User Accounts Supported: The site now supports
users for the new Scouting Reports feature (see more about this later). You can
sign up for an account by clicking on the "Log In to BastCastle.com" button, then
clicking on the "Create an account..." link.
Main Menu Updated: To go with the new user
abilities, the main menu has been updated to display the user's logged in status.
Scouting Report Overview: There's a small
window on the front page that shows the most recent scouting reports (see more about
this new feature below).
User Accounts are a new feature that allow you to access the "Scouting Reports"
section (more things will come in the future to this feature as well). This ensures
that only approved people can create reports. All the information requested when
creating your account will only be used by BastCastle.com
and will not be given to any other parties.
Create a User Account: The first time you
come to the website, you will need to create a new account. To do this, click the
"Create an Account" button. Fill out all the information on the form and then click
the "Create User" button. Once your account is approved, you'll receive an email
from "webmaster@bastcastle.com". That, you can use the account to log
into BastCastle.com.
Managing Your Account: Once you are able
to login to the site, you can also manage the items associated with your account
by clicking the "Manage Your Account" button in the menu. Currently you are only
able to change your password, but more things will come in the future that will
be assocated with this feature.
The all new Scouting Reports section allows registered users to create a report
that records the items the user saw at a given location and the date the report
was saved. Once saved, the first five are displayed on the home page and can all
be viewed in the "Scouting Report" section. You must be logged in to access the
"Scouting Report" section, and you can enter it by clicking the "Scouting
Report" button in the main menu.
Front Page Window: This window allows you
to quickly see the 5 latest submitted reports. This smaller version of the main
window doesn't show who submitted the report, but it does allow you to view the
items seen at each location - just click the "Display Items..." link, like so:
Scouting Report Home: Clicking on the new
"Scouting Reports" menu item brings you to the home page of the new Scouting Reports
area. Here you can do multiple things from creating to viewing scouting reports.
Create a Scouting Report: Registered users
can create a scouting report of items they've seen at a certain store/location.
Using the wizard, you first pick the store/location, then check all the items that
were seen there. Once you've got all the items checked, the report is saved with
the current date and time and the user who save the report. This information is
then immediately available through the various Scouting Report windows - just click
on the "Create a Scouting Report" link on the home page to start.
Request a New Store: Know of a store/location
that's not listed in the "Create a Scouting Report" wizard? Registered users can
also submit a store/location to be added to that section of the site. Just click
the "Report a New Store" link on the scouting area home page and fill out the form.
Submit it, and once verified - the location will be added to the wizard.
View all Scouting Reports: This allows you
to view all the stored scouting reports that have been submitted. Currently you
can only view them all - coming soon you'll be able to search and filter these results
- keep checking back for updates!
Item Grouping: This feature - found in the
"Books, Comics, Novels" section when searching for Novels or Comics -
has been redone to make this cleaner and allow more than one to be shown at a time.
Now, each series name (and it's time before (BSW) or after (ASW)
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope) is listed. The series name is red
if any of the items in the series are not owned. Clicking the plus sign (or anywhere
on the header) expands the individual items in the group, clicking again hides them.
Category Search Pages: All the category search
pages (i.e. LEGOs, MicroMachines, etc.) have been cleaned up and streamlined to
make them easier to use. Because of the new functionality in displaying the results
- many un-needed items could be gotten rid of (see the next point) making for less
clutter.
Category Search Results: After clicking the
"Search Database" button on anyone of the previous pages displayed a grid
of results. Previously, this was very static and could not be changed once the criteria
was set on the previous page. Now, the resulting data is sorted in a default - but
can be changed simply by clicking the header of any column, like so:
Also, when a header is clicked, the results are sorted and any items that do not
have a value are not shown (i.e. sorting by Release Date will sort the results in
ascending order by date and any items that do not have release dates aren't shown).
Cargo Bay Indicators: Also new in the displayed
results is an indicator if an item is stored in a Cargo Bay unit. Hovering the mouse
over the icon will display a tooltip that says which Cargo Bay the item's stored
in as well as how many of the item(s).
Cargo Bay Items: Not only can you see items
that are in storage when searching though wach of the categories, but you can also
view items in each storage bin (Cargo Bay) in the new "Cargo Bay Items"
section. You can view all of the bays, and also view a single bay at a time.