Auction import (`tool_numisdata_acquisition`)

See also: Tools user guide · Developer reference

Paste a public coin-auction URL, review every lot the tool found, then import the kept lots into the Numismatic Object section as new records, each linked to its Auction and (when a catalog citation matches) its Type, with the lot's image split into obverse/reverse halves.

What it's for

Cataloguing numismatic collections from live and past auctions means re-keying the same information — weight, diameter, inscriptions, the auction house, the catalog reference — by hand for every lot. This tool fetches a public auction page from one of five supported houses, parses every lot it lists, and lets the operator curate the batch before anything is written: deselect the lots that are not relevant, then commit the rest in one background job.

Concrete scenario: a numismatics curator is tracking an upcoming Aureo & Calicó sale. They paste the auction's listing URL, the tool fetches and parses every lot on every page of the sale, and the review screen shows a checkbox list with each lot's number, weight, diameter and a description snippet. The curator deselects the lots outside their collecting interest, confirms a Company match for the auction house, and clicks Confirm import. The tool then creates one record per kept lot, resolves (or creates) the Auction record and links it, matches the lot's catalog citation (e.g. "ACIP-1759") against the Types this instance already curates, and downloads the lot's photo, splitting it into obverse and reverse images attached to the new record.

When to use it

You have a public auction URL from jesusvico.com, biddr.com, aureo.com, numisbids.com, or sixbid.com and want its lots as Numismatic Object records.
You want the Auction and (when it matches something already catalogued) the Type linked automatically, and the lot's photo split and attached, without any manual data entry.

When NOT to use it:

To load Dédalo's own dedalo_raw exports or a general spreadsheet, use CSV import.
To bulk-ingest media files you already have locally (not from a public auction page), use Media file import.

Where to find it

The tool is scoped to Numismatic Object sections — it does not appear on an arbitrary section even though its registration names the generic section model. Where your profile is authorized for it, its button opens in a modal (not a separate window).

Using it, step by step

Open the tool on a Numismatic Object section.
Paste the auction URL. Supported shapes vary by source:
jesusvico.com — a full auction listing, or a single lot page (/lot/ or the Spanish /lote/).
biddr.com — a full auction catalogue, a single-lot page, or a biddr.com/search?... results page spanning several auctions at once.
aureo.com — a full auction listing only.
numisbids.com — a full sale page, or a single lot page.
sixbid.com — a full auction, a single lot, or a site-wide search results page spanning several auctions at once.
If the source blocks automated fetching, Preview refuses and tells you so. numisbids.com and sixbid.com always refuse (their own robots.txt blocks every automated agent); any source can also show a CAPTCHA/"checking your browser" page instead of the real content. Either way: save the page yourself in your own browser (a human visiting a page is not automated retrieval, so there is nothing to detect or bypass), then pick the saved .html file in the upload field below the URL field — the URL field is still required, since it tells the tool which parser to use and is part of the Auction's dedup key. The tool tries to read the page's own URL out of the saved file (<link rel="canonical">, og:url, or <base href>) and fills the field for you when it finds one.
Click Preview. A pasted URL runs as a background job (live fetch, possibly several pages); an uploaded HTML file is parsed instantly, nothing fetched. Either way you get:
the detected Auction (house and number), and whether it will link to an existing record or a new one will be created;
when there is an auction house name, a Company picker — search for the real Entity record it should link to, or create a new one. It runs an automatic search as soon as the list appears, and preselects an exact name match when it finds one.
a checklist of every lot found, checked by default, each with its number, weight, diameter and a description snippet.
Curate the list. Use Select all / Deselect all, an include/exclude keyword filter against the lot's description and title, or an include/exclude lot-number range (the lot's own catalog number, not its position in the list).
Click Confirm import. The tool creates one record per kept lot in the background, with live progress, and reports one result line per lot: the fields written, whether the Auction was linked (created or reused, or why it could not be), whether a Type was matched (and if a citation was found but nothing in the catalog matched it), and whether the image import succeeded.

Tips and gotchas

Re-importing the same batch does not duplicate it

Each lot is matched by its Auction plus its own lot/inventory number, and — for every source except aureo.com, whose lots have no page of their own — by a canonical address the tool builds from the lot's own identifier on the auction site (the same address however the lot was reached: a pasted link, the listing, with or without www. or tracking parameters), which it stores in the record's URI field. A lot already imported is reported as skipped, not duplicated, even from a search-results page or when its auction could not be identified. When the tool cannot tell which lot a link names (for example a listing card whose link is broken), that lot is matched by Auction and number only — it is never treated as a copy of another lot. Re-running Confirm import — including after stopping a batch partway — picks up only what is left.

A coin's two images are imported together or not at all

If the obverse or reverse half fails, neither is kept and the summary says images were not imported. In the rare case an unfinished image record cannot be removed, the summary names it so you can delete it by hand.

Only jesusvico.com and biddr.com are verified against real auction data

All five source adapters are wired up, but aureo.com, numisbids.com and sixbid.com have only been checked by code review so far, not against a real production run. Watch the per-lot result lines closely the first few times you use one of them.

numisbids.com and sixbid.com never fetch automatically

Both sites' robots.txt blocks every automated agent, confirmed live — pasting either site's URL into Preview always refuses. The saved-HTML upload described above is the only way to import from them.

The Type link only ever points to an existing record

A catalog citation (e.g. "ACIP-1759") parsed out of the lot's description is matched against the Types this Dédalo instance already curates — a shared scholarly classification, not something this tool fabricates. A citation found with nothing matching it is reported as such so you can add the Type by hand if it is worth curating.

A single batch is capped at 3000 lots

Preview shows at most the first 3000 lots found at one URL (reporting how many more were left out); Confirm import refuses outright, rather than silently trimming, a batch larger than that.

Stopping a long import is safe

Cancelling a running Confirm import stops it before starting the next lot — it never leaves a half-written record behind. The summary reports how many of the total were actually committed, and re-running the same batch afterwards only imports what is left (see the dedup note above).

Media file import — the crop_50 processor that splits each lot's photo into obverse/reverse halves is the same per-file processor tool_import_files' own selector would otherwise expose (and refuses there today, since no processor is registered for client use); here it is called directly as trusted server code.
Journal article import — built the same way (paste a public URL, review a checklist, commit in the background) for a different domain: journal articles into Publications, rather than auction lots into Numismatic Objects.
Developer reference — the preview_url/preview_html/commit_lots actions, the source adapters, and the dedup/lock rules.

Auction import (tool_numisdata_acquisition)