WOW
This is really going to be useful when its all completed and fully up to date.
Now the only problem is filling in the gaps where there are no reviews yet! Then it would be the best place on the whole wide web!

[Sinner]

KielDaMan, on 21 October 2010 - 09:33 AM, said:

Understood. But in terms of completeness of the reviews I think almost 95% of all released SW sets have been reviewed here in EB. Looking forward seeing those in the Set Index in the near future.

The Star Wars reviews will be updated in the next few days. I was going to do them but I then noticed how many there were.   Great work EB!  

[Rick]

Great work Sieggy, the database-driven index probably makes the staff's work a lot easier and is of course very user-friendly compared to the topic-based approach.  
(and great effort on almost exactly mimicking the forum style)

Are you planning to expand search options beyond a free text search? Like set number, set name, year, piece count, theme (more specific than just forums).

[Sinner]

Rick, on 21 October 2010 - 09:44 AM, said:

Are you planning to expand search options beyond a free text search? Like set number, set name, year, piece count, theme (more specific than just forums).

Set number, year and theme should work; it's a one search box for all. However price, part and fig number are not searched as they would skew the results. In time I'll probably add a search in one field only feature, but from my testing it's not needed... yet.

That's the problem with searching for sets in the forum; you get too much returned. Here with a smaller custom database it should work far better... or so I hope!  

[Rick]

Siegfried, on 21 October 2010 - 09:49 AM, said:

Set number, year and theme should work; it's a one search box for all.

I understand you're not trying to replicate - for example - Brickset on EB. I just can imagine a user would like to search for all 2009 Town sets that have been reviewed. You're probably recording this as fields in the database anyway (year, theme, reviewed yes/no), so it may be a good idea to make it searchable that way. Are you planning to always make the 'theme' correspond to an EB subforum? The critical choice I think is how fine you make the theme definition, because depending on the 'following', themes tend to move in and out of EB forums or get their own dedicated forum (Trains, for example). I'd certainly add a tick box for reviewed yes/no because that's what a lot of users will be using it for and what really sets this apart from Brickset, Bricklink, etc.

[Jan]

Great new feature, allready works like a charm.

[Princess Muttonchops]

Great work Sieggy, Hinkley and Shadows.  It's a great tool, if not a little addictive...

[Hinckley]

Princess Muttonchops, on 21 October 2010 - 10:10 AM, said:

Great work Sieggy, Hinkley and Shadows.  It's a great tool, if not a little addictive...

Most of my work is still ahead of me. Sorry Town fans. My internet is down at home and I can't work on the index from work. I hope to be able to update the Town reviews next week.

The programming was all Sieg though. Awesome job, Walrus-face! This is truly badass.

[Shadows]

Yay, this rocks!

So much left to index...  

[Sinner]

Shadows, on 21 October 2010 - 10:38 AM, said:

So much left to index...  

Yeah, and that's just Phase 1.

Rick, on 21 October 2010 - 10:00 AM, said:

I understand you're not trying to replicate - for example - Brickset on EB.

No, this is kind of like the reverse of Brickset. They started out as a set index, and have expanded to add more and more community features and comments. (They've been expanding a lot actually.   ) We're adding this index to make things easier for members to find reviews as searching through the forum isn't feasible.

Rick, on 21 October 2010 - 10:00 AM, said:

I just can imagine a user would like to search for all 2009 Town sets that have been reviewed.

That you can do already; enter in "2009", select "Town", press "Perform the Search". (As it turns out there are no 2009 Town sets in there yet; try it with Sci-Fi or Technic.   )

Rick, on 21 October 2010 - 10:00 AM, said:

Are you planning to always make the 'theme' correspond to an EB subforum?

It's not like that actually; it's stored as Theme and Forum. Also, the way I have done this it's quite easy to change a set from one forum to another.

Rick, on 21 October 2010 - 10:00 AM, said:

I'd certainly add a tick box for reviewed yes/no because that's what a lot of users will be using it for and what really sets this apart from Brickset, Bricklink, etc.

Yes, that will be done. I am hoping though that with this it'll be easier for people to find what sets need to be reviewed. Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions!  

[Flare]

Haha, nice work so far!  

Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

[Masked Builder]

Great idea.  I'll try to remember to use it.

[Zorbas]

Great work guys, this is really impressive! This project looks huge and takes a lot of time and work so the least I can say is BRAVO for the effort! It looks very good so far and it's going to come in handy once it's complete.

The feedback feature idea is excellent btw.


Well done for once more!

[Marckeyh]

Doesn't seem to work at the moment. I'll try again later, but it sounds like a really good idea!

[Rufus]

Marckeyh, on 21 October 2010 - 04:17 PM, said:

Doesn't seem to work at the moment. I'll try again later, but it sounds like a really good idea!

Yeah; I'm getting:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /var/www/vhosts/eurobricks.com/httpdocs/sieg/dex/lastrand.php on line 7

[Sinner]

Rufus, on 21 October 2010 - 05:36 PM, said:

Yeah; I'm getting:

It's a load issue... and it's fixed for now. (This is the other reason why I wanted to launch it prior to it being complete!   )

[Mrlegoninja]

This is a really great idea guys! Great work on this feature!

[Rufus]

Siegfried, on 21 October 2010 - 09:46 PM, said:

It's a load issue... and it's fixed for now. (This is the other reason why I wanted to launch it prior to it being complete!   )

Fantastic!   Great work fellas!

[Sinner]

Rufus, on 21 October 2010 - 10:12 PM, said:

Fantastic!   Great work fellas!

I forgot to mention that there's a tag to do in-line links;

[sdex]8880[/sdex]

8421

[Big Cam]

Siegfried, on 21 October 2010 - 09:43 AM, said:

The Star Wars reviews will be updated in the next few days. I was going to do them but I then noticed how many there were.   Great work EB!  

I can see this beeing an impressive addition to EB.  I think this will be a first.

I'm glad some of my reviews will be populating it. :)

I noticed some sets are up but don't have links to their reviews, did they get missed or is this still a work in progress?

[prateek]

Very cool! Now I don't have to go to Brickset

[The Soup Nazi]

prateek, on 21 October 2010 - 11:19 PM, said:

Very cool! Now I don't have to go to Brickset

AND you don't have to open two tabs.