I’m close to being able to build a new way to manage location-based inventory (see huge thread elsewhere), using existing GarageSale features, though it will not solve all the problems down the road.
Briefly, the ideal would be to store more info in the Inventory record, but I think I can do a little work just using the Listing records and User Properties.
The idea I’m exploring is to use a GarageSale Group to hold items with a User Property like LOCATION
set to the name of the box it’s in. So listings of items in box “A0001” would have a User Property MY_LOCATION
set to A0001
, and so on.
I would still be stopping and re-starting listings randomly to generate hits on eBay, but with luck that is possible without losing the visible structure or the User Property values.
Good news!
- If I have listings stored in nested Groups, and I select a discontinuous subset of the listings without moving them out of the nested Groups, I can stop them, modify them, and Start them again without them moving.
- If I select all the listings in a “location” Group, I can edit the User Property manually describing where they are.
- When I stop and re-start those listings, the User Property is retained across launches.
- I can create a Smart Group which contains only listings with the User Property Key and Value I specify, which would be helpful just in case the Location nested structure I might build by hand gets borked.
- I can actually use the SKU field for what it’s intended for, maybe; that is, as a link between the Listings and Inventory item. But (see below)
Neutral news!
- I’m not sure how, if at all, I can use JavaScript or AppleScript to read or modify the User Properties map. Is there an exposed variable there, @ilja? I do not have a use case for this yet, but I am hoping to be able to assign my “location” User Property using a script based on a spreadsheet I can build, rather than doing it manually in GarageSale. (The editing interface in the app is good if I already have selected the 20-30 items in a location, but finding those will be easier if I work from a list)
- I’ll need to be able to print a table or report, somehow, which shows sold listings by title and their
LOCATION
user property. That also doesn’t seem reachable unless I can touch the User Property map… and maybe also create a Report? - When I create a Smart Group that contains listings with matching User Property key/values, none of the stopped or deleted ones appear. Is that just normal Smart Group behavior?
Bad news!
- By moving inventory information into listing records this way, I am 100% abandoning the usefulness of the actual GarageSale Inventory table and interface, which I really want to be able to use. It’s only because I have unique items that I can do this at all; other people with “real” inventory would not be able to do this sort of thing.
- I could now possibly use the SKU to track re-listed items and fees over time, except that there is still no obvious way for me to create an inventory item for the listings I’m currently managing. It would also be much simpler (and safer!) if I could store the
LOCATION
info and other things in the Inventory record, and have those propagate to the listings automatically…