New feature: User collections in BookBrainz!

BookBrainz
#1

Thanks to @prabalsingh24’s work over the summer, the new User Collections feature is ready to be rolled out !
They will allow BookBrainz users to create lists of books they own, books they want to read, authors they want to recommend to friends, etc.
User collections can be public or private, and you can make other BB users collaborators on your collections.

The feature is currently live in beta and will be published fully after initial feedback.
Collections created on the beta website will persist once the feature is deployed on the main website.

Please try it out, and let us know if you run into any issue or have suggestions for improvements!

7 Likes
#2

Great, thanks. Seems to work as expected. Only thing I struggled with is that after I created a private collection it took me a while to find it. I think it would be great to have some kind of access to private collections on the “Collections” page. Either allow it by having a filter to show public, private or both.

If you don’t want to mix up public and private collections the alternative would be to at least add a link to your private collection on this page.

2 Likes
#3

I was really looking forward to have this feature on BB (as it is a big motivation for me to start adding more data) and had just started to create a few collections :hugs:

Then I noticed a bug: It seems like it is not possible to create a collection of edition groups (for every other entity type I had success).
The UI always shows “Error: Internal Error” when I click “Create collection” and in the developer tools I see that this causes a “400 Bad Request” error for the following payload:

{"collaborators":[],"description":"","entityType":"Edition-Group","name":"Book wishlist","privacy":"Private"}

Maybe the hyphen in “Edition-Group” is the cause for this error as it is the only difference to the other entity types?

Update: I can confirm that the bug is caused by the hyphen. The error only occurs when I create an empty collection from my profile’s collection page. If I create the collection directly from the page of an edition group that I want to add to a new collection it works as expected and the payload looks different:

{"description":"","entityType":"EditionGroup","name":"Test","privacy":"Private"}
6 Likes
#4

you can see all of your collections in editor profile page. Did you try that?

#5

Thanks for reporting the bug. I will have a look at it :slight_smile:

#6

Yes, it is in the editor’s profile. Bu that’s my point: It took me a while to find it there, it is well hidden. If one is on BookBrainz looking for their collection the first thing you click on is probably “Collections”. But there you won’t find it.

So either make the Collection page also show private collections by having a filter to show public, private or both. Or if you don’t want to mix up public and private collections the alternative would be to at least add a link to your private collection on this page.

2 Likes
#7

Thanks, nice feature.
The only thing I miss is a button in the edition / work forms: “Add to collection”.

4 Likes
#8

This is a nice addition. Thank you! A few comments:

  • There should be a bit of extra padding on the right side of the “add to collection” button so that it appears less lopsided
  • I think it would be handy to have an option to automatically add things to a collection after you finish adding or editing an entry
  • It would also be nice if there were a way to see what publicly visible collections something is added to from the entry’s page e.g. we could find a link to Neoplatonists from Plotinus
1 Like
#9

That would be an awesome feature

1 Like
#10

I nearly forgot to try it. But now I did. The new “add to collection” button is not only available on the edition page, but also on the list view. Thank you very much. Works well!

1 Like
#11

The UI needs some improvement. When you are on the page of an edition or whatever, you have no indication whasoever if it is already in any of your collection or not.

2 Likes
#12

Absolutely, that’s been noted and is indeed missing as of yet:

1 Like