News & updates
On this Saturday, let’s go over the CLZ News for November 2025.
This month saw five big releases for the mobile apps, with a surprise addition to the “Add by Barcode” feature. Not something that was directly requested by users, but still, we’re sure that many of you will like the new one-by-one mode!
No other releases this month, as most of the team is working on two larger multi-month projects: New fields for CLZ Books and the Custom Fields for CLZ Web.
I will go over both projects in the Coming Up section below.
The topics today:
- Live for all 5 mobile apps: One-by-one mode for adding by barcode
- CLZ Comics 10.5: Easily open any series in the Series tab
- Coming up for CLZ Books: Several new data fields, inc. Reading History.
- Coming up for CLZ Web and Mobile: create your own Custom Fields!
Live for all 5 mobile apps: One-by-one mode for adding by barcode
Adding items by scanning barcodes is one of the most popular features of the CLZ mobile apps. Just scan barcodes, bleep, bleep, bleep, and the scanned items are added to a “queue”. Then use the Add button at the bottom to add all queued items to your database in one go. Quick and efficient.
However, we felt that there was room for an easier way of adding by barcode. So today we have added a new “One-by-One” mode to the Add by Barcode screen, that is, without a queue.
Here’s how the new “One-by-One” mode works:
- Scan a barcode using a full screen camera screen
- The full items details are shown, with cover art, cast, crew, etc..
- Now tap the Add button to add the item to your database
- And you’re back in the camera screen to scan the next one
Rinse and repeat, clear and easy!
We are confident the new One-by-One mode will become the preferred add method for many users. For new users, it will be more intuitive, easier to understand. But even for existing users, it could be a nicer way to add your weekly purchases, with the advantages of seeing full item details and filling the pre-fill fields separately for each item.
Don’t worry, the regular Queue Mode isn’t going anywhere! You can easily switch between the Queue mode and One-by-One mode using the “Open/Close Queue” button in the bottom right corner of the camera screen.
Here’s some screenshots of the One-by-One barcode scanning:
CLZ Movies 10.2 / CLZ Games 10.2 / CLZ Comics 10.5 / CLZ Music 10.2 / CLZ Books 10.4
CLZ Comics 10.5: Easily open any series in the Series tab
A common request we’ve seen lately:
“After finding an issue in the Add Comics screen (either by cover, by barcode, etc..), can I easily “go to” that series to see all issues?”
That sounds pretty useful, so in this update, we “made it so”: in any issue preview pop-up, the series title is now a tappable link that takes you straight to that series in the Series tab.
So if you find an issue by Barcode, by Cover or by Issue, just “preview” it, tap the series title to instantly see all issues and variants of that title. It even works from any issue preview in the NCBD tab!
A screenshot of the series link can be found here.
Coming up for CLZ Books: Several new data fields, inc. Reading History
This project is nearing completion, that is, for the CLZ Books Web cloud-based software. CLZ AJ is testing, while web developer CLZ Michiel is finalizing the UI and the server side “end-points” for the mobile app.
In this update, we are adding several new data fields that were requested by users through the years:
- Reading history: track multiple reading sessions, with their own Start and End Date, Status (Reading/Finished/Dropped), Progress (134 of 718 pages) and Reader name.
- More book dimension fields: Spine Thickness and Weight, both now automatically delivered from Core for many books.
- Next to Book Condition, a new field for the Dust Cover Condition
- Place of Publication, plus Original Place of Publication.
The CLZ Books Web update should be live before the end of the year. Mobile developers CLZ Pim and CLZ Bernard will soon join the fun, to create a big CLZ Books 10.5 update for the mobile apps, bringing the same new field set.
Coming up for CLZ Web: create your own Custom Fields!
As announced earlier, we are finally bring the “User Defined Fields” (UDF) feature of the legacy desktop software to the modern world of the CLZ Web cloud-based software and the CLZ mobile apps. Of course, taking it to the next level, with more field types, multiple control type choices and a super-easy to use management tool.
At the same, we’ll rename it to “Custom Fields”, as that is how most users seem to be referring to this feature.
So, what will the Custom Fields feature allow you to do? Simply said: it will let you create your own fields, to catalog information for which the software does not have a built-in field.
You will be able to create simple text fields, number fields, yes/no toggles, big text areas (like Notes), even pick list fields and multi-value pick list fields.
All fields you create will appear on a special Custom Fields tab of the Edit screen. Of course, you will be able to use the fields like any built-in fields, use them as columns, sort on them, use custom pick list fields as folders, etc..
The Custom Fields feature is in the final phase for the CLZ Web web-based software. We will release it for Web first, then later on bring the same feature to the CLZ mobile apps, allowing full syncing of Custom Fields between the Web and mobile!
ETA for Web: early 2026. Then for mobile a few months later?
This is going to be THE killer feature for 2026!