OBC Member Profiles

This refers to organized information about OBC members which is kept on a database on our web site. Keeping the information on a database, and creating web pages “on the fly” by pulling our profile data in to the web pages helps protect our confidential information (such as home mailing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, etc.) while at the same time providing us with all the critical information we need to make our online trading as enjoyable as possible.

Important Parts of the Member Profiles

Member Passwords were initially assigned and emailed to every member. There is a feature which allows you to request to have your password sent to the email address currently in your profile. A member password is needed to access any of the confidential reports available on the website, and is also needed to enable you to update your own profile information.

Directory Information consists of personal data such as mailing address, phone numbers, email address, month/year you joined OBC, etc. Non-confidential parts of this information are loaded into the OBC Directory Page which is visible to anyone clicking on that link.

Favorite Sets are current sets you have in progress. This information is used in our “Who Collects What” listing and makes it very convenient for people who have duplicate cards to determine who’s working on that particular set by presenting links to want lists grouped together.

Want Lists (coming soon) Many OBC members have their want lists hosted on the OBC web site with an outdated and occasionally error-prone process to make updates. I’m working on designing and coding a “Want List Manager” which will allow members to custom define one or more pages (i.e. Vintage Want List, Pre-1980 Want List, Non-Sports Want List, or – gasp – Post-1980 UV Want List), and to build these pages by selecting among 150 vintage sets from a drop-down box, while entering cards by checking boxes on an actual set checklist including all card names and descriptions. So far it’s fairly cool and should be finished soon.

How to navigate to the OBC Member Profiles screen

From the OBC main menu page at http://www.oldbaseball.com, select the left-column button labeled Directory, which should display the following screen:

The link to the Member Profiles screen immediately follows “OBC members:” on this page. Clicking on that link brings you to the OBC Member Profile page.

The first link is clicked to get to the screen which enables updates to our Member Profile information. Since this screen contains access to confidential information, we will need to select our name and enter our password.
This is the standard login page used to access confidential areas:

I’ll use my name and enter my password as an example.

Having selected my name and entered my password, the following screen is displayed when I hit the “Log In” button, which shows the profile information currently on file for me.

This page is used to update all member profile information and the specific sets collected by clicking on the “Update Profile” button. The results of the update are displayed on the next page.

If any error messages are received, drop a note to me at wayne@deliafamily.net or to Joe Isaac at jwi62@hotmail.com and we’ll take care of it.

Click any of the buttons or links to navigate back to wherever you want to go.

Returning to the OBC Member Profiles main menu screen, we will now take a look at the second option, Display OBC Phone/Mailing List.

Since this list contains our confidential information, we will have to log in with password as shown before. The output of the phone/mailing list is shown in the next screen.

Returning to the OBC Member Profiles main menu screen, the third option is a non-confidential display of the “Who Collects What” information. This information is grouped into several categories of sets for convenience. The category selection screen is shown next.

Each of the category graphics is clickable and leads to a table of sets within that category, including the names of all OBC members who have indicated their interest in each particular set. Clicking on the Pre-War graphic displays the following screen of OBC members collecting certain pre-war sets.

Returning to the OBC Member Profiles main menu screen, the fourth option is a confidential feature permitting a password change. The current password is requested as a security measure, and the new password must be entered twice to ensure no typographic errors are entered. Clicking on the fourth option, Change OBC Member Profile Password, displays the following screen.

The results of the password update are shown on the screen displayed after clicking the “Change Password” button. If any errors are shown, notify me or Joe Isaac and we’ll be glad to help.

The final option on the OBC Member Profile main menu screen is a very useful feature which will send a confidential note to the email address you have on file which contains your current Member Profile password. At any time you can click on that option to refresh your memory or recover a forgotten password. This utility is non-confidential, since it will do no good to select someone else’s name in an attempt to find out their password, because the confidential information will be sent to their email address.

Coming Attractions

In the near future, a Want List Manager utility will be available. It’s not fully functional yet, but I can show a few screen shots of what it will look like – it’s fairly cool.

Main Want List Manager Page

The “Display” button will show you what each page looks like. As a test, I’ve added two sets to my Page1 (Wayne Delia’s Baseball Card Want List) definition. Clicking on the “Display” button shows what the want list will look like.

In this want list, bold font is used for the premium high-priced star cards, green font for cards I want to upgrade, and red font (not shown) would indicate cards on their way but not yet in my collection, such as eBay lots I have won but have not yet received.

The information for this particular want list is managed and updated by clicking the “Update” button on the previous screen. That’s where I am so far. The want list update screen looks like the following:

Additional information is shown on the next screen shot, which defines what sets are included in what order.

It’s not all there yet, but it’s on its way! Please let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement or constructive criticism, and I’ll do my best to take care of anything thrown my way. Drop me a line at wayne@deliafamily.net and give me a shout.