Smart Collections

Smart collections are rule-based collections that automatically find and display items matching your criteria. Instead of manually adding items, you define a set of rules and Magpie shows all matching items from across your collections.

What Are Smart Collections?

A regular collection is like a folder — you manually add items to it. A smart collection is like a saved search — you define the rules, and Magpie automatically finds every item that matches.

For example, you could create a smart collection that shows:

• All items worth more than $100
• All items tagged "rare" across your collections
• All vinyl records from the 1970s in mint condition

Items in a smart collection are read-only — they still live in their original collections. The smart collection simply displays them in one place.

Creating a Smart Collection

1. On your dashboard, switch to the Smart Collections view
2. Click New smart collection
3. Enter a name and optional description
4. In the Filter Rules section of the same dialog, add the rules that define which items should appear (see below)
5. Click Create Smart Collection

Your rules are set up right in the create dialog — as soon as the collection is created, Magpie finds every matching item.

Building Rules

Rules are the conditions that determine which items appear in your smart collection. Each rule has three parts: a field, an operator, and a value.

Fields You Can Filter On

• Text fields — Name, description, and custom text fields (uses "contains" matching)
• Numeric fields — Purchase price, current value, and custom number fields (supports equals, greater than, less than, etc.)
• Date fields — Purchase date and custom date fields (within a time period, before, or after a date)
• Tags — Match items that have specific tags
• Select fields — Custom dropdown fields (equals a specific option)

Adding Rules

You can add rules while creating the smart collection, or later by editing it:

1. Open your smart collection and click Edit Rules (or use the Filter Rules section while creating it)
2. Click Add Rule (the button reads Add First Rule when you don't have any rules yet)
3. Choose a field from the dropdown
4. Choose an operator (e.g., "contains", "greater than", "equals")
5. Enter a value
6. Repeat to add more rules (up to 10)
7. Click Save

All rules must match for an item to appear — rules use AND logic (every rule must be true).

Filtering by Source Collections

By default, a smart collection searches across all your collections. You can limit it to only search within specific collections:

1. In the rule builder, look for the Source Collections section
2. Select which collections to search within
3. Only items from those collections will be considered

How Matched Items Are Displayed

• Smart collection items are read-only — you can view them but can't edit, add, or remove them directly
• Each item shows a source badge indicating which collection it belongs to
• Click an item to view its full details in its original collection
• The item count shows "Items Matched" instead of the usual count

Editing Rules

1. Open your smart collection
2. Click Edit Rules in the header
3. Modify, add, or remove rules
4. Click Save

The matched items update immediately based on your new rules.