Programming PokeTrades - A Trading Website Alternative to Google Sheets

[Archer Kirby]

Sorry if this post is a bit long, but I want to try and cover everything, will edit later as needed.

Introduction
PokeTrades is a project that I've been working on for over a year now, with the intention of it being an alternative people can use instead of Google Sheets for creating TradeSheets. For people who aren't in the loop, Google Sheets is the most common website that people use to create a TradeSheet for trading Pokemon with other people, and in PS is basically the only method people use, with commons templates for easier use in creating one. PokeTrades is designed to deal with many issues Google Sheets has and to give people a better experience in both the creation and viewing areas. I was previously under the assumption that someone else would create a better alternative for many years, but as I started learning programming, I realised I could be the one to create said alternative which is how PokeTrades was made.

The Problem with Google Sheets & Other Alternatives

When I made my first TradeSheet using Google Sheets, the problems were immediately clear. Creating a Pokemon was slow, with around 30 columns needing to be filled in per Pokemon. Viewing TradeSheets was also cumbersome since not only did you see dozens of rows information about Pokemon you had no interest in, but due to the number of columns, you could never even see all information at once in the first place, causing you to have to scroll back and forth while trying to see if the Pokemon is worth trading for. Another big issue with Google Sheets is the variation. People do not have the same columns or have them in the same order, which not only prevents information the other party might want, but also makes checking multiple TradeSheets more of a hassle. Filtering was another big problem with Google Sheets. When there are some TradeSheets with hundreds, some over a thousand rows, it can be hard to find something that you even might be interested in, and this is just on Desktop. Checking TradeSheets on mobile is just not possible, when you can only see 4 columns max. While there were other alternatives like Porybox, this was both limited to people who had CFW on their 3ds which was a small minority of players and also has been inactive for a number of years.

Enough, now show me the solution!

PokeTrades is a website (which you can find here https://poketrades.org/) and is currently only usable on Desktops/Laptops with support for Mobile/Tablets coming later. Instead of having to open up a new tab to browse a new TradeSheet like with Google Sheets, you can simply type in the user's ID to browse their TradeSheet (My User ID is 1 if you want to look around and explore how it works). People are able to create an account and can import their Google Sheets to PokeTrades (More on that later).

In the same way how Google Sheets has different tabs to allow people to have custom areas in terms of Pokemon Listings, PokeTrades also has bunches which function the same, but also come with an icon for more customisation and more clarity on what types of Pokemon they contain. Unlike Google Sheets, you can also just search for what Pokemon you want in this area and it will look for it in all bunches or in a specific one if you are inside it.

The images are used from Pokemon Home which also has their shiny sprites as well. Unlike Google Sheets, only the images are displayed allowing you to easily look at the list of available Pokemon and see what ones you are interested in without have to deal with additional information for dozens of Pokemon, making it easier to browse through while looking more polished.

Of course, when you find a Pokemon you are interested in, all you have to do is click on it to see information about it on part of the screen. This is one of the best benefits of PokeTrades in my opinion; being able to see all information about a Pokemon without the need to scroll. Also being on only part of the screen leaves you free to search for other Pokemon while still keeping it up on screen as the scrollbars will update themselves accordingly. Note the "Preferred Pokemon In Exchange" area. This has all the Pokemon the User is currently searching for. If signed into your account and you have any of the Pokemon the User wants, then it will be highlighted, allowing you to instantly see if you have anything they are looking for.

Its also possible to filter in numerous ways, ranging from specific moves and gender to IVs, EVs and generations available to trade in. You can see how the first image was filtered by looking at the filter settings in the second image. This allows people to easily look for something if they want a specific combination or variable on a Pokemon.

Creating is faster here than Google Sheets, with InputFields with dropdowns containing the list of abilities, moves, natures and more for further ease. The correct Pokemon image is automatically selected depending on shiny, gender and form. Creating a Bunch is also simple and can be easily renamed.

Other Features
Of course re-arranging the Pokemon or Bunch order, copying, deleting, modifying existing Pokemon/Bunches are all possible as well. You can also change your password or username at any point (though you can't change to a username already taken currently, this is planned to change in the future).

As mentioned previously, importing a TradeSheet is possible so to prevent users having to redo everything as long as the import ordering is followed. Exporting is also possible for users wanting an offline copy, to use without PokeTrades or to have a backup when deleting all data. There is also a tutorial area that makes goes into more details on how to do things.

Whats in Progress?
Making the loading times faster. Currently it takes about 5-10 seconds depending on device for the initial load and roughly 3 seconds afterwards. Working on making it sub 5 seconds for initial load and 1 second for subsequent loads.

Reducing the slight Blur that the project has when built is another issue that will be fixed soon. (though there is currently a workaround by simply lowering zoom due to the...unique way I developed this project)

Mobile support is very important for me to get working, but unfortunately its not that simple since the environment PokeTrades is developed in naturally makes this a pain to do so. While it can be done eventually, we are looking at a number of months before its fully supported.

Final Words
This project has and will be constantly updated as I hope to make it good enough that it gains traction and that people will start to use it more frequently. For those who curious about how far this project has come, there is a far earlier version on github here https://unovx.github.io/PokeTradesWebGL/ of when it only contained my TradeSheet and didn't require any servers or databases. This version also partly works on mobile devices, while InputFields are broken on mobile, you don't need them to view my TradeSheet but just know the blur is much worse for mobile devices.

The TL;DR
PokeTrades is designed to be a faster, more convenient alternative to Google Sheets, with a cleaner, clearer layout, and additional features and although still a work in progress, is still fully usable right now for Desktops/Laptops with QOL improvements and more features planned and being worked on.

 

[Archer Kirby]

Alright so a while back I decided to actually code this project in a proper way using actual webdev languages, and just yesterday I've finally been able to finish redoing everything. Now some of the designs are slightly different such as all the buttons have a default button design and the main area text actually being readable, but all of the functionality mentioned above is still present. Designs for the most part have been improved to take up less space and have things in better places. Loading is now much faster, taking only a second if that for when you first visit the website.

The most important change though is that mobile design is fully supported. Below are just a few pictures of how it looks on devices. The initial version being unable to work on mobile was a huge disappointment for me and I felt it couldn't be a proper alternative until it did work on mobile devices. From here on out, feedback will be greatly appreciated as I work to make this the standard website for tradesheets and I'll update here with any large scale changes/bundles of changes as it happens. As a reminder, link to the website is this: https://poketrades.org/

 

[Archer Kirby]

You know, when I look at my previous post, I'm shocked in several ways. That what I thought was good now looks so bad and bland in hindsight, but also how far I've improved this project in just two short months. Lets not waste any time here, we have a lot to cover.

Since almost every area has been improved, lets start from the top.

Before anything, PokeTrades now has a background! looks nice, loops perfectly on both mobile and desktop and doesn't clash with the rest of the sight. Now the Main Area. This area now has six icons that each open up a panel barring the discord icon which links to the discord. This is a much more streamlined approach as before you immediately started in the area that allowed you to search for TradeShops and it was confusing to some. There was also the case of the settings being previously hidden in the login menu making it harder to find.

There is a What's New Panel on the side of the screen to update users on any changes that have currently happened. As you can see from the images below, you can switch the panels from right to the left in the settings. other areas such as the Selection and Viewing Area are also all on the side to look cleaner, more concise and have less issues with scaling. Another benefit of is being able to go into a new Bunch without exiting the old one which was cumbersome. The Tutorial Area is currently removed due to feedback and it was a lot of text that made PokeTrades look way more confusing then it actually is.

The Selection Area has underwent a few changes. Before you could toggle certain information such as what ball and shiny. Now those options still exist but there is another which extends the holders for each Pokemon. What this means is you will see less Pokemon on a page with this enabled but in return can see not only additional information such as Ability and Nature but the other icons are now not covering the main Pokemon image which for some such as Greninja and Rattata-Alola, made it hard to see. There is also now a Hover option that allows you to bring up the Viewing Area by merely hovering over the Pokemon, making it easier to check multiple Pokemon at once.

Viewing Area has had one huge change, the ability to show proof without opening a new page. That can still be done by clicking on the proof but now for Proof there is a button to show/hide proof allowing you to see the proof in the Viewing Area which makes things much more convenient.

Creation Area now allows you to create a Pokemon lacking information if you set it to private in the display settings which is nice for creating quick drafts to finish later. Notification Area has been improved by not overusing bold and in general boxes with sharp edges have been smoothed out for a nicer feel.

Overall I feel that the presentation has vastly improved and unlike before looks decently presentable instead of blank and empty. There are still things I need to do, more so on the creation side such as templates and silent changes the user won't notice in the CSS but really happy with this result. Of course it also works on Mobile. As always a link to the website is here https://poketrades.org/

 

[Archer Kirby]

October is here, and time for a quick update of sorts, likely the last batch of Front-end changes before BDSP.

Firstly, Hidden Power calculation is now a thing. Previously, you had to manually set the hidden power. Now, you can either set the hidden power in the event of HT or X IVs which will stop the calculation, or just not bother as setting normal IVs will set the correct value for you. Previously, importing was a bit broken, but now importing has been fixed and tester further, if you wish to import your TradeSheet, you should have a much easier time now.

Next are a few more changes to the Selection Area. You can now see the Pokemon Name and Typing, which gives just a bit more information, but this will likely be as full as it gets. Additionally, there is now also an option to display the Dex Number of the pokemon in the corner, just for people who love to re-arrange more easily or for other reasons it was requested. Both of these are separate options, so you could turn off just the dex number, or the advanced preview options and see more pokemon on a screen.

The next big change was regarding bunches. Previously, you had to open up a bunch and click on create, then navigate through a different area. Now, in the area where you can see the bunches. you can click on the appropriate buttons to move and modify the bunches. This was a long overdue QOL change.

The final addition which honestly is probably my favourite one I've done, is the option to see old sprites. Once again, this is an option and is off by default, but when you turn it on, if the pokemon was obtained in Gen1-5, it will have its sprite for that generation (Non animated of course). If the Pokemon doesn't have a sprite in some cases (such as GSC Glaceon that evolved from Eevee) it will default to its Home Artwork.

Overall, fewer changes compared to last time, and next bunch of changes will likely be back-end, so I probably won't send another update here for a while.

 

[Archer Kirby]

The end of the year approaches and so time for a final update before 2022.

This update is fairly small but also important. First of all, due to some feedback, I decided the merge the areas where you view and create pokemon, allowing you to make faster edits and see the same view providing a better experience. You can see down below what the new area looks like.

As you can see, this new details area has a very nice neon-ish feel to it, with the different colours being intended to help the viewer hone in on areas more easily then if it was all just one colour by colouring coding area (Green is IVs/EVs, Blue is Moves etc). For the neon red row, Instead of a tradition dropdown, they have their own personalised area to make things more clear as you can see below.

When viewers look at your Trade Shop, dropdowns that don't apply them and information that hasn't been filled in will be hidden as well as obviously not having permissions to make any edits to your Trade Shop, making it easy to see all information on one screen. Should you also want to see this limited view for the reasons stated, just press the Lock Button and press it again to be able make changes again.

Next, lets go over some improvements. Previously, when you created a Pokemon, it automatically went to the bottom. Now with the Place Button, you can place it wherever you want when you create it or just use the Create Button to send it to the bottom as before. The Reset Button allows you to see what the details of the Pokemon previously were if you want to undo any changes.

The next big change is templates. Templates allow you to pre-define various areas like OT, ID, IVs, Language, etc. Once saved, you can access your templates via the dropdown and immediately fill in the creation dropdowns with that set information, allowing you to create more Pokemon faster and avoid repeatedly typing out the same information again.

And that's all for this year! Hopefully I can improve it all throughout next year and make it into something truly amazing. But I can look back at my first post this year and be amazed by how much I've learned and grown PokeTrades into something completely unrecognisable from what it previously was.

 

[Archer Kirby]

Start of March and time for another update.

After remembering I did my UI design lessons about keeping things consistent, the UI as a whole has been given an enormous overhaul. Most buttons now have their own designs which are chosen to supplement the design choice im going for, but thats not the only change as you can see below.

Before we walk about the design changes, lets go over a few other features changes first. Filtering has been made much faster as it no longer needs to pull down information from the server repeatedly, it just hides/shows information according to the filters selected. Also now when you click on a Pokemon, the area opens up a bit which allows you to see more information about the pokemon without having to turn your head to the side which could get a bit annoying if you wanted to check just a little more information about several pokemon.

The Details Area has been completely redesigned with the neon rainbow being replaced by a series of grey colouring keeping it more consistent with the rest of the site. Also, when viewing as a guest, the dropdown arrows now disappear to prevent confusion and give an overall nicer feel. As you can see, Gen6/7 Models have now been added, and Legends Arceus support is also fully implemented with the models, moves and pokeballs.

Another change we have now is URL routing implemented, meaning to show off your TradeShop, you can now just link it like this; https://poketrades.org/#users/1 making it much more convenient as you don't have to tell people what your ID is anymore, they can just click the URL.

And that's about it. This is a smaller update, but the changes themselves are still large, whether it be functionality, QOL changes or design.

There is still much more I envision for the future of PokeTrades, but I feel in the current stage where it is, it's looking very solid. There are still optimisations to do, and a few improvements here and there but I think the overall look and feel is pretty complete so the next large update will likely be over the summer unless things are able to progress much faster then planned.

Also big shout-out to Async10, HuntressRubyRose, Zestar75 and Headras. If it wasn't obvious, I do not work on PokeTrades solely alone, and they have been helpful at multiple points in terms of feature implementation, documentation and feedback. There are others as well that also help from time to time and its this team effort thats allowed for PokeTrades to grow into what it is and what it will become later on.

 

[Archer Kirby]

Well, I didn't realise my last update here was so many months ago, I've made so many changes between this post and the last that it would be too much to cover, so I'll keep it brief.

I'll start by talking about the new design theme. Where before there was a multitude of colours, the design colours I've settled into are now more Blue and Black with a more streamlined design, you can see an example of the new main area down below.

Before I talk about the other changes, I want to go over two features that are semi-ready, as in they have a good amount of work put into them but either aren't ready or aren't needed at this point in time. The first of which is the legality list/progress checker. The idea here was that since there isn't a proper list for all games in terms of balls and in terms of filters, that it would benefit PokeTrades to have one and that a progress tracker for what pokemon people have obtained would be nice. However in practice, it is extremely difficult to create an accurate list and until I can create something that isn't prone to user error via input, this feature will need to stay unfinished for now. But you can look below for a sneak peek of of the in development progress or at least the idea concept.

The next currently inaccessible feature has been one I've wanted for a while, and barring a redesign due to the other recent redesigns, it is completely done and operational, the only true reason keeping it offline is due to there not being many users for this feature to be worth it currently. What I'm talking about is the CTS. The CTS is essentially PokeTrades version of the Global Trade Station. but instead of Global its a Community one. People can search in the fields for what Pokémon they want with what features but it allows for a combination of these elements not possible in the standard GTS. You want to search for a pokemon in both Beast AND Poke Balls? sure you can. HP Fire or HP Ice? Yup no problem. Not only is multi-select and searching possible but to add extra convenience, you can also search for not only the evolutionary line, as a whole but also different forms such as finding both normal and regional together. I have full confidence that when PokeTrades userbase starts to increase that this feature will be its defining trait and something commonly used.

But now lets talk about a big recent change I've made, one that in fact has went live only just before this post, and this is the improvements made to the Details Area. you can get a feel for how it used to look by looking at the above image but this has now underwent significant improvements. By making better use of the space, using smaller fonts and using some creative ideas, for the first time PokeTrades finally has a design where even on mobile, you can clearly see all the information on a pokemon including seeing the proof and have room to spare. I won't cover all the changes but I will cover a few of the main ones. The first is that hexagon. For those who played the games you'll see it looks very similar, but it has a few changes to make it much better. The stat names are coloured blue, red, gold depending on the nature lowering, boosting or not affecting said stat. IV colours are also green, pink or white to show 31, 0 or anything else. This helps to tell from a glance what the nature and IVs are. The EVs are also in a hexagon and special thanks to Nixola for helping with this. Parts of the hexagon will get filled depending on the EVs further helping to give more visual clarity but at the same time not taking up more space.

Ribbons have also been added to the game. Clicking on the ribbon icon will create a huge dropdown and the user can select any number of them, before clicking on the ribbon icon again to close it. To make viewing easier, when the area is locked or a different user is viewing the pokemon, clicking on the ribbon will only reveal all the ribbons the user has selected, so Ribbon Masters should love this addition.

The last change I want to talk about is adding a way to speed up loading. There is now an option to control how many pokemon load at once and where from. By default its 500 from the first index but this can be customised to however the user wants, meaning that opening up a All Pokemon bunch that contains thousands of mons won't force you to wait a long time as not all of them get loaded.

Finally, I want to talk about some goals going forward for 2023. Firstly, users. I do want to see PokeTrades grow more and more and its current growth has been not non-existent but pretty close to that. Granted that was a time where SWSH trades were pretty much dying down the time I felt that PokeTrades was reaching a good state for users to properly get invested in, but with the recent release of SV and trades running rampant, I do feel this is a prime opportunity.

The next is continuing work on the redesign. It's been hard at parts and the user feedback is rare to get so improving areas can be tricky but I feel overall I've made substantial improvements this year and will try and at least keep this pace throughout 2023 until it hits a point where it only requires small tweaks. You also have the areas I mentioned first in this post, the legality list and the CTS, though both have their issues that keep them from being finished or used.

The final goal is to add exclusive areas to PokeTrades, these are areas that are optional to view and in some cases are only viewable by the owner. These areas allow the user to go more in depth such as a way to view teams built up of pokemon you have in your collection or extended trading/collections options to help in those areas. I have yet to find a sweet spot but I have some ideas.

Overall PokeTrades is still alive and it is still growing. I hope to keep making improvements and providing more updates as time goes on, hopefully you guys will stay interested for how the site evolves next.

 

[Archer Kirby]

Well, bet you didn't expect another update so soon, but I've made a lot more progress than I thought in the past 2 weeks so time for a brief update. Following on from the last goal of the last post, I've pretty much finished the Competitive View which will be up live shortly after this post. On first glance, it looks pretty simply as you can see below.

All that happens is you have 3 more fields to fill in, one for the level, item and nest and you have an option to hide or show this view via a button which is now next to the bunch dropdown. But when you are viewing someone else's pokemon with the competitive view or your own tradeshop with a locked view and at least the level field is filled in...

Look how this changes. Now its only displaying information that is deemed useful from a competitive standpoint, with type icons next to the moves to make the types of them obvious. This more concise view makes its easily possible to view only the necessary details if you care about competitive, and this is another advantage that google sheets cannot replicate.

Let's talk about the fun feature. Nests. We know Bunches as essentially tabs or folders, something that holds a bunch of pokemon that can be clicked on to view all the pokemon inside, but Nests are a bit different. While Bunches would have to be made in their own area, and need an icon, Nests aren't as complex and simply require the user to type in a Nest name, and if other pokemon are part of that Nest name, it will display below.

But the best part is, when you lock the view/not your tradeshop, you'll be able to see only the competitive details for all the pokemon in the Nest, and I've also done some extra work to make it so if the move selected is Hidden Power or Tera Blast, it will go off other details on the mon to give it the correct type icon.

The whole point of Nests is to make it so if you had a team of pokemon, you could put them all in a nest and see their details together easily regardless if those pokemon are in different or the same Bunches, making it easy to view teams but it also has other benefits such as in my case, where I like to do competitive sets of mons but do multiple for each. Currently Nests are locked to competitive view only but should there be a case in the future where it makes more sense to have them generally more accessible, I am happy to make that change.

 

[Archer Kirby]

So its been half a year, and a lot has happened recently. I took a few months away from PT to come back with a fresh prospective on what needs to be done and now the site has had a lot of improvements.

The first big overall change is that I've now paid for actual designs. Previously this was done sparingly but I realised a good design can really make the site more appealing to people and that there's a limit you can reach with block colours for what I was wanting to do. You can see the different as quickly as the Main Area image below.

You can notice an immediate improvement from how it looked at the end of last year. There is still a focus on blue as the main colour but now that does not mean its only blue as colours, which made the site hard to look at. There's also now a few more fonts to help readability, but lets get to the next big improvement, so take a look at the image below.

This is the new Selection Area and this is what I am most proud of in terms of recent work. It has underwent a full redesign and honestly, is probably not changing for a very long time. One key feature about PokeTrades that I have wanted since the start, was that the viewer could see all the details they needed about a Pokemon without having to scroll. While this was accomplished, what I didn't like was having to move my view to the left whenever there was a Pokemon I was slightly interested in, and with the old way lacking showing EVs and Moves unless clicked on, it was harder to see if there was something I wanted. In addition to that, looking at a storm of blue really didn't help things either.

So the solution was a complete redesign. With containers for the Pokemon based on their type and moves also coloured appropriately, it makes viewing a much better experience. IVs and EVs are also carefully coloured to not draw too much of the viewer's gaze. However, you can also Flip the Pokemon much like you can a card and the result is this.

Flipping a Pokemon will now show the other information that was missing, such as Transfer Moves, the game obtained in, OT and ID, allowing the viewer to see all the Information without having to look in a different part of the screen, and this also applies to seeing proof or notes.

This is the best possible compromise in my opinion, the information at the back isn't something that you would care about unless you already had an interest in the Pokemon, and so not displaying said information and having it at the back is the best solution. The site itself has also been sped up substantially, optimisations have been done so the site gets data several times faster so even larger bunches load in a short amount of time. Buttons have also been improved in the Selection Area so when the viewer is unable to click on them, they lack a glow making it clear its not an option.

There is also one final big change that I will cover and that is a new way of helping newcomers use the site. Originally it was with ? icons that were spread throughout the site at various points and clicking on them will give an explanation of how to use something specific, but that has now been replaced with Assistant Porygon2.

By clicking on Porygon2 in the top corner of the screen at any time, you can bring him up and he'll give you areas that the user to navigate to see how to do anything the ? blocks had previously and more. This makes its more convenient and gives the site a bit more personality as well. The screen darken is just to help reduce visual noise.

To make sure people know what Porygon2 is for, the first five seconds of loading into PT will have it display this at the top when the site loads, though this can be turned off in settings for those who refresh/click on other PT links a lot.

With all this done, I am very happy with PokeTrades, I may have said it before but this time I am truly proud of what I've made. I've made it look, feel and run so nicely and I'm glad I've been able to continuously improve. There is however, a big change coming next and this will hopefully be the factor to make PokeTrades really grown in terms of its usercount.

The CTS is still something I believe can grow into the biggest part of PokeTrades and I am finally ready to take on the part it is so dependant on. Messaging. Messaging is a crucial part of PokeTrades in that not only is it more convenient for some people to have direct communication with others, but without it, the CTS just does not function. I am going to work on messaging and even if its sub-optimal, if I can make it so users have a way to communicate with others, then the CTS can quickly become a great way to trade. This is still at least a month or two away, but the aim is to have this done before the first wave of DLC.

Overall, a lot of design changes and optimisation with key features coming soon. I hope you'll look forward to the next update.

 

[Archer Kirby]

So bet you weren't expecting another update so soon right? Well I've made a few more changes and these ones are actually pretty big.

The first of which is I've now redesigned and made the CTS public with a few needed changes. The first of which is the ability to select multiple natures instead of just one, and the second was limiting how much users could show up in search results. Currently the limit is set to three pokemon at max from each TradeShop that meet the requirements of the search and is just fairer overall. Take a look at the redesign below.

Now if you'll remember what I said in previous posts, it was that the CTS could not exist without messaging. But if you notice one of the icons in the top right corner, you'll realise that messaging after years of me wanting to add it, is finally in PokeTrades. Now do not get me wrong, this is a ROUGH version of messaging, with so many unoptimised and just questionable choices that improving it will be a focus for a while. But I've achieved the bare minimum. Users can set their Icon, can block other or all users and see when people in their contacts are online or when they have new unread messages.

With this, I think I've finally hit a point with PokeTrades where the only thing I need to do, is refine it. I've now added every single one of my original features that I wanted. There are new features that I still want, such as adding the Legality List/Tracking Area, but that's a job that requires a full team. Apart from refinements and optimisations, I can move to the two herculean task of getting more awareness about this website and to start testing in production for when that time comes, but of which are nice goals for before the first wave of DLC launches. Stay tuned for an update when the first wave arrives.

 

[Archer Kirby]

Last post of 2023, I really thought I did an update already due all the changes I've done between this and the last post.

In the previous post, I said that I wanted a Legality List for balls and a Tracker Area for collected mons but that it required a full team. Unfortunately, I was not that patient and completed both. The main issue with the Legality List was that I couldn't find a good way to do it in the past, that both didn't take an eternity and wasn't extremely mistake prone, but over the entire length of a year that I've wanted this feature, I've tried several different approaches and theories and finally was able to do it in such a way that it did not require 10 years of my life and that mistakes for the most part were easy to fix and find along with updating for new mons or generations. This was actually completed right before the Teal Mask DLC and updating it for those Pokemon was a nice soft check to see easy it is to handle future releases. Take a look at it below.

Users are able to search by game, and by several options such as In-Game, Event, Via Breeding etc to see what is possible to get in what game. There was a lot of complex things to work out such as coding for regional form breeding, or special exceptions (Shoutout to Vivillon Forms, Alolan Raichu, Cosmog and of course, Master Ball Lycanroc-Dusk) But this is what I feel is not only the best visual list of what is legal in what game and ball, but also the most accurate. I keep this up to date and update it as soon as possible. Hopefully people that collect more than trade will give this a look.

Speaking of people who collect, the other thing I wanted to add was a way to track your collection. While PokeTrades naturally keeps track of what you have via putting Pokemon in Bunches, I wanted a way to let people know how many Pokemon they collected in terms of what was possible in the game, helping collectors plan out what to work on next. Working on this was made a lot easier by completing the above first, as then I already had an accurate list of what could be in what balls in what games.

This is what was designed. Users are able to select any combination of games, and can pick if its available In-Game, Event, Via Breeding etc just like the above Legality List and see how far they are along. They can also see what balls they have obtained Pokemon in overall, but also they can click on a specific ball to show what Pokemon they do and don't have in it, making it great for people going for full completion in a certain ball.

The final thing I added which was recently, was the ability to flip IVs and EVs with Base Stats and Current Stats. This is only possible when a Pokemon has a level, but this is really nice for checking BR pokemon and seeing their spreads in case there are any specific benchmarks which need to be met.

And now with this update, I've done it. I've added every single feature that I both ever thought of, and can think of. There is nothing outstanding in terms of things I want to add. Sure there are parts that can definitely be refined like the messaging and my code is begging for refactoring but in terms of more content... there's nothing else. I surpassed every limit I thought I had, climbed over every hurdle that seemed insurmountable. Now the next goal to focus on throughout 2024, is drawing as many people to my site as possible.

Honestly, looking back, this has been a wild ride. This has been the longest surviving project that I have ever been actively working on. Back in my starting post, I mentioned that it had been in development for over a year. This was at the start of 2021. 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023... To think that I've been working on a project for half a decade still feels insane to me, but keeping a record of things really shows how much I've grown. A little website lacking even a background and only for me transformed into something anyone can use and enjoy with a ton of features. Here's to a new year, and hopefully the one PokeTrades can finally hit its stride in with users.