A quick Friday "Wiki" update:

• The new embedded eBay global search is now open for use by non-registered users of the Model Railroad Collector Wiki
  Originally the search feature was only open to those users that are registered. While I hope that those collectors in the forum register and have a look at the project, the Wiki Worldwide eBay search feature is now available to anyone and is useful to find that item you are looking for regardless of where (which country) the item is listed for auction. After all - we are worldwide collectors anyway... Instructions on usage are posted in the previous Update #7 inside this thread or on the Wiki's What's New page here -> MRC Wiki What's New

• Collectors of Maerklin analog locomotives rejoice - Thanks to contributions from many Wiki users the Wiki Directory now has ALL 3000 series locomotives and ALL of their versions entered into the public database. This is not a milestone to be lightly considered as there are more than 500 individual entries in this category - All entries contain, at a minimum, a thumbnail image, to visually identify the locomotive. What this means is that the collector only need search for the locomotive and click to add to their collection. No data entry is required to get these locomotives into your collection - just point and shoot and you add these to your collection(s) in seconds instead of minutes. Additionally most all entries have detailed versioning descriptions to help identify which version item (Koll's) you have. The English translations from German are not always 100% accurate, but thanks to online translators they are usually sufficient enough to version your item. Digital collectors don't despair either as the collection of registered digital locomotives continues to grow. Little by little we'll fill in the missing items with the continued help of crowd-sourcing the Wiki's model train Directory.

• Maerklin 4400 series freight wagons - Thanks to contributions from California and across the pond in the UK, the number of registered freight wagons has grown with almost 100 new items added to the Directory. These include a number of Beer and Container wagons. If you are a collector of these type items then have a look and see what has newly been added to the database. New additions are always shown on the Wiki homepage
  

Happy Collecting !

Kurt

Hello Johan - I'll bet that you have a filter set on the collection items - either in the search box or on a column - and no items in your collection fall into that filter. To resolve please try this:

In the collection Main menu button bar try clicking on the "Reset filter(s)" button. This will remove any search terms and/or column filters you may have added previously and you should see all of the items in your collection. If that doesn't work then I can help you with the issue offline via email. I'll send you a short message by email.

Thanks for trying the Wiki.

Kurt

Kurt, thank you for the message. It was indeed the sticky entry in the search field. Once you're used to it it works perfect :-)

In the near future i will look into the description of how to add items. I'm missing a few so i would like to help to complete these items. Very nice database system you put together!

Johan

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag! Happy birthday Kurt and thanks again for all the hard work and long hours you put into the Wiki. It's a great product that I can not thank you enough for letting us share it.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

Rich

Model Railroad Collector Wiki - What's New - Update #10 - November 2019

One of the joys of model railroading is that our hobby is truly international. Because of the MRC Wiki project I have had the opportunity to correspond with MRR collectors like you from all over the world - expanding both my knowledge of model railroading and my understanding of other cultures. Currently the Wiki project has registered users from the 28 countries listed below. Since the MRC Wiki database contains mostly European (Marklin) items it is no surprise that the majority of users are from Europe, but there are also representatives from South America and Asia.

Model Railroad Collector Wiki - Countries with users

• Australia
  
• Austria
  
• Belgium
  
• Bolivia
  
• Canada
  
• Chile
  
• Denmark
  
• Finland
  
• France
  
• Germany
  
• Greece
  
• Hungary
  
• Iceland
  
• Ireland
  
• Italy
  
• Mexico
  
• Netherlands
  
• New Zealand
  
• Norway
  
• Portugal
  
• South Africa
  
• Spain
  
• Sweden
  
• Thailand
  
• Turkey
  
• Ukraine
  
• United Kingdom
  
• United States

While it is a joy to welcome model railroaders from all over the world, this internationalization raises a number of challenges from an application development point of view. How to create an application that is useful for users that speak languages other than English? The MRC Wiki launched nearly 2 years ago supporting both the English and German languages. It is possible to add additional languages to the Wiki, but the time investment would be severe and dependent upon others donating a significant amount of translation time. One of our Spanish collector users recently reached out to me and pointed out that the date formats in the Wiki were in the American style for anyone using the English version of the application. Clearly few, if any, European collectors NOT using the German version of the Wiki, were satisfied using the formatting of dates in the US style (month/day/year).

With that challenge in mind I have created a solution, much simpler than would be required to add all new localized text, and added a new Wiki configuration that allows the registered collector to format the dates in their collection BASED ON THE LANGUAGE and DATE FORMAT of their choosing. This customization now includes language specific calendars as well with day of week and month names displayed in the language selected.



In addition to choosing the language for the rendering of dates the collector has the option of choosing any one of four (4) possible display options. There are two abbreviated date options and two expanded date format options that may include the day of week and month names in their favorite language.

While is it not possible to completely localize all of the display text in the Wiki into all possible languages, the addition of custom date formats should provide a useful feature to all those collectors that wish for more relevant date fields in their collection lists.

To use this new feature follow these steps. Samples are shown for the Greek language.

1) Log into your Wiki account.
2) Navigate to the "My Collections" / "Meine Sammlungen" page.
3) Click on the row containing the collection you wish to customize. The row will become highlighted letting you know that it has been selected.
4) Click on the "Edit" / "Bearbeiten" button in the table button bar area.
5) The "Edit collection" / "Bearbeiten Sammlung" form will appear.
6) Using the dropdown selector select the "Language for dates" / "Sprache für Datumsangaben" and set your preferred language from the 75 different languages available.



7) Once the language has be selected then, using the dropdown selector for the "Date format" / "Datumsformat", select one of 4 different formats available for the chosen language. The two abbreviated date formats at the top may appear to be the same, but the difference is that the first option will display months and days with a leading zero when applicable. Example January 5th will appear as "01/05" or "05/01" (European format) rather than "1/5" or "5/1". This difference will only be apparent in dates that contain months represented by only one digit.



8) Click the "Update" / "Aktualisierung" button.
9) Repeate steps 3-8 for any additional collections you have (including Want Lists / excluding Shared Collections)

When viewing and or exporting collections the three date fields - order date, received date and appraisal date will be rendered in the language and format selected. The created on and modified on dates will be rendered in the language chosen, but the format is fixed.



Column sorting continues to be maintained regardless of the language and formats selected. Click the column header once to sort the column dates in ascending order, click it again to sort in descending order.

Let me know what you think about this new feature for your Wiki collection(s). Configure one of your collections and see if the dates are much more relevant for your collection management needs. Keep the suggestions and comments coming...

Happy collecting.

Kurt
kamstutz
https://www.modelrailroadcollector.wiki

I'm very pleased to announce that the Model Railroad Collector Wiki project has just been released in Spanish!

I would like to thank Javier E. for translating the more than 800 words and expressions required to create the MRC Wiki's third supported language (English and German were already supported).

Many thanks also to the Marklin collectors in Spain - especially Antonio M. and Fernando M. who have begun to add Spanish item translations to the more than 8,000 items in the Wiki database and multi-language model railroad dictionary.

The work of these passionate Marklin collectors will now help the Spanish speaking collector's community from both Europe and the Americas.

If your native language is Spanish have a look at the new language version of the Wiki. If you don't read Spanish then continue to use the English or German versions.

The MRC Wiki project continues to evolve with contributions and suggestions from it's users.

If you are not familiar with the "Wiki" then have a look. Register and contribute new items and translations to the public database, create collections of your own items, and share them with other Wiki users.

Spanish version here: https://www.modelrailroadcollector.wiki/es-es

Kurt

Tony - The 37421 was not in the database. The search function will filter the entire category group (in this case locomotives) and not just those items displayed on the page. If the item does not show up in the search then the item is not in the category being searched. It is possible to appear in another category group (boxed sets ?), but you would need to search that group as well to confirm it's non-existence.

I have added the missing rail car to the database Directory so you should be able to find it there now.

I hope that you find the database useful and can use it to build up a list of the items in your collection. I will be publishing a users guide very soon and since you are now registered you will receive notice when it is available. Please contribute to the public database if an item you own is not in the Wiki. You help yourself and others by doing so. If you have any questions please feel free to continue to post them here in this thread or send me a PM. If your question would be useful to forum readers then post here - if more specific then send me an email and I'll answer any questions.

Have fun.

Kurt

Model Railroad Collector Wiki - Update #11 - September 19, 2020
===================================================================

It has been a while since the last Wiki newsletter (Nov 2019 to be exact) so I wanted to update you on what has been going on with the Model Railroad Collector Wiki project since the beginning of the year.

The Wiki User Guide has finally been published to help both existing Wiki users and newbies understand some of the basic features of the application. Download your English language copy here:

MRC Wiki User Guide Download

Plans are underway to translate the User Guide into German and Spanish.

A few of the project highlights so far this year in the Wiki application include:

• Jan 2020 - Full translation of MRC Wiki website into Spanish
  
• Jan 2020 - Bug fixes for back/return button, Firefox rendering issue and international number formatting
  
• Feb 2020 - Bug fix for saving records in non-USA time zones
  
• Feb 2020 - Model Railroad Collector Wiki wins website award (Experimental Category) - http://www.dnnwards.com
  
• Mar 2020 - Collection improvement - Allow registration of more than one original box/packaging.
  
• Mar 2020 - Collections list improvement - Included column for collection owner's name (useful with Shared collections)
  
• Apr 2020 - Worldwide eBay search fixed and redeployed.
  
• Apr 2020 - Bug fixes for filtering, and sorting within Want Lists and Shared Collections
  
• May 2020 - "Associations" set implemented (soon to be released)
  
• May 2020 - Launch of Advanced Search to Directory database (see user guide for explanation)
  
• Jun 2020 - Collection Photo Gallery launch (see all photos of a collection at once)
  
• Jun 2020 - Improved display of prototype Eras all in one column.
  
• Jun 2020 - Launch of Advanced Search with user collections.
  
• Aug 2020 - Added ability to share a link to an internal database page. "Link Sharing"

There has been a good amount of community contributions to the Model Railroad Directory database so far this year. The numbers continue to grow thanks to all the collectors that help improve the Wiki project. A few statistics on changes since January of this year...

2,914 New items added to the Directory database (Total of 11,398)
7,720 Directory database records have been updated
15,368 Images have been added to the Wiki photo galleries
126 New collectors have registered and 147 new collections have been created.

Special shoutout thanks to Antonio M / Heinz B / Dave C / Will F / Peter F - Each of these collectors have contributed large groups of new items to the Directory database in various categories.

The Directory database still contains a majority of Marklin European items, but recently there has been an influx of items from other manufacturers. A number of Fleischmann, Roco, Bemo and Trix items have been added recently that are sure to help any collector that owns items from these manufacturers.

Do you collect beer cars ? Thanks to an initiative by Antonio M. there are now more than 1,000 different Marklin model #4415's with photos and searchable descriptions in the database. Find yours and add them to your collections.

Did you know that the Wiki has a free Marketplace (click to visit) where you can post items for sale and look for items to buy? Recently several collectors reached out to let me know that they sold several items from their collection due to their listing in the Marketplace. Read more about the Marketplace in the MRC Wiki User Guide.

Collection sharing has started to gain more momentum this year. This feature of the Wiki allows you to privately share one of more of your collections with any other Wiki user. This is a great way to share your Want List or privately share a For Sale collection with another user. The possibilities are endless with this feature. Check out how to share a collection in the MRC Wiki User Guide.


As always I am open to suggestions for how to make the Wiki more useful to those that are using it. With few exceptions, all of the new features and bug fixes have come about because of comments and suggestions from collectors like yourself. If you are using the Wiki and something doesn't work the way you expect or you have an idea then reach out to me.

Happy model railroading !

Kurt

Model Railroad Collector Wiki