[FEATURE] Packing List Improvements

[MartinFerenec]

Bags in Packing lists should be improved:

• Renaming bags
• Bag type (backpack, suitcase, wallet,... maybe this could be customisable with custom icon support)
• Bags linked to users (so that you know which bag, belongs to which user)
• Single packing item ability to be located in multiple bags
• Bag weight (for airlines the limits are bag included. So if bag weighs 1.5 kg that would be accounted for)
• If there are two bags for example. Bag A belongs to user 1, and bag B belongs to user 2. There is an item X that is allocated to bag A and B. Now each user has an independent checkbox so that each user has his own packing list.

Additional requests from comments:

• Save existing packing list as template
• Item quantity field (e.g. 3x T-Shirts)

[bido1990]

I would also add a possible optimization for the packing list: with version 2.7.1 i can import directly from the trip page, using a external csv. Once i create the list in the trip i cannot move it to another one. I can create a template and use it wherever, but it will be a manual insert for all the data.
Changes proposed, that could be mutually exclusive:

• include a way to make a template from a already created packing list
• include the import feature also in the templating page

I don't know if those will require a complete rework of the function, I'm happy anyway with how it's been evolving :)

[huskerluke13]

Also to add on to this feature request, it would be nice to have private and public categories. This would allow all users in the trip to be able to add to both a hidden list that only they can see for more personal items (personal hygiene, medications) as well as contribute to public lists (food, games, equipment).

I think utilizing the existing user selection functionality would be great so you can have a private category that is shared with the selected users (good for couples or friends sharing things), and then the public category that is shared with everyone.

[mamo79]

Currently, packing list items only support a single weight field (likely total weight). There's no way to specify a quantity of items and their unit weight separately, which limits accurate tracking for multiples.

Best regards,

[mauriceboe]

Hey all, quick update on what landed in the upcoming v2.9.0:

Done:

• Bag renaming — click the bag name to edit it
• Bags linked to users — multiple users can now be assigned per bag, with avatar display
• Bag weight tracking — was already available (weight limits per bag)
• Save packing list as template — new button in the packing panel header
• Item quantity — each item now has a quantity field (e.g. 3x T-Shirts)

Not planned:

• Private/public categories — use the existing category assignee feature to control visibility per user
• Per-item unit weight — we went with total weight per item + quantity instead, which keeps things simpler

Thanks for all the feedback!

[effectpears]

Hello,

I'm still quite a beginner using this tool, so please forgive any mistakes (v.3.0.21).

I can create a packing list as a template for a trip – great! Unfortunately, and this is my issue, the bag assignments and weights aren't saved. The reason is that I very often pack the same items in the same bags and, of course, forget what goes where.

I'd like to put the following suggestions up for discussion:

i) So it would be fantastic if there were an option to save this information (weight, bag) in the template.
ii) Furthermore, and I think this is a necessary improvement, the item weight is added to the total weight even if it's not checked off.
iii) You can assign bags to people, but the total is calculated across all items, not per person. Is it possible to add a separate total per person? (I don't know how to handle duplicate assignments, and I don't understand the point of this in general.)

I look forward to hearing your feedback on this.

Great Tool!

@mauriceboe I see the discussion is closed, should I open a new one or what would you prefer?

[singularix-maker]

Confirming @effectpears' report on v3.4.1 — copies still lose weights and bag assignments — with the code paths, in case it helps to pin it down. Also one correction on bag weight limits.

1. Templates and "Copy to my list" drop weight and bag

packing_template_items has no columns for weight, quantity or bag:

CREATE TABLE packing_template_items (
  id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
  category_id INTEGER,
  name TEXT,
  sort_order INTEGER
);

So "save as template" discards the data before it is ever stored — applying the template cannot restore what was never written.

The per-item path has the same gap. cloneItem() in server/src/services/packingService.ts copies three fields:

return createItem(tripId, {
  name: item.name,
  category: item.category || undefined,
  quantity: item.quantity,
  visibility: 'personal'
}, userId);

weight_grams and bag_id are not passed.

Worth noting: bulkImport() in the same file already handles weight_grams and resolves bag by name. The mapping exists — the two copy paths just don't use it.

Why this matters for groups: the natural workflow is "one person curates the list, everyone copies it and adjusts". We tried exactly that for a three-person trip and ended up re-entering 50 weights per traveller by hand, because every copy arrives empty. The alternative — keeping one shared list — doesn't work either, since every item then counts towards everyone's bag (see 3.).

2. Bag weight limits are not reachable from the UI

@mauriceboe wrote above that bag weight tracking "was already available (weight limits per bag)". The storage and the API are, but there is no way to enter a limit in the interface.

The column exists and updateBag() accepts it via PUT /api/trips/:tripId/packing/bags/:bagId. The bag component already uses it for the fill indicator:

f = e.weight_limit_grams || Math.max(...)

But the only bag-related strings in the client bundle are packing.addBag, packing.bagName, packing.bags and packing.noBag — no label, placeholder or hint for a limit, and no input rendered in the bag editor. Users can only encode it in the name ("Suitcase (20kg)"), which the app cannot act on.

We set ours through the API; the fill bar then works correctly, which suggests this is a missing form field rather than missing functionality.

3. Filed separately

While testing the above we found that items shared through "Shared with…" are added to the recipient's bag total although the owner carries them. That one is a straightforward bug rather than a feature request, so I've opened it as its own issue.

[mauriceboe]

reopen

[mauriceboe]

@singularix-maker's report is accurate, and two of the three points are in #1773.

Copies keep their weight. createItem never accepted weight_grams at all, so cloneItem had nothing to hand on — that's why every copy arrived empty.

The bag needed more thought than the weight. Bags belong to the trip but can be assigned to a person, so inheriting the original's bag would drop your copy into someone else's luggage and inflate their total. A copy now keeps the bag only when nobody owns it, or when you're one of its members. The weight always comes along.

Bag weight limits can be entered now. The column, the contract and the route existed, but there was no field to type a limit into — the only way to record one was to write it into the bag name, where nothing can act on it. Desktop and mobile both take it in kg now and store it in grams.

While adding the field I found the fill-bar formula in three places, and the copy in the bag modal had been written without the limit — so on a window narrower than xl, a limit did nothing at all. Fixed with it.

Deliberately still open:

Templates still lose weight and quantity — packing_template_items really has no columns for them, so it needs a migration and a contract change. Separate PR. @effectpears that's your (i).

Tare weight — the checkbox in the first post ("if a bag weighs 1.5 kg that would be accounted for") was about the weight of the empty bag, which has never existed. A limit isn't the same thing, so that one isn't done. @MartinFerenec

#1767 — the symptom is real, but the fix suggested there would break the shared total: owner_id is stamped on every item including Common ones, so filtering by it would shrink the group total to "only what I entered myself", even on trips with no sharing at all. The honest answer is a per-person total, which is @effectpears' (iii) — better done once, properly.

On (ii), the weight counting unchecked items: that's intended. The number is what your luggage will weigh, so it has to include what you haven't packed yet — otherwise it reads 0 kg exactly when you're planning. A second "packed / total" figure is the thing worth adding.

Closing this one again — the remaining items are tracked separately.