What's new in CLZ Books? (page 6)
What’s new in the Add Books screen?
- Single Search Box: Just one box for search (e.g. like Google or Amazon). No more separate Author and Title boxes. Just enter (part of) the author’s name and (part of) the title and you will get the best matching results. (see the screen shot below with “crichton jurassic” results”).
- Search by Publisher and Year: Getting a lot of results? Filter down to the book edition you’re looking for by adding the publisher and/or publication year to your search! (see screen shot below)
Fixed:
- Custom written plots could be overwritten with the default plot when books were updated from the online CLZ Core for Books database.
- The app did not open the details page when a search result was selected in the quick search box while the [All Books] folder was active in phone mode.
Quick Search: Search-As-You-Type suggestions
Instantly find and select a particular book in your local database:
- In the Quick Search box, just start typing the first few letters of the author or title you are looking for.
- While typing, a drop-down list will appear, showing the first five matching books.
(for most books, it only takes 2 or 3 letters before it shows up.) - Once you see the book you were looking for, tap it to bring up its detail page
- TIP: Tap the search button on the keyboard or tap “View All Results” to perform the normal search.
Quick Search now searches more fields
Now also searches in:
- Subtitle
- Series
- LoC Classification
- LoC Control Nr
- Dewey
- Plot
- Tags
- Notes
Full list of fields that are now searched:
- Title
- Author
- ISBN
- Publisher
- Subtitle
- Series
- LoC Classification
- LoC Control Nr
- Dewey
- Plot
- Tags
- Notes
Fixed:
- Faster loading of details screen.
- Crash within a few seconds of opening the app.
- Crash when pressing ‘Change account info’ in the sync screen.
Up until today, the quick search box in Book Connect (and the CLZ Cloud viewer for books) only searched in the Title, Author, ISBN, Year and Tags fields. Pretty limited, but necessary for performance reasons.
However, with the new search engine we created last year, it became possible to search more fields while keeping the search super-fast. So lets use that capability!
From now on, if you use the search box, it will also search in many more fields. The complete lists of fields that are now searched:
- Author
- Title
- ISBN
- Year
- Tags
- Subtitle
- Dewey
- LoC Classification
- LoC Control
- Publisher
- Series
- Notes
- Plot
Example: searching for “langdon” will return all Dan Brown’s “Robert Langdon” books, because the name appears in the plot summary:
Live today in your Book Connect software: a completely re-designed Edit Book screen with an improved look, layout and usability!
New look and layout
We’ve moved some fields around and to have them grouped and placed more logically. You’ll notice that we’ve also updated the look of certain buttons so it’s all easier on the eye, and there’s only one big blue important “OK” button to save your changes.
Updated dropdown and pick list fields
The pick list fields have been updated so they’ll only show options from your own collection instead of all available options in our online database. This makes it a lot faster to quickly pick something from a pick list that you used before!
You can just start typing to filter to the pick list entry you want to use, or open up the dropdown to scroll and pick.
Multi value pick list fields such as the Author field, have a blue plus button to pick an author from your author list. Click it, and either start typing or just pick an author from the list.
New Pick List fields
We’ve updated the following fields from plain text fields to “pick list” fields. This means that those fields now have a dropdown which you can click to quickly pick an existing pick list entry for that field.
The following fields haven been updated from plain text to pick list fields:
- Location
- Condition
- Purchase Store
- Owner
These field now all have a dropdown to pick an entry. You can also type into them to search or create a new entry for that field.
Panel with personal fields on all tabs
At the bottom of the edit screen we added a “sticky” panel that you can see on all edit tabs. This panel contains some of your most important personal fields so you can always edit them quickly.
New Find Cover pop-up
The Find Cover pop-up has been updated to the latest version we introduced in the Add Screen. Check it out:
We’ve just updated Book Connect to introduce an easy way to deal with “Unrecognized ISBNs”.
A new screen that not only helps you to add the book to your database anyway, but also helps your fellow Book Connect users by instantly adding the missing ISBN to the CLZ Core central online book database.
(this feature was introduced for our Windows, Mac, iOS and Android versions earlier, and in the meantime, people have used this new tool to add over 180 thousand new books to our Core!)
- In the Add Books screen, when a scanned or typed ISBN is not recognized, a new “Unrecognized ISBN” screen will appear.
- In this screen, just enter the Author, Title, Publisher and Year (and find a cover if you want) then click Add to Collection.
- This will:
- Add the book to your own database, with the information you filled in.
- Add the book to our Core central online book database.
The result: for the next user who searches for this particular ISBN, it will be recognized 🙂
Quick Search: Search-As-You-Type suggestions
Instantly find and select a particular book in your local database:
- In the Quick Search box, just start typing the first few letters of the author or title you are looking for.
- While typing, a drop-down list will appear, showing the first five matching books.
(for most books, it only takes 2 or 3 letters before it shows up.) - Once you see the book you were looking for, tap it to bring up its detail page
- TIP: Tap the search button on the keyboard or tap “View All Results” to perform the normal search.
Quick Search now searches more fields
Now also searches in:
- Subtitle
- Series
- LoC Classification
- LoC Control Nr
- Dewey
- Plot
- Tags
- Notes
Full list of fields that are now searched:
- Title
- Author
- ISBN
- Publisher
- Subtitle
- Series
- LoC Classification
- LoC Control Nr
- Dewey
- Plot
- Tags
- Notes
A new v4.8.1 update for your app is available now, with:
Automatic CLZ Cloud syncing
Add or edit books and your changes will auto-upload to the CLZ Cloud instantly.
Made changes on the desktop or Connect side? Just start the app and changes will download automatically.
Note: Auto-Syncing is switched OFF by default. Switch it ON in the “Sync with CLZ Cloud” screen.
The CLZ Cloud syncing will let you:
- Sync your data between devices, e.g. between your phone and your tablet. Or from your old phone to your new phone.
- View your database online using the free CLZ Cloud viewer website.
- Make an online backup of your data. Better safe than sorry!
New: ‘None’ folder entries
- Added ‘None’ entries to list of folders: The [None] folder groups the books you have not set the field for on which you’re currently folder grouping.
Fixed:
- Add Screen: by ISBN: Very long book titles could overflow into the author name.
- Search cleared when the X button was pushed in the search bar of the main screen.
We have just updated both the Connect web-application and the free CLZ Cloud viewers to make them a lot faster.
- The folder panel now uses “lazy-loading” which makes it load (a lot) faster.
- When selecting a folder, only the list panel is re-loaded, where previously the entire page was refreshed.
The above changes will make browsing your CLZ Cloud or Connect app a lot snappier and will prevent server performance problems (two birds with one stone!).
The performance improvements are especially noticeable for large book, music and comic collections, as these generally have loooonnnngggg lists of author, artist and series folders.
Our web-team has been working on this for a long time: a new search engine for Author/Title searches in our Core online book database.
And Book Connect is the first to use the new engine, in it’s “Add Books from Core” screen!
(coming soon to the Book Collector desktop software and the CLZ Books mobile app)
What’s new?
- Faster searches: Most Author/Title searches will give you results within a second. UNLESS our Core server decides to consult our “back-end” sources like Google Books, Library of Congress and other national libraries.
- Better search results: The results are now more focussed, less fuzzy, as it will only show books containing ALL your search term words (as opposed to the old search that gave you books that matched ANY or your search term words).
- Single Search Box: Just one box for search (e.g. like Google or Amazon). No more separate Author and Title boxes. Just enter (part of) the author’s name and (part of) the title and you will get the best matching results. (see the screen shot above with “crichton jurassic” results”).
- Search by Publisher and Year: Getting a lot of results? Filter down to the book edition you’re looking for by adding the publisher and/or publication year to your search! (see screen shot below)
Now live in your Book Connect software, a complete re-design of the Add Book screen, with a new look, easier interface and new features.
Adding Books by ISBN
Scanned ISBNs will be automatically added to your queue, with the book information populating instantly. Use the big blue Add to Collection button at the bottom right to add the selected book to your database, OR use the little blue “+” buttons to add straight from the queue.
Adding Books by Author and Title
Search by author and title to see a list of matching book results:
Not the right cover image? Use the built-in Find Cover tool to pick the correct one.
In this “between Christmas and New Year” week, a huge update to the look and feel of our Connect web-based software.
- We removed the tabs at the top that let you switch between the programs, to give you more screen space for the software you are in. (you can still switch using the app-switcher button top right).
- Dark toolbars with white text and buttons everywhere, while keeping your list and details pages light and clear.
- All tools and feature are now accessible from the “hamburger” menu on the top left.
- Your account settings and log out options in a “user menu” on the right.
- TIP: the new look is also available in your free CLZ Cloud viewer!
A new v4.8 update for your app is available now, with:
Automatic CLZ Cloud syncing
Add or edit books and your changes will auto-upload to the CLZ Cloud instantly.
Made changes on the desktop or Connect side? Just start the app and changes will download automatically.
Note: Auto-Syncing is switched OFF by default. Switch it ON in the “Sync with CLZ Cloud” screen.
Don’t have a CLZ Cloud account yet?
If you don’t have a CLZ Cloud account yet, I strongly recommend signup up for one from the app. Using the CLZ Cloud is completely free!
The CLZ Cloud syncing will let you:
- Sync your data between devices, e.g. between your phone and your tablet. Or from your old phone to your new phone.
- View your database online using the free CLZ Cloud viewer website.
- Make an online backup of your data. Better safe than sorry!
In today’s update for the CLZ Books app, we have made further tweaks to the Add Books from CLZ Core screen, to make it clearer than previous versions:
- Slightly smaller font for the book title, so that longer titles fit better.
- Color high-lighting: Books already ‘on wish list’ now have an orange title, books already “in collection” show up with a blue title.
Fixes in this update:
- After changing the sort order the list could sometimes scroll to a random position.
- Small CLZ Cloud Sync tweaks.
- After restarting the app it would sometimes repeatedly scroll to the last added book.
- After manually typing a barcode in the add by barcode screen you weren’t able to search another one.
New
- Optimized layout of main screen on 10.5 and 12.9 inch iPads
- Optimized the performance of the main screen thumbnail view
- Fresh placeholder cover images
Fixed
- Black bars showing on 10.5 and 12.9 inch iPads
- Add screen: ISBN button wasn’t working correctly
- Disappearing floating add button when switching from list to thumbnail view
New:
- Redesigned Selection Mode
- Tap and hold on a book to select it, select as many books as you like (or select all, using the “Select All” top right).
- Then use the blue action button to perform an action on the selected books (Remove / Update from CLZ Core).
Fixed:
- Crash when saving a cover image to the camera roll
- Odd scrolling behavior when scanning book ISBNs in the barcode scanning screen
- Stuck keyboard after searching in main list
- Autocorrect was enabled for the main list search bar
- Small iOS11-related UI glitches
Now live, a new design and layout for the book detail page in both Book Connect and the free CLZ Cloud viewer.
Some highlights of the new look:
- bigger cover image
- backdrop (can be switched off in your settings)
- circular author pictures
- more logical layout and placement of all fields
Screen shot:
All Connect apps: Manage Pick Lists, edit, merge and remove pick list entries.
A Manage Pick Lists screen is now available in Connect!
Finally, you can easily manage your pick lists for Artists, Authors, Series, Genres, Formats, etc… To edit your sort names, merge duplicate entries or remove entries.
The new Manage Pick Lists screen can be found in the Tools menu top right (the wrench icon).
This update converts your database
In order for this update to work, your database has to be converted once. This happens automatically after starting the app for the first time after updating and can take a couple of minutes depending on the size of your database (amount of books) and the speed of your iPhone or iPad. This could take a couple of minutes on slower devices or with very large databases (5000 or more books).
New:
- CLZ Cloud syncing: Added loan fields to the sync.
- Edit Book: Autocorrect now works on the plot and notes fields.
- New folder option: You can now group your books by reading year. To do this, tap the menu button top right, then “Folders”, then tap “Reading Year”.
Coming up:
- A loan manager to loan and return books.
New:
- Added loan fields to the CLZ Cloud sync.
Fixed:
- After tapping the “Not Found?” button to add a book anyway, the app could crash on adding an author.
Coming up:
- A loan manager to loan and return books.
New:
- New fields you can now sort your books on:
- Country
- Format
- Language
- Publisher
New fields for Edit Multiple
We’ve expanded the amount of fields you can edit in the Edit Multiple screen.
Improved interface
We’ve made it more clear how you can clear information from specific fields for all selected items you’re editing. Use the X button to clear a field for all selected items.
Using “Edit Multiple”
Quick reminder how to use Edit Multiple: Click the “Select” button at the top of your Connect page, select a couple of items, and click “Edit” (again, at the top).
Be advised that changes you make here affect all selected items, and can not be reverted once done!
New in Book Connect: Loan/Return books and a Loan Manager feature!
You can now loan books in Book Connect: just find and select a book (or select multiple with the Select tool), and click the “Loan” button at the top!
Loan Manager
Click the wrench icon, top right, and then Loan Manager to access the new Loan Manager where you can see all your loaned out items, and directly return them. Alternatively you can also use CLZ Barry to scan an ISBN of a book, find it in your outstanding loans, and return it.
In the Loan Manager, you can click on a loaned item to modify the loan date, due date, return date, loaner and notes about the loan.
New:
- Loan books by selecting a couple in your list, or by viewing the details of a book, and then click “Loan” at the top.
- Return books straight from the loan manager or by scanning their ISBN barcodes with CLZ Barry.
- Check outstanding loans and loan history in the Loan Manager.
- Edit outstanding or returned loans by clicking on them.
All loan information can also be synced to Book Collector for Windows. We will also be adding the syncing of loan information to CLZ Books for iOS and Android and Book Collector for Mac.
New:
- Added a new “All Books” folder with a back button to go back to your folders
Book Connect and the CLZ Cloud for books have just been improved to better handle the sort names for your authors.
Plus, you can now actually edit your author entries to change the sort name and have more control over how your books are sorted!
Here’s what’s new:
- The cloud storage has been changed to allow each user to have their own sort names for their author entries (previously, author sort names were used from the Core).
- This also means that Author Sort Names now sync better between the desktop and mobile software.
- For Book Connect and CLZ Cloud, it fixes sorting differences between the folder panel and the book list panel.
- In Book Connect, you can edit your author entries (including their sort name) from the Edit Book screen and also straight from their entry in the author folder panel (using the little pencil icon, see screen shot below)
With all the sharing features we’re building we’ve now added a way for you to set a default view for your friends so they can browse your collection the way you want them to.
To set a default view for your friends:
Go to your CLZ Cloud / Connect page, login at the top right and set the columns, sorting and folder view you wish your friends see when they browse your collection.
Once you’re happy with the setup, choose Settings from the “wrench” icon menu top right. Then click the blue button “Set current view as default view” and you’re done! Anyone viewing your collection for the first time will now get the view you’ve just set for them.