Thingport/docs/guides/synced-collections.md

Synced collections

A synced collection follows a collection on MakerWorld, Printables or Thingiverse. When a model is added to it there, Thingport imports that model into the matching Thingport collection on its own, without you visiting the page again.

Why sync a collection

• Keep collecting where you already do. Save models to a collection on MakerWorld, Printables or Thingiverse as you browse, even from your phone, and they turn up in your library later.
• Follow other people's collections. Sync a designer's or a friend's public collection, and get each model they add to it.
• A real copy of everything. Each new model is imported with its files, photos, description, tags and author, so it's still yours if the original page goes away.
• Nothing to remember. Thingport checks the collection on a schedule and sends a notification saying what came in.
• Nothing is ever deleted. Sync only adds. Removing a model from the provider's collection doesn't remove it from Thingport.

Before you start

• Sync can be turned on from Thingport itself, or with Thingport Grab, the browser extension, on the provider collection's page.
• Connect the provider under Configuration → Providers where it needs it (see provider setup). Printables needs nothing. MakerWorld needs your session cookie to import models, and to read a private collection. Thingiverse needs an access token.

Turn sync on in Thingport

1. Open the Thingport collection that should follow one on a provider, or create it first.
2. Choose ⋮ → Sync configuration. A collection that isn't synced yet opens on Browse.
3. Pick the provider. Your own collections there are listed: on MakerWorld through your cookie, private ones included; on Printables and Thingiverse, the public ones of the username you give the first time. Or paste any collection's link, yours or someone else's.
4. Pick a collection and click Sync with "…". Settings sets how often it's checked, and for MakerWorld which print profiles each new model brings, before you do.

What happens to the models already in the provider's collection depends on the provider. On Printables and Thingiverse they're imported now, one at a time. MakerWorld rate-limits bulk imports quickly, so there only models added from now on come in; ones already in your library are added to the collection either way. A provider collection syncs with one Thingport collection at most, so one that's taken shows which collection follows it.

Private Printables collections and your Printables likes

Printables shows these to you alone, so Thingport can't read them on its own. With Thingport Grab installed in a browser where you're signed in to Printables, Grab reads them while you're on Printables, at most once an hour, and sends them to your Thingport. They then show up in Browse too, your likes as Liked models, and sync like any other collection, except that new models come in after your next visit to Printables rather than on a schedule. Sync one before Grab has read it, and its models come in on that next visit.

Turn sync on with Thingport Grab

1. Open the collection's page on MakerWorld, Printables or Thingiverse. A Thingiverse user's Likes page works too.
2. Click the Thingport Grab button in the bottom-right corner. The panel lists the models in the collection.
3. Tick Keep this collection in sync (Keep these likes in sync on a Likes page). It's off by default.
4. Pick the models to import now and click Import selected (Start import on MakerWorld).

The models already in the collection are imported now, as with any collection import. The ones you leave unticked stay out: sync only picks up models added after you turn it on.

Already imported the collection before? Open its page again, open the panel and tick the box. The panel says everything is already in your library, and Save turns sync on.

Thingport sends a notification once sync is on, naming the collection it follows and its settings.

Find it in Thingport

A synced collection's tile on the Collections page shows the provider's logo with a green tick.

Open the collection and click the same logo above its models, or choose ⋮ → Sync configuration, to see how it's linked:

• Overview shows the chain from the provider's collection to yours, when it was last checked and when the next check is due, and a link to the collection on the provider's site. Sync now checks it right away. Stop syncing unlinks it.
• Settings sets how often it's checked: every hour, 6 hours or 24 hours (the default). For MakerWorld it also sets which print profiles each new model brings: the default one, the designer's (the default), or all of them, community ones included.

How it works

• On a schedule. Each synced collection is checked on its own interval, once a day unless you change it. A check compares the provider's collection with the models Thingport has already seen there.
• New models only. A model that's already in your library is just added to the collection. The rest are queued and imported one at a time, a minute apart, so the provider isn't flooded with requests. You get a notification when they're in.
• Seen once, decided once. A model Thingport has seen in the collection is never brought back by the sync, whether you left it unticked or deleted it from your library later.
• Renames are fine. The link follows the provider's collection id, so renaming the collection on either side keeps it synced.
• One to one. A provider collection syncs with one Thingport collection, and the other way round. If a collection with the same name already follows another source, the new one gets its own name, such as "Things (MakerWorld)".
• Rate limits pause it. If the provider stops the imports, for example with a MakerWorld CAPTCHA or daily download limit, the remaining models wait, paused, in Administration → Import queue until you start them again.
• Deleted collections. If the provider's collection can't be found on two checks in a row, the Thingport collection is unsynced and you get a notification. Its models stay. Deleting the Thingport collection removes the sync with it.
• Sync now is available again 5 minutes after the last check. Its notification also tells you when there was nothing new.

Turn sync off

Either untick the box in Thingport Grab on the collection's page and save, or use Stop syncing in the collection's sync configuration. The collection and its models stay in Thingport. You can turn sync on again at any time, in Thingport or from Grab.

For admins

Two optional settings, added to the backend service's environment in docker-compose.yml:

• COLLECTION_SYNC_ENABLED=false turns off the scheduled checks for every user. Sync now still works.
• COLLECTION_SYNC_ITEM_DELAY_MS sets the pause between the models a sync imports, in milliseconds. The default is 60000, one minute.

Checks run one collection at a time across all users, since they all reach the providers from the same server.

Turning a provider off under Administration → Providers pauses every collection synced from it, for every user. They pick up again once it's back on.