Hello!
To use the forum, login or register above.
(If you are already logged in above, please click here)
Software to sync bricklink and brickowl inventory other than bricksync
Hello!
I am new to brickowl and had to close my store because bricksync has completely messed up my inventory. Has anyone else experienced these problems? Or does anyone know of a more efficient app/program for managing stock among bricklink and brickowl? Thank you.
I am new to brickowl and had to close my store because bricksync has completely messed up my inventory. Has anyone else experienced these problems? Or does anyone know of a more efficient app/program for managing stock among bricklink and brickowl? Thank you.
This discussion has been closed.
Powered by Vanilla
Comments
Someone did once advertise an alternative to BS but that was some time ago and I don't know if it's still working. I seem to remember it was a web-based application that you had to pay for but I might not be remembering correctly.
http://www.bricksync.net/guidefaq.html
P.S. Sorry for being rude, I'm probably a bit tired of tech support... (lesson learned for the next time I want to release/share software: put someone in charge of tech support)
No disrespect for the developer, but the one way street of BL being the "file" is the main reason that the program is a problem.
BL has no capability to support remarks/comments live when parting out so to find where a part is stored is a problem. Hence why people like Brick Owl.
Because BrickSync does not update from Brick Owl this creates the biggest problems for those that prefer Brick Owl, and who wants to have there store deleted because BrickStore does not recognise hundreds of items in the Brick Owl inventory - its out of date.
For me - not happening, I would rather keep my stock perfect on Brick Owl as Lawrence clearly has some respect for all users of the site. And just have a mirage at BL and sell common stuff there...Since BL refuses to address the comment/remark setup it takes to long to input items on part out. Just search through their forum and see how many times it has been advocated and rejected by the admin and the old farts there - who should mind there own business as since it does not affect them! They have no need to worry whether others want the feature - but still they flex their evil control and destroy new sellers because it is in their best interest and one of the biggest reasons I prefer to trade with Brick Owl.
BL: way to much pain generated by spiteful people and people who just want to flex their muscles just take a look at the forums and the feedback and some of the stupid terms that are advertised just to protect sellers from bad buyers....
Also the Brick Owl to Brick Store program only works in 64bit, which probably due to speed issues required with large inventories, but many people have 32bit operating systems due to various reasons such as interfacing with older technology - not because of an old computer - and this means that some of us have to use an alternative machine when trying to create a Brick Owl file to update BL....at lot of hard work for a program that drops the ball on thousands of items anyway, so no way of creating an acceptable inventory base to even start using Bricksync.
Basically BrickSync is a great program for those that are populating from BL to Brick Owl. But those that prefer using a well designed website over vomit, Brick Sync and BrickStore are just as good as a boat anchor on dry land.
Sorry to the developer, as I have no understanding of the effort that was taken to create the software and I suspect that I have kick hard in the wrong space, but a reality check needs to be taken. Brick Owl is just not supported by Brick Sync!
Considering the kicks in the groin area that BL did a few years back in regards to that publically known letter to Lawrence, I can not believe just how tolerant Lawrence has been to all users that get on this forum and discuss their BL issues openly and with no guilt that they take money out of his pocket by selling on an alternative site. Look through the fine print on BL and see how much BL owners/admin hate Brick Owl because there are plenty of clauses that deal with alternative sites and how easy it for them to kick you off BL....I tip my hat to Lawrence and his site.
Unfortunately accept the fact if you set up your store on Brick Owl, either resign yourself to manual input of items until the stores match and then use BrickSync or accept that BrickSync will destroy your Brick Owl store. Ultimately due to Brick Store being out of date, there is no way of transferring your Brick Owl to BL -
If someone has a solution they need to write a clear and easy to use pathway that allows it to happen, otherwise this post will simply be repeated endlessly.
And to the developer/owner of BrickSync, again I apologise for any offense I have caused you, I understand that the program works for many people and there are plenty of supporters who have appreciated your time, hard work and support of their need to sell across the two sites. I can only say that I could not do what you have done - my abilities lie in a different direction!
Please do not post to ridicule me - I am happy to apologise if someone can show me a work around that gets a Brick Owl store cleanly on to a BL store without damaging the working Brick Owl store.
Castle.
I can compile a 32 bits version of owl2bsx if you would need that (I have been on a 64 bits OS since 2004, so that seems unusual these days). The database is also out of date since the day BL made it harder to fetch their data...
For the record, I started on BrickOwl, sold only here for a couple of years, and then transitioned to BrickSync with very little issue two years or more ago. I much prefer BO personally, but BL have recently hit back strongly with a new, updated instant checkout.
If you want to sell seamlessly on both sites, BS is your best - perhaps only - option. The one compromise you need to make is to upload new stock via BS (preferable) or BL (using the blmaster command). Uploading via BS is a piece of cake because you can use BrickStock to manipulate a bsx file.
BL isn't the 'master' file - BS is. Once you realise and accept that, great, you're in the game.
People discuss BS here because it was developed precisely because this site exists. And I doubt Lawrence minds very much at all, considering the number of sellers who have moved across to BO thanks to BS. But in any case, it is often discussed on BL also, and Stragus deals with queries on both sites, with a lot of patience too I might add considering the tone of many of the posts.
1. Prepare the bsx file with new stock.
2. Open the current BS master inventory file. Copy the contents to a new file. Set all quantities to zero. Close the master file.
3. Copy the contents of that file to the bsx file with your new stock, merging all as appropriate. This ensures all remarks, comments and bulk quantities are copied over, without adding any more stock.
4. Delete any zero quantity lots left (optional but quicker this way).
5. Update any lots in the new file that still don't have a location. These are new lots that didn't already exist in the master file.
6. Merge the new bsx file into the master inventory via BS and let BS do its thing.
The whole copy/paste process takes about 20 seconds.
1. Prepare the BSX file with new stock.
2. Use the BrickSync "sort" command: on that BSX file: sort path/to/file/newstock.bsx
3. Review the BSX file, assign a location code to any new lot (that would be the lots with empty remarks)
4. Use the BrickSync "merge" command: on that BSX file: merge path/to/file/newstock.bsx
BrickSync fires up new, checks both stores takes a look at BL and proceeds to update Brick Owl. At this point there is no control of the program. It proceeds to check both stores and then determines that, in my case 2000 items need to be deleted from Brick Owl - similar number that BrickStore deletes when building a list to propagate to BL because the items have a BOID rather than a BLID and BrickSync and Brick Stock do not recognise these new BOID's.....
Unless I agree to allow this deletion the program kicks me off.....
If I go ahead, I then have to delete my inventory from Brick Owl and reinstall from a backup disrupting any potential sales....if I attempt to update live I end up with the inventory being doubled on items - which is where I caught last week when I attempted to use BrickSync then. Took me a few days of hard work to delete the errors generated.
So at what point do I have access to the command prompt WITHOUT losing my Brick Owl inventory?
Again if I am error, please explain a simply step by step method where I can propagate my inventory from Brick Owl to BL, because without a master file being generated the program just kicks me out and it only generates a master file after it destroys my Brick Owl store - deleting all items with a BOID that it fails to recognise.
Hence I maintain my conclusion - BrickSync is bias against Brick Owl owners at this point in time because there have been to many new and different BOID's. Perhaps this makes it all a bit clearer.
And I think the original poster of this post has been so caught in the same way....and any attempt to correct or manually correct just increases the errors and places the store in jeopardy.
Castle.
P.S. Without being overdramatic there is plenty of programs that require communications with a 32-bit architecture, and can not sync with 64bit. So whilst it would be good to have the full use of the RAM chips, sometimes there is a cost of doing business - hence why I mention the 32bit/64 bit issue. I would appreciate having access to a 32bit version of the Brick Owl to Brick Store software, however unless the deleted BOID items can be resolved, it is all pointless.
https://www.brickowl.com/forum#/discussion/6761/need-guide-on-how-to-manage-inventory-from-bo-to-bl
In which I indicated it is perfectly possible to use Brickowl as 'masterdata', as long you use the right 'command' in BS.
You say:
because BrickStore does not recognise hundreds of items in the Brick Owl inventory - its out of date.
You're missing a crucial point: Brickstore (or the former Brickstock 2004-2008) was developped to manage inventory on Bricklink, and as you can see by the date of Brickstock, it's initial development was made a decade before Brickowl came along. It's is therefor logical that Brickstore only knows BL items, it was never developped to manage a Brickowl inventory, and never will either for the simple reason it is made to get updates in/from the BL catalog system (and therefor BL's numbering system).
When Brickowl was created, Lawrence imported data from several sites, including BL data (maybe trough brickstore), Peeron data and others. As of then he started importing data from TLG, which means recent data is always following TLG's numbering (which is a good thing compared to BL), but that data is not used in Brickstock as that software uses BL data (and will keep doing so forever).
Now BO alows to generate a 'match' between BOID and BLID, the opposite (BL) does not (and will never either), it is therefor also logical BS was developed in that particular direction, by using the BL/Brickstock data and finding 'matches' in the BO database: these matches are the BLID's, so if you want BO items to sync to BL (by using the Sync Bricklink command), then the only option is to enter BLID's on BO, as that is the key to create the match.
So yes BS was developped with as starting point 'BL' as it is the only way possible to create the match, for the simple reason BO does indeed have the option to create matches while the opposite can't be done.
As a sidenote: I never use neither BL, neither BO to add storage locations, I don't use either sites partout system either, as both are 'online' with the risk of loosing data due to hickups of any kind or due to incomplete data (or unverified data like mold differences). I simply use Brickstock for that, obviously I will import data from there first into BL as that was what it was developped for, and indeed sync towards BO afterwards. The most logical method ;-)
This means that your BO inventory will be replaced by whatever was in your BL inventory. There's no way around this - BS only works if you let it hold the master inventory, and for reasons that Eric explains above, this can only be taken from BL because the XML structure used by BL and BrickStock came long before BO ever existed.
If you only have inventory on BO you somehow need to get this into a BSX file that you can then import within BS (and thus then onto BL and back to BO). The easiest way is to use the owltobsx program that Stragus helpfully created, and it's a one-time use only so try and use another PC if yours can't run it. This will discard any lots it cannot reconcile to the BL/BStock format and will generate a log of these items that you can work through at your leisure in order to reintroduce them to stock.
You can also download a BO backup and then manipulate it in an XML editor to match the BSX format. This can take a long time depending on how familiar you are with XML and the software you have available.
You might be able to import the BO backup into Rebrickable, and then export it in a BL-recognised format. This was possible at one time but Rebrickable has gone through a couple of changes over the years and I don't use it so much anymore.
If you only want to sell on BO then you can ignore BrickSync, BrickStock and BL. Life is easy, the part-out system on BO works very well.
If, however, you want to sell on both platforms, BS is really your only option.
It would be great if BS had an option to take its initial inventory from BO, but even if it did you'd still end up with a stack of lots that it doesn't know how to handle. The issue isn't BS or BO, it's the data format used by BL that has been developed over the years by a number of different sites, mostly with user-provided contributions, and almost always before Lego's proprietary numbering system was widely known. In order for BS to work with BL, it has no option but to work with this data format.
I freely admit that it comes across that way. But the program clearly fails to recognise Brick Owl ID's and rather than ignore them, is programmed to delete them.
And my understanding of the use of the word "bias" is when a person or object interacts with another group of people or objects and creates harm, interference or death/destruction to a person or object with a certain characteristic - in this case it rejects Brick Owl Id's.
Google search of the word bias:
"cause to feel or show inclination or prejudice for or against someone or something"
If the program simply ignored the BOID's I could sync the stores as best able and slowly manage the missing items in BL and sync over time.
But as RobErNat has also made it plain the only way I may get sync is to work out to update BrickStore and at this time, will still probably involve manually enter the data.
Otherwise, simply leave my stores only in sync where items are in both stores - still a manual process.
Again let me point out - it is not my intention to ridicule or degrade anyone - to resolve an issue - further understanding needs to be obtained - understanding comes from interaction. If people can put aside hostilities and take the time to understand the information being provided then a resolution can be obtained.
So far the only person who seems to be able to do that is RobErNat, who has pointed out what I have said from the beginning - the program is designed to work from BL - not from Brick Owl. I get that and understand why it does that. I understand the history and the genesis of the program, but with BL limiting access to new BLID's, the program may need to be altered to interact differently, or new users of the program may need to take slightly different steps to achieve the goal of "sync"
I wish to now understand how RobErNat updates BrickStore to include new items, and this needs further explanation, along with some understanding on the best way to update both stores "live" because clearly there is correct way and a wrong way without creating errors or having to delete the whole store each time one does a major part out.
The post that RobErNat provides a link to, also assumes, I guess, that the stores are already synced and the store owner is simply updating from a part out or additions to a Brick Owl store. The "sync" command will not work on an empty BL store - it simply keeps the store empty and rejects the inventory from the Brick Owl store - already tried it....until Brick Sync has matched the two stores part for part - the program does not seem to want to work.
And that is the initial problem - the program needs to alter the Brick Owl store at the first sync. After that the store owner can easily make incorrect choses that makes the thing into a mess that propagated the posting by dndsbrixnstuff. And I think that what needs to be focus on - helping someone in trouble...
And my postings were intended to provide some support to how new users are now making mistakes on using this simple and easy to use program. And why there are obstacles due to lack of knowledge and understanding.
For example, I know NOW that to reload a back up requires the inventory to be deleted, otherwise errors are created because some items remain and new lots are created from these double ups.....
Castle.
Please realize that more words doesn't make your argument more valid. You have been given patient and excellent advice on how to operate how YOU want with BrickSync. Either take it or find an alternative. Please don't slag BrickSync or the way it works again, because used properly, yes I'm insuating you aren't, it's an awesome and powerful tool. It has saved my butt numerous times and thank you Stragus for it.
Tyson