Wishes

Wishes: share a wish list

A wish list is a list of wishes for an occasion: Christmas, a birthday, first communion, the first day of school. You create one for yourself or for someone else in your household, for example parents for their children. Whoever wants to give a gift opens a link, sees the wishes and reserves one. No patchio account needed.

What it's about

A child wants a book, and three grandparents each buy it. Or a relative calls and asks what to give, and nobody remembers what is already taken. The list solves exactly that: everyone sees what is wished for, and reserved wishes show as “taken” to everyone else.

The module is called Wishes and is switched on for every household. You find it in the menu. If you don't need it, switch it off under Administration → Modules.

How to do it

Create a list. Tap Create list, choose the person and give an occasion, for example “Christmas”. A date is optional. You can create a list for anyone in your household: for yourself, for your partner and for children, with or without their own login. You can keep several lists for the same person, one per occasion.

Add wishes. Tap Add wish. Paste a link from the shop and tap Fetch: patchio fetches the title, image and price as far as the shop allows. Check the details and adjust them. You can also enter any wish completely by hand, with your own image.

The importance shows what matters most: Top wish comes first and carries a heart, then Would love and Nice to have. In the field Note for gift-givers, visible on the outside page you can write what to look out for, such as the size or colour. Outside visitors see this text too.

Share. Tap Share and then Create link. Copy the link and send it in a message. Whoever opens it sees the first name, the occasion, the greeting and the wishes. With I'll give this and a name, a wish is reserved. Anyone who mistypes or changes their mind can release the reservation on the same page with Undo, as long as the browser remembers the page.

After the celebration. Tick Mark as received on the wishes. You can mark the list itself as closed under Edit list, and it stays available for reference. More in the section “After the occasion”.

Create a list for someone else

Any member with their own login can create a list for anyone in the household. That helps when a child doesn't think of their own wishes yet, or when a grown-up would like a few ideas collected.

Created by. If someone else created the list, the list and the overview show “Created by” with a picture and first name. Outside visitors never see this on the link.
The person has a say. Whoever the list is for can edit it themselves, add and change wishes, and remove it completely under Edit list → Delete list if they don't want it.
Whoever created it keeps helping. The person who created the list can keep editing it, add wishes, share it and delete it, as long as they belong to the household with their own login. If they leave the household or their login ends, this right ends too.
You get a heads-up. If someone creates a list for you, you receive a notification: “… created a wish list for you”, with the occasion and a tap to open it. It never says anything about reservations.
The picture is the person's choice. Whoever created the list for someone can share it. But only the person themselves can turn on their picture on the page for gift-givers (for children without their own login, parents with admin rights or the linked carer). Anyone who manages the list can turn it off.
The surprise stays. Even when the person manages their own list, they never see reservations, contributions or names. Whoever created the list for them sees them, like everyone else in the household, and gets the notifications.

Group gift

Some wishes are too big for one person: a bike, a tablet. Switch on Group gift (several people give together) in the wish. The Target amount is the price by default, and you can change it. The quantity is always 1 for a group gift, and it needs a price or a target amount.

Whoever wants to give taps I'll chip in and enters an amount, in the app with a note, on the link with a name. The open remainder is suggested. A bar shows how much has been collected. Once the target is reached, the wish shows as “Taken”. Whoever chipped in can change the amount or take the contribution back. Whoever maintains the list can delete contributions.

Important: You decide among yourselves how to collect the money. patchio just keeps count. The money does not go through patchio, there is no payment and no direct debit.

Reserving and chipping in are mutually exclusive for a wish. If a wish is already reserved, you can only make it a group gift after deleting the reservation. If there are already contributions, nobody can reserve it any more.

On the outside page, guests see only the progress: how much of the target has been collected and how many people are chipping in. The page never shows names or individual amounts. The person the list is for sees none of this either.

The surprise stays

The person the list is for never sees what was reserved, who reserved it or how many wishes are already taken. This applies to children and adults alike and can't be switched off. Everyone else who may see the list, that is the household, linked households and the parents, sees the reservations with names and can coordinate.

For children without their own access there is no list person with an account, so the parents see everything.

If you want to be surprised yourself, don't open the link. Anyone who opens it in a private window without signing in sees the outside page like any guest, including what is taken. That can't be prevented without an account.

What outside visitors see

The page shows the first name, the occasion, the greeting, the wishes with image, price, note and shop link, and “Already taken” or “x still available”. It shows no surnames, no age, no address and not who reserved what. Only the family who keeps the list sees the names of gift-givers.

A picture of the person only appears if you switch on Show picture on the page in the share dialog. It is off by default, and for children you should leave it off. Search engines don't index the page.

Exactly this, or something similar. When you add or edit a wish, you decide whether it should be exactly this product or whether something similar is fine. With “Something similar is fine” the link is only an example: brand, model or colour may differ. The card then shows a small “Similar is fine” note, also on the page for gift-givers. With “Exactly this” (the default) nothing is shown. Importing a link does not change your choice.

Theme of the list

Every list has a festive theme with its own colours and an ornament band, for example Christmas, birthday, Easter, wedding, baby and christening, school start, communion and confirmation, or a general celebration. Everyone who opens the list sees the theme: you and your family in the app, guests on the shared link, and subscribers.

The default is Automatic (by occasion): patchio recognises the theme from the text in the Occasion field. Write “Christmas” and the list turns Christmassy; “8th birthday” gives a colourful party look. If you want something else, open Edit list and pick one of the tiles under Theme. Each tile shows a small preview; with “Automatic” the line below tells you which theme is recognised right now. Your choice also applies to the link straight away. Anyone who may edit the list may change the theme.

The theme only colours the list. The header, the menu and everything else in patchio keep their usual colours, and every theme has a dark version for dark mode. The theme does not change who sees what has been reserved or how many wishes are taken: the surprise stays.

PIN for the link

Whoever has the link can open the list. To narrow that down, tap Share and set a 4-digit PIN under PIN for the link. After that, the link opens the list only with the PIN, and the images too. Share the PIN separately, not in the same chat as the link. The dialog shows whether a PIN is set. You can change it at any time or switch it off again with Remove PIN. The PIN is stored only as a hash, so you cannot view it again, only set a new one.

Anyone who enters a wrong PIN several times is slowed down for a while. That protects against guessing. If it was entered wrongly too often, the link locks until tomorrow for everyone. You see that under Share and get a notification (once a day). With Create new link the lock no longer applies, and you send the new link on.

After the occasion

When the list has done its job, the section After the occasion helps:

Mark as received. Tick every wish that has been received. It then shows as “Received” at the bottom, and nobody can reserve it any more.
Thank-you list. For every wish that has been received, you see who gave it, with the amount for group gifts. That way you know whom to thank. The person the list is for sees the names only after the occasion (never the amounts). Without a date, someone in the family releases the names with Occasion is over, release names. The same applies if the date was changed afterwards, especially if that person moved it forward themselves: the names then stay hidden and someone else in the family releases them. The page tells that person so. Withdraw release undoes that.
Reminder. If a date is set, patchio reminds you shortly after the occasion: “Tick off what has been received”.
Carry over what has not been received. Whatever was not received can be copied to another or a new list with Carry over what has not been received, for example from the birthday to Christmas. Title, link, price, quantity, importance, note, category and image come along. Reservations and contributions do not, those start fresh.

Occasion, calendar and countdown

If you enter a date on the list, the list is tied to the calendar: on the day of the occasion there is an entry with a gift icon (first name and occasion, for example “Communion”), and a tap on it opens the list. This works in the month, week and agenda views. On the list itself you see the countdown (“12 days to go”). On the dashboard, the card Upcoming occasions with a wish list shows the next occasions within 90 days. You can show or hide it in your profile under the dashboard cards. Lists without a date get no entry. In the birthdays view, a person with a list has a View wish list button.

How many wishes are taken (“6 wishes, 2 taken”) is shown only to people who may know. The person the list is for only ever sees “6 wishes”, everywhere. The dashboard, calendar and notifications reveal nothing to them either.

Your pledges

On a list you may see and are not the subject of, Your pledges appears at the top: the sum of the prices of the wishes someone in your household reserved, plus your contributions to group gifts. This is only orientation for your gift budget. Nothing is booked. Wishes without a price are not counted, and it says so. Go to budgets takes you to Finances if you keep a gift budget there.

If grandma, a friend or another household has shared a wish list with you, paste the link under Wishes → Subscribed → Subscribe to a list by link (add the PIN if there is one). The list then shows up for your whole household, with the occasion in the calendar. You see it like a guest: the wishes and “taken”, never who gives what. Reserving and chipping in use your first name.

Subscriptions are for other households. Lists from your own household and from linked households are already at the top with your lists.
If the person the list is for lives with you (also with a second login in another household), the subscription is not possible. They must never see the surprise through a subscription.
If the link is withdrawn, renewed or switched off, the PIN changed or the occasion is long over, the subscription says No longer available. Remove it and paste the new link.
Remove subscription works at any time. It changes nothing on the other household's list.
Everyone in your household can see the link, because they added it together. Other households never see it.

Print the list

For the fridge or the pin board: tap Print list on the list. You get one page with a frame and ornament to match the occasion, first name, occasion, date, greeting and all open wishes with price, note and importance. The sheet is made for little ink and black and white. Print / PDF opens the print dialog, where you can also choose Save as PDF. With many wishes the list continues on a second page without cutting a wish in half.

If the list is shared and you help maintain it, you can add a QR code to the sheet: whoever scans it opens the list on their phone and can reserve there. Untick the box if you don't want it.

Important: the printout never shows what is taken or reserved, and no names. It hangs for everyone, including the person the list is for, so the surprise stays. Wishes that have already arrived are not on the sheet.

Withdraw the link

If the link ended up in the wrong group, tap Share and then Withdraw link. The current link stops working. With Create new link you get a fresh link and the old one dies immediately. 30 days after the date of the occasion the link also switches off by itself if you entered a date.

Limits of the import

Fetching doesn't work with every shop. Many large retailers block automatic requests, some only deliver the title or nothing at all. The link still ends up in the wish and you enter the title and price yourself, which takes a few seconds. patchio does not disguise itself to get around blocks.

Good to know

Reservations and contributions are visible to everyone except the person the list is for.
Whoever maintains the list can delete reservations, for example if someone switched browsers and can't undo any more.
Retention. Names of guests who reserved or chipped in through the link are replaced with “Someone” 60 days after the occasion (without a date: after the reservation). The thank-you list stays until then.
Deleting a list also removes all images, reservations and contributions.
You get a notification when someone reserves something or chips in on a group gift, if you help maintain the list. Once per occasion there is also a notification when the occasion is within the next 14 days (“Occasion coming up”). If the list is still empty by then, it reads “Wish list still empty”, and the person the list is for gets it too. The texts never say what is taken. You switch them off in your profile under Notifications.
Money never goes through patchio. Amounts in a group gift are a tally, not a payment.