What's new in CLZ Comics? (page 10)
Whilst we make daily backups for you on our own servers, you can now create your own backup of your Connect database and download it to your computer!
If you ever make a big mistake and lose valuable data, you can upload a previously downloaded backup file and restore it to your current database.
Import any Text or .CSV file into your collection
You can now import any text file (.txt) or comma separated value file (.csv) into your collection on Connect using the new import page in your Connect account.
With this new import tool you are able to quickly import a list of comics from for instance an existing collection you may have in a spreadsheet or different software. All you have to do is export those comics from your other software to a text or CSV file and follow the steps on the new Import page in your Connect account.
New:
- New Folder options: format, store, age, color, country, crossover, edition, genre, language, story arc.
- Edit screen is now split into two tabs (Main / Personal).
- After editing/removing a comic, the app now remembers the list’s scroll position.
Fixed:
- After editing a comic, the changed values were not immediately visible in the list.
- Alphabet sections in list were broken after “X”.
- Adding by Barcode: barcodes can now be entered with voice dictation.
- Crash in the in-app-purchase screen.
- ‘Show all’ folder item was missing in empty folders on tablet devices.
If you are adding most of your comics “By Title”, then this will be a huge time-saver.
Here’s how the new “Search-As-You-Type” feature works:
- In the Add Comics Automatically screen, just start typing the first letters of the series title you want to add issues for.
- While typing, a drop-down list will appear, instantly showing the five most popular series that match, including the date range, the number of issues contained and a small thumbnail image.
- For popular series, it usually takes only 2 or 3 letters before it shows up. For older or less popular series, type a few more letters.
- Once you see your series appear, use the arrow keys to select it, then hit Enter.
- Then under Search Results, that exact series will be listed, with its’ issue list.
Important: this is an *extra* tool, that makes it easier and faster to add popular series.
Just hit Enter or choose “Show all results for “..” to see the full search results.
Searching your comic collection in Comic Connect or the CLZ Cloud viewer is now much faster.
However, to achieve this performance improvement, we have had to limit the searching to:
- Series Name
- Title
- Barcode
Previously the search feature also searched creator and character names, but this turned out to cause server performance problems when searching large databases. That is, with the search engine we are now using.
We are currently working on the implementation of a different, much faster search engine, which may enable creator/character searching again in the future.
A huge v4.3 update for your CLZ Comics mobile app is now available.
In this update, we complete re-designed the Add Comics screen, to make it clearer, easier-to-user and to help you add comics more efficiently.
What’s new in the Add Comics screen?
- Switch between By Title and By Barcode using tabs at the top
(Add Manually is now a separate screen, under Tools menu) - All panels are now resizable (list, details, camera)
- Add button is now at bottom right (blue circle with “+” icon)
- Adding By Title:
- Suggestions appear in a drop-down while you type a title
- Adding By Barcode:
- Camera scanner is now integrated in Add screen, not a separate screen
- Tap the keyboard icon in the camera panel to enter a barcode manually
- Delete barcodes from queue by swiping from right to left
- Barcode queue is now remembered between sessions
Do you already have a list of your movies, books, cds, comics or games? E.g. entered in a spread-sheet program, or created using a different cataloging tool, then exported to CSV?
Cool, you can now easily get that list into your Collectorz.com program (desktop, mobile or Connect). Just use our new flexible import tool to import your existing list into the CLZ Cloud. This will make your list instantly available in Connect. Or sync to the mobile app or desktop software using the CLZ Cloud syncing.
As most of you know, at Collectorz.com we take Customer Support very seriously. We’re always here to answer your questions or to help with any problems you may have encountered with our cataloging tools.
To further streamline CLZ Support, Sven, one of our web-developers, has created a new Collectorz.com Help Center, at Help.CLZ.com
New:
- Split edit screen, easily switch between main and personal fields
Fixed:
- App respects the system screen orientation lock
- Background color for the searchbar on certain Lollipop tablet devices
- Long loading in manage pick list screen
Big launch this week, our new Collectorz.com Shop is live at Shop.CLZ.com !
Bernard, Sven, AJ and I (Alwin) have been working on this for quite a while, doing many iterations, to make the new shop super-clear and easy to navigate, even on mobile devices.
This new shop replaces both the shop/buy pages of the collectorz.com website and the shop of the My.CLZ.com website. Both websites now link to the new Shop.CLZ.com.
- New Search engine for adding comics By Title:
- Better and cleaner search results.
- Much faster, almost instant results.
- New layout for the comic lists
We added folder options in this build for a couple of fields we didn’t have them for yet. Should be a pretty complete list by now! Also added a nice “out of sync” mark to let you know when the collection is out of sync.
New:
- Added Folder options for:
- format
- store
- age
- color
- country
- crossover
- edition
- genre
- language
- story arc
- CLZ Cloud Sync button now indicates “out of sync” status using red exclamation mark
- App now automatically restores the Unlock Full App in-app purchase
Fixed:
- Fixed hardware keyboard enter not working in tablet search field
- Fixed quick search suggesting returning a blank screen on a single issue search result
New: “Search-As-You-Type” suggestions when adding comics by title. While enter a title to search for, a drop-down list will appear, showing the five most popular series that match. If you see the series you were looking for, just tap to select it.
Fixed:
- Screen rotation throughout the app
- Improved scrolling smoothness in the series list
- Have/wish lists are back in the series list
New search engine for adding comics By Title:
- Better and cleaner search results.
- Much faster, almost instant results.
New data entry interface for date fields:
- Allows manual entry of year/month/day
- Allow “partial dates”, e.g. just year and month
- Open the calendar tool with the calendar button.
A huge v4.3 update for your CLZ Comics app is now available.
And prepare to be shocked 🙂 (in a good way, don’t worry):
The app looks completely different now, with a cleaner brighter look and an improved user interface.
New:
- New “Material”-based interface, with two skins/themes: Light & Dark.
(The app now starts in the Light skin. If you prefer the Dark look, just use the View menu top right) - Big floating blue “+” button for adding movies.
- Access all other features and tools from “hamburger” menu top left.
- Clear and easy switch between All / In Collection / Wish List at the top.
- Access all other view options from menu on top right.
- Add screen: tabs at the top to switch between By Title and By Barcode modes.
- Add Manually is now a separate menu item in the menu on the left.
- Redesigned book list entries.
- Old Import from Comic Collector has been moved to Settings screen!
“Export to Text”, a feature previously only available to Connect subscribers, has now also been added to the CLZ Cloud viewer.
We figured that exporting to a text file, e.g. a CSV for Excel, should be available to any user, whether they own Connect, the desktop software or a CLZ mobile app.
You can find the Export to Text feature by visiting your own collection in the CLZ Cloud viewer, clicking the little “wrench” icon top right, then selecting Export.
Enjoy!
We have completely rewritten our Core for Comics search engine, that is, the online code that gives you results when you search our Core by Title in your Add screen.
The new search engines will provide better search results that are more “to-the-point” and less “fuzzy”. Also, results will be returned much faster.
Version 4.2 adds a couple of improvements and tools that are essential for users who are doing most of their editing on the mobile apps:
- New “Manage Pick Lists” screen (under new Tools menu).
This new screen lets you take control of your pick lists, that is book Authors, music Artists, comic Series, Publishers, Formats, Genres, Subjects, etc… Use it to:- Fix typos in names.
- Remove unused entries.
- Merge duplicate entries.
- Edit the SortNames for comic Series.
- Edit screen improvements:
- New “value picker” screen for pick list fields, like Authors, Artists, Series, Genres, Subjects, etc… Just tap the field, pick a value from the pick list that appears and done. No more need to type the first few letters of a value (we all hate typing on mobile devices, don’t we?)
- Tap the pencil icons to directly edit names of pick list entries.
- Tap the pencil icon for Artists, Authors and Series to directly edit Names *and* SortNames.
- New “Manage Pick Lists” tool for editing and merging Series, Publishers, Series Groups, etc..
- Edit screen: edit the Sort Names for Series for complete control over correct series sorting.
- Edit screen: Now edit the names of Series, Publishers, etc.. .
- Edit screen: New “value picker” screen for quickly filling fields like Series and Publisher.
- New Tools menu, with Manage Pick Lists, Field Defaults and Empty Database tools.
New:
- Settings / Field Defaults: choose field values that will be set for each new entry automatically.
- Edit screen improvements:
- Improved layout to make it easier on the eye
- New “Select Value” screen for easier entry of pick list fields (e.g. Artist, Format, Genre, etc…)
- Cancel and Done buttons have been moved to the top bar.
- New Delete button at the bottom.
Previously, the Connect free 30-day trial limited trial users to 100 items in their database.
To allow full evaluation of our Connect software during the trial, we have removed this database limit. The free 30-day trial now lets you add, import or sync as many items as you want.
Enjoy!
CLZ Comics is now free to download, with a database limit of 100 comics. Unlock higher database limits using In App Purchases.
If you purchased CLZ Comics before the 4.0 release, then the 4.0 version will be automatically unlocked to an *unlimited* database size. You do NOT need to pay again 🙂
If, for whatever reason, this didn’t work for you, then just CONTACT US and and we’ll unlock it manually, free of charge!
New:
- Easily switch between Add methods (Title/Barcode/Manual).
- Re-designed search results with included cover images.
- Add by Barcode now automatically opens Camera Scan screen.
It’s been a long time in the making, but it’s finally here:
CLZ Comics 4.0 for iOS!
Apart from several improvements to the Add Comic screen (see below), the 4.0 version contains an important change:
CLZ Comics for iOS is now free to download
Starting with version 4.0, CLZ Comics is free to download and starts with a limit of 100 comics.
New:Improved Add Comics screen
- Easily switch between Add methods (Title / Barcode / Manual).
- Re-designed search results with included cover images.
- Now add directly from results using quick-add buttons
(no more need to open the Preview Screen). - New black style for Preview Screen.
- Add by Barcode now automatically opens Camera Scan screen.
- Larger Camera Scan screen on iPad.
For better security, we have now moved both the Cloud and Connect websites to the HTTPS protocol, using so-called Extended Validation SSL certificates.
This SSL connection is indicated by the nice “green bar” in your address bar:
In the past 2 weeks, we have moved all 5 online media databases (movies, books, music, comics and games) to 5 new separate database servers.
This week, CLZ web developers Sven and Dion have further optimized these new servers to give you even better performance from Core, especially for title searches that have many results.
The fruits of their labour are now immediately noticeable in the ADD screens of your Connect software. Enjoy!