PlaymoDB: three interesting developments

[tigana123]

I see that it also includes placeholder(s) for sets that will be released later this year -- for example the 5586 Gästebungalow (to be released mid July) -- although I cannot find them as part of a specific theme in PlaymoDB.

http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/listinv.pl?setnum=5586

It is very good news that something is happening with PlaymoDB. Hopefully it will be back online with full functionality soon 
 

[sbblabotw]

Hi folks. I'm home from work on a snow day today (yes, winter still has a vicious grip on Newfoundland), got a bunch of practice and housework done, and decided to see what you were up to.

I told you I wasn't giving up on PlaymoDB. Your conspiracy theories are entertaining, but, no, I'm still on my own... I was talking to a Geobra programmer for a while but wasn't in a position to take advantage of his help. However, there's now lots of data available on the web from Playmobil themselves, so I'm looking at seeing how much I can get the computer to do for me.

Since Playmobil has revamped their site, I've picked at writing a few batch-routines to grab data from there, and some of that data I've released. There are at least 1366 PDFs of instructions on their site right now (press space bar in the "Building Instructions" search in their page footer, and you'll see the current count). In the "Ersatzenteile Finden" link in that same footer, you can search for any part number, and you might get its name in German, its price, maybe a picture, maybe a list of some sets it's in; so I've been automating searching for those, rolling through series of part numbers on spec, and found piles of parts with mysterious names (or none), no pictures, no sets, that I have no idea where they go! A detective game for someone. All the PDFs have proper URLs now, easily constructed by substituting the set number into the URL you get when you search; set pictures, box-back pictures, set names, all in a standard place.  Quite a few sets on the .de and .fr sites have decent lists of parts, in plain HTML now, not those obscure flash files they used to use. So I've added a few things as you've seen.

It's not completely dead, never was. I can't manage to do the comprehensive rewrite that the site needs to return to former glory, but, as you probably know, "Your Set List" http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/your_set_list.pl has always worked, and now has little blue Playmobil-head icons that are links to the PDFs; the text search http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/textsearch.pl and part-category browser http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/category.pl have always worked; you've seen the text inventory lists, and I think I can make the German part names show up there instead of blanks, pretty easily, if that'd be any help.

So hang in there - I'm still thinking about you all Don't send me stuff, post in the forum instead (except for instructions, of course), it'll definitely get out quicker that way, and will be there if I'm ever able to start collecting info and doing inventories by hand again.  And if anyone else wants to try their hand at making a database that works better than mine, go get Playmobil's data and go right ahead - no harm to me, and it'll benefit everyone.

Cheers, Heather

[hauden_lukas]

Hi Heather,

The building plans/instruction and the price information are the perfect complement to your database but will never be a competition.
Your database quickly shows alternatives in shape and color and therefore opens customizing possibility someone never has thought of. I agree that when you know the part from a current set you can look it up in the instructions but the major number of parts is of unknown origin for most of us collectors (eg no set or set number in mind).

This is just a little stimulation to continue. Playmodb is one of the few sites used by collectors world wide. It unifies us in our hunt for Playmobil parts and the site is an ambassador for customizers all around the globe.

Never give up, you created something too important - a spiritual loophole into a fantasy world. We are the servants and follow you, Master!

(I stop now before it gets too greasy...)

Cheers,
HDL

[marinebaer]

Hi Heather,
The building plans/instruction and the price information are the perfect complement to your database but will never be a competition.
Your database quickly shows alternatives in shape and color and therefore opens customizing possibility someone never has thought of. I agree that when you know the part from a current set you can look it up in the instructions but the major number of parts is of unknown origin for most of us collectors (eg no set or set number in mind).
This is just a little stimulation to continue. Playmodb is one of the few sites used by collectors world wide. It unifies us in our hunt for Playmobil parts and the site is an ambassador for customizers all around the globe.
Never give up, you created something too important - a spiritual loophole into a fantasy world. We are the servants and follow you, Master!
(I stop now before it gets too greasy...)

Cheers,
HDL

Heather,
HDL is SO right - the interlinking and the search functionality of PlaymoDB is a Feature (and USP) that is by NO means conquered by PM with its pdf's.

We miss the PlaymoDB with its former functinality and love to hear from You!

[tigana123]

It's good to hear from Heather again! I agree with the others  . PLaymoDB is far better than what PM has now, more friendly and has more functionality... Thank you for everything Heather 

[playmofire]

It's good to see you here again, Heather, and many thanks for all your work in the past and your continued work for us all.   

[henry_martini]

Thanks a lot again for all your efforts.
I still hope that playmoDB will even get enjoyable for you again soon.
 
 

[GrahamB]

I for one would like to see someone back at the helm.

Hello Heather! Glad to know its you still in charge! I didn't mean to sound rude  , but I use the DB every day and it puzzled me how things were being updated. I am glad you can assimilate the data on PM's own website into the DB. I am also extremely grateful for the continued existence of the DB (and daily I thank you for the 'Klicky page' loophole which lets one look up any part number and find what sets its in!). You have clearly been in my thoughts and those of many other PM fans over the last few months!

I am keen to see the addition of data on earlier sets (I have a raft of stuff on the Specials and the Gnomes, plus some on hats- missing part numbers, new descriptions/part numbers (pnnnn) to suggest) but this is probably not a priority at the moment. I guess the thought of another Excel spreadsheet is not welcome just now...

[Macruran]

Could PlaymoDB be crowdsourced? Then we could call it Klickypedia.

[sbblabotw]

I've made some updates.  I've added little blue heads for all 1658 PDF's, plus a few that are not accessible from the search (5554!) and added the part numbers for the instructions themselves to the sets (by hand), so the Wishlist is now working better.

I've also automatically scraped the heck out of the Ersatzteile Finden function and added every part I could find that gave me a name or picture. Most of these are in the TO BE ASSIGNED slagheap, but anything with a German name that matches the German name of an existing part, I've copied over the English name and category to the new part. The French names (shown on the "Visualiser les pièces détachées" sections of the sets on the .fr site) sometimes include colours, which is handy although not always right. I've found a whole bunch of torsos, heads, legs, skirts, and hair, with no notion of how to assign them, since no picture - but I have my suspicions that they're all Fi?ure parts. The odd one has shown up in a regular set, so I've been able to identify a few from that. I've put them all in "Klicky-Body Part" and "Wearable-Hair" for your amusement.

Instructions and stickers are also easy to identify from the German name, so I've written a script to place those in their sets. Some part numbers exist for PDFs that are not yet available, like the new fairy and knight bags but the PDF's will turn up eventually, I'm sure.

Might not be any more big additions until the summer, but I'll keep running the scrapers to add PDFs and parts at regular intervals - now that the scrape programs are set up, it's easy to run a batch overnight.

Have fun!