Managing Collections

Collections are the core of Magpie. Each collection holds a group of related items — like your vinyl records, book library, or trading card binder.

Creating a Collection

1. From your dashboard, click the + New Collection card
2. Enter a name and optional description
3. Upload an optional cover image
4. Choose a collection type:
   • Standard — A regular collection for organizing items
   • Wishlist — For tracking items you want to acquire
   • Smart — A rule-based collection that automatically finds matching items (see Smart Collections)
5. Optionally select a template to get pre-configured fields (see below)
6. Click Create

Choosing a Template

Templates give your collection pre-configured fields that match common collection types. When you create a collection, you can pick from 21 built-in templates:

Category	Templates
General	Basic Collection, Inventory
Entertainment	Books, Vinyl Records, Movies, Video Games, Board Games
Collectibles	Coins, Stamps, Trading Cards, Comics, Figurines
Art & Antiques	Art, Antiques
Fashion	Watches, Sneakers, Handbags
Hobby	Wine, LEGO Sets, Model Kits, Plants
Sports	Sports Memorabilia

Each template comes with relevant fields like condition grading, artist/author, year, and other metadata specific to that collection type.

If none of the templates fit, you can create a collection without one and add your own custom fields.

Custom Fields

You can add custom fields to any collection to track the metadata that matters to you. Magpie supports 11 field types:

• Text — Short text input
• Long Text — Multi-line text area
• Number — Numeric values
• Currency — Monetary values with currency formatting
• Date — Date picker
• Select — Dropdown with predefined options
• Multi-Select — Multiple selections from predefined options
• Boolean — Yes/no toggle
• Rating — Star rating (1–5)
• URL — Web links
• Color — Color picker

To add custom fields:

1. Open your collection
2. Click the Settings icon (gear) in the collection header
3. Go to the Custom Fields tab
4. Click Add Field, choose a type, and give it a name
5. Click Save

Assigning Categories

Categories help classify your collections and make them discoverable. You can assign up to 3 categories per collection from 19 options including Books & Literature, Music & Vinyl, Video Games, Trading Cards, Art & Prints, and more.

1. Open your collection's Settings (gear icon)
2. Select up to 3 categories from the category picker
3. Click Save

Categories also appear as filter pills on your dashboard, letting you quickly show only collections of a specific type.

Setting Visibility

Each collection has one of three visibility levels:

• Private — Only you (and anyone you've shared it with) can see the collection.
• Public — Anyone with the link can view your collection, but it won't appear on Discover, search results, or your public profile.
• Discoverable — Anyone can find and view your collection. It appears on the Discover page, in search results, in recommendations, and on your public profile.

To change visibility:

1. Open your collection's Settings (gear icon)
2. Choose your preferred Visibility level
3. Click Save

When you set a collection to Public or Discoverable, a shareable link is generated automatically. You can copy this link from the collection settings.

Editing Collection Settings

To update a collection's name, description, cover image, fields, or other settings:

1. Open the collection
2. Click the Settings icon (gear) in the header
3. Make your changes across the available tabs
4. Click Save

Organizing with Folders

Folders let you group related collections together. You can nest folders inside other folders for deeper organization.

Creating a Folder

1. In the folder sidebar on your dashboard, click New Folder
2. Enter a folder name
3. Optionally choose a parent folder to nest it inside
4. Pick an icon and color if you'd like
5. Click Create

Adding Collections to Folders

1. Open a collection's Settings (gear icon)
2. Select a Folder from the dropdown
3. Click Save

Collections can belong to one folder at a time. Your folder structure is personal — if you organize a shared collection into a folder, it doesn't affect the owner's view.

Sharing Collections

You can share any collection with other Magpie users so they can view or help manage it.

1. Open the collection you want to share
2. Click the Share button in the header
3. Enter the email address of the person you want to share with
4. Choose a permission level:
   • Read — They can view the collection and its items
   • Write — They can also add, edit, and delete items
5. Click Share

You can share a collection with up to 100 people. To manage or remove shares, go back to the Share dialog.

Public Sharing Links

Public collections have a shareable short link (e.g., magpie.services/c/collection-name-abc123) that you can send to anyone — they don't need a Magpie account to view it.

Viewing Shared Collections

Collections that others have shared with you appear under the Shared With Me tab on your dashboard.

Deleting a Collection

1. Open the collection
2. Click the Settings icon (gear)
3. Scroll to the bottom and click Delete Collection
4. Confirm the deletion

Deleting a collection permanently removes it and all its items. This cannot be undone.