Announcing the new tradelists!

On December 25th, I created and put into beta test the new tradelist system that is intended to replace the old dinosaur from over 6 years ago. Today I am pleased to say that the beta period is closed and the application is officially launched!

You may view and manage trade lists by clicking on the "Trading" tab at the top of the page.

The new tradelists are much simpler to operate. Adding a plant is easy - it can be done manually or by clicking on a link in PlantFiles. The tradelists are matched against PlantFiles entries and has auto-correction built-in. If you misspell a genus, it will offer you an easy way to correct the spelling.

Finding plants to trade with others is easy, too. You can either browse the tradelists, search them, or find them linked directly within PlantFiles.

Your old lists are still available at:

http://davesgarden.com/trading/edit/

But they will be removed on March 1st, so please do migrate all your haves and wants over to the new list as soon as possible.

The new tradelist system is available to subscribers and non-subscribers alike. Some advanced features (such as PlantFiles integration), however, are limited to subscribers.

Soon I will be reworking the trade tracker to also bring it into this century.

Dave

Dave,

One thing. Once I delete an item from the new list, and click on "Back to Managing your Have List", it takes me to the home page rather than back to the list.

Oh, one more thing. Is there an easy way to transfer our list from the old to the new, or do we have to manually input them all into the new list?

Once I get those two items figured out, I'll let you know what I think. I've not gotten too far into it yet.

Joan

Joan,

I'll take a look at your first question in a moment.

As for the other question, yes, I could transfer from the old list to the new list, however, I haven't been sure I want to do that because of a specific reason: some of the entries in the old tradelist system go back over 5 years and I doubt they are valid anymore. By moving to the new format we are kind of forcing everyone to enter their stuff anew to make sure that they are active, etc.

I can make an import tool, however, that is initiated by the member, and I will make this tool in just a few moments.

best,
dave

Thanks. An import tool will make it much easier, but I understand why you would rather not automatically import them if they haven't been updated.

Joan

I can see the PlantFile link in my entries, but when I look at other people's trade lists, I don't see that link? Is this the way it's supposed to be?

Edited to say that I figured this one out. In case anyone else is wondering, it's because when you are viewing an entry in someone else's list, the name of the plant is a link to the PlantFiles entry.

This message was edited Feb 5, 2007 1:56 PM

When you are looking at other people's lists, the plant name is a link back to PlantFiles. Example here:

http://davesgarden.com/trading/view/list.php?list=have&member=dave

dave

The import tool is finished! To access it, please click on "Trading" and then click on "Manage your own trade lists."

You should then see the option near the top to import all your old list into the new one.

Dave

Dave, can you look at my tradelist now? I'm not sure it worked so good. Either that or I didn't have my old tradelist set up right. I have Hostas with Iris cultivars.

My Mama always told me to be careful what I asked for. LOL

The import tool can only go by what is in the old tradelist. Since we didn't have a cultivar field in the old tradelist, I had to try to grab it from the common name field.

And, of course, if the genus was in the species field it would copy over as such... :(

The good news is that this problem should be alleviated going forward!

dave

I just checked and most of your old tradelist entries had the genus in the right place, but there were a few that didn't.

dave

Ah, I understand now. And I see I did have some cases where the Genus was in the species field. I can easily clean up my lists. Thanks for fixing it for others.

Thanks Dave.

Happy to do it!

Is it possible to have a column for the "common"name of the plant also, or is that not such a good idea since so many plants go by the same name?

OMG Dave... HELP!!!!!


I have over 500 Hosta & over 100 daylily on my old trade list (not available) and they are not there anymore!!!!

sue

This message was edited Feb 5, 2007 4:43 PM

LOL...I tried to import my old list with the import tool, and it duplicated one entry 10 times...no idea where the rest went. So I deleted them all. I was given the option to import them again, and silly me, I tried it..same thing, imported one thing 10 times...I only have a few things in there, I think I'll just let them go to cyberspace and start fresh....
LeeAnne

Thank You Dave! I like this new system for the Tradelist. I had a hard time with the other one, so only used it once. This New System is so much easier! Very User Friendly! Sounds like some of y'all have very long trade lists like Ruby42 above .... WOW 500 Hosta's and more than 100 Daylilies!
That would be an awful lot to re-enter into the new system. I'm sure there's some way the Computer Guru in Charge can transfer it over for you! It's sometimes frustrating for non computer savvy people like me to get used to new ways of doing things, and I find this very easy to use. Now I will be able to have a list like Ruby42's .... Oh, I'm just dreaming! I may get to 50 someday! :)

Hang in there everybody! Change can be good.

Lin

Wonderful!

BTW, I don't mind my outdated Trade List entries going away... but please tell me you won't eliminate my past Trade Tracker entries! I refer back to previous trades fairly frequently, either in an attempt to identify a plant I sowed from traded seed but didn't mark well or just to check to see what things I've already sent to a particular person.... I know this is an O/T inquiry for the TradeList thread, but it was the first concern I had when I read your post at the top...

I'm curious about that too Critter. I love the Trade-Tracker. Mine is short since I'm so new to DG, maybe I will print it out and save it, just in case!

The old trade tracker data will not be going away - I'll either be automatically importing that data into the new trade tracker, or I'll leave it alone and keep it separate (but still accessible to you for historical reasons).

I also updated the TradeLists tonight - they now show whether it's "Wanted" or "Available for trade".

dave

Dave in my OLD trade list there were several options we could use and the option that was "NOT AVAILABLE" is where most of my plant's were. (over 600) when looked at the new list there were only about 30 plant's and they were all from the "AVAILABLE" option only!

Does that make sense? I hope so!

sue

Sue,

I took a look in your tradelist... The import tool only copies over entries marked as either Available or Wanted. The "Not Available" aren't copied over at all.

As I think about it, though, I can copy those over, but just disable them (that's a feature I didn't mention before.) I'll get back to you on it, and in the meantime just wait for me, okay?

dave

IWill do Dave!!!

sue

Dave,

I love the integration of the Tradelists and Plantfiles and the have/wanted features!!!!!! You rock!

Maggie

I also noticed when you go to a plant entry in Plant Files, in addition to listing vendors who have the plant it also has a link saying how many people have or want that plant for trade..that's really cool!

Oh, I just noticed that too ... great feature!

lol...can someone explain the difference between genus, species, and cultivar?
LeeAnne(having a blond moment)

The genus and species is the latin name. (Genus is the first word, species is the second). Cultivar is the variety name (not the common name).

Example:

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/38129/index.html

Genus = "Lagerstroemia"
Species = "indica"
Cultivar = "Seminole"

dave

Thank you Dave..is there ever going to be a spot for the common name for us Latin challenged folks?

The common name is filled in automatically when a match between your tradelist and PlantFiles is found. It might by easier for you to add the plant directly from PlantFiles - do you know how to do that?

Dave

Thanks Dave! That answered my question about the common name being listed! And, Thanks so much for making things so much easier for us technically challenged people!

Yep...thanks again Dave..I went and added one...so easy, will save me days of trying to look up the latin names for all my seeds and plants.
LeeAnne

Sue,

I have imported your tradelist for you. All the unavailable items were copied over as unavailable in the new system.

I noted that you didn't use the genus and species fields in the old tradelist, so they aren't there in the new ones, either.

dave

I am not sure what was copied over but the whole first page says Baby Lace!!
I will go through it and try to make heads or tails of what is in it!


sue

This message was edited Feb 6, 2007 4:44 PM

I LOVE the PlantFiles pictures!!


This message was edited Feb 9, 2007 5:54 AM

Dave,
Would it be possible to include a link to a member's Garden site (info page) from their trading page? It would be useful to know a bit about someone before I dmail them about trading.
Also, on each member's trading page there are 2 links to dmail the member as well as 2 links (technically 3) to view the member's "wants". Not sure if that's intentional as it seems rather redundant.

Tks,
Erynne



This message was edited Feb 7, 2007 1:50 PM

Erynne, thanks for this feedback - I have implemented the changes requested!

This message was edited Feb 9, 2007 5:53 AM

Ditto on Prism..No biggy...it is not correct now anyway....looks easier..then before but we will see...

Smiles..Diana

This message was edited Feb 9, 2007 5:53 AM