What's new in CLZ Comics? (page 10)
Here’s my second “v9 feature hilite” email, about the next big feature of last week’s CLZ Comics v9 release.
(tip: if you missed feature hilite #1, you can read it here)
Today, we are going to discuss the new collections tab-bar.
It’s New Comic Book Day! 480 new variants this week, for a total of 214 actual new issues.
All these new comic books are now available in the CLZ Core database, complete with cover art, variant descriptions, creator info, etc… Just open the Add Comics screen and use the Pull List tab to browse the new releases.
What’s New:
- New “Delete CLZ Account” option in Settings
Last week, we released version 9.0 of the CLZ Comics mobile app, our biggest update ever! So big in fact, that you may not even have checked out all the new features.
To help you get started with all new stuff, I am going to do three “v9 feature hilite” emails, each one highlighting one of the three big features of this update.
Today, we’re gonna take a look at the CovrPrice related improvements, for getting comic values in your CLZ App.
New:
- Updated Values report now also has the CovrPrice Content bar with latest blogposts from the CovrPrice website
Fixed:
- Value totals were missing in card view and cover view
New:
- Updated Values report now also has the CovrPrice Content bar with latest blogposts from the CovrPrice website
- Tablet: Value Lookup screen now has a full width CovrPrice Content bar
Fixed:
- Value Lookup screen: panel sizes weren’t remembered between sessions
It is live, a major v9.0 upgrade for our CLZ Comics app. Looking at our history of app updates, I can safely say that this is our biggest update ever! Lots of new features and improvements, all in one go.
There is something for everyone: a big new tool for CovrPrice subscribers, new features for users with multiple collections and finally, something that all users will love and use every day: two new ways to quickly find a specific issue in your app.
Here’s what new in v9:
- New comic value features for CovrPrice subscribers:
- New Check Value screen: look up a CovrPrice value for a comic, without having to add it to your app!
- Value totals at the top of each issue list: see values per Series, or per Storage Box, per Publisher, etc…
- New features for users with multiple collections:
- Collection tabs: easily switch between collections using tabs at the bottom of the screen
- Improved Manage Collections screen
- Two new tools for quickly finding a specific issue:
- Issue Search: use the search box top right to search for a specific issue, e.g. “amazing 362”
- Jump to Issue button (aka, the “sniper” button”): tap, enter issue number, bam you’re there.
- Other:
- Improved main app menu (no more collection entries)
- Maintenance menu: new “Remove all unused pick list entries”
It’s New Comic Book Day! 510 new variants this week, for a total of 210 actual new issues.
All these new comic books are now available in the CLZ Core database, complete with cover art, variant descriptions, creator info, etc… Just open the Add Comics screen and use the Pull List tab to browse the new releases.
Join CLZ Comics on Facebook or Discord
Our “CLZ Comics” group on Facebook (over 22,000 members) and our new Discord server (169 members already!) are great communities for talking about the CLZ Comics app, about the Core online comic database or about comics in general.
Click here to join:
There we go again, our busiest day of the week: New Comic Book Day. 515 new variants this week, for a total of 247 actual new issues.
All these new comic books are now available in the CLZ Core database, complete with cover art, variant descriptions, creator info, etc… Just open the Add Comics screen and use the Pull List tab to browse the new releases.
NEW: CLZ Comics is now on Discord!
Our “CLZ Comics” group on Facebook is a huge success (over 22,000 members now) and a great place to talk about the app or about comics in general.
But of course, not everyone is on Facebook… So today we have started a CLZ Comics server on Discord!
»» Click here to join us on Discord! ««
Here’s the latest results from our endeavour to improve the UI/UX of all Connect features and screens. Today, we made further improvements to both the “Manage Collections” tools and the new Edit Multiple tool.
It’s Wednesday, so… new comic books! Today brings us 470 new releases, counting all variants (224 actual new issues).
All these new comic books are now available in the CLZ Core database, complete with cover art, variant descriptions, creator info, etc… Just open the Add Comics screen and use the Pull List tab to browse the new releases.
TIP: join our “CLZ Comics” group on Facebook
(21,800 members!)
The “CLZ Comics” group on Facebook is THE best place to ask questions about the CLZ Comics app and the Comic Connect web-based software. You will get quick answers from other users OR from the CLZ crew.
To find the group, just do a Facebook search for “CLZ Comics” or use this direct link. After visiting the group page, click the “Join” button to join.
It’s our busiest day of the week again, the day our content team is preparing all of this week’s new comic book releases. Today’s NCBD we added 473 new releases for you (230 unique new issues).
TIP: use the Pull List feature to discover all this week’s new releases
- tap the + icon on the bottom right to open the Add Comics screen
- go to the Pull List tab (top right)
- within the Pull List tab, set the week selector (top left) to “This week”
- and go to the sub-tab called “Discover”
This will give you all NCDB releases, grouped by series. Or, tap the “All Releases” entry at the top to scroll them all in one big list!
Fixed:
- Problematic scroll behaviour in Add Comics screen, Series tab.
Changed:
- For new users: no more Demo Mode
Fixed on iOS:
- Edit screen: Picking something from a pick list: The search could mess up your choice
- The sync button could show on details view
- Custom Label foldering was broken
Yes another nice update for CLZ Comics app, version 8.10 already (time to start thinking about calling it version 9!).
In this update:
- Add Comics / Series : better “In Collection” indicators when using Hide Variants mode
- Two improvements to the Search box in main screen
- Lots of fixes for big and small problems that were reported by users
A relatively “slow” New Comic Book Day, with “only” 432 new releases (175 unique new issues).
All 432 new releases can now be found and added through the Add Comics screen, by series, by issue or by barcode. Alternatively, use the Pull List tab to browse all of this week’s releases in one list, and just add from there.
Add Comics : better “In Collection” indicators when using Hide Variants mode
Here’s one brought to our attention by one member in the CLZ Comics group (our friend Xander Frydek):
In the Series tab of the Add Comics screen, I like having my issue list in “Hide Variants” mode. But the problem is, then I cannot see if I already own a variant different from the A variant.
In other words: It only highlights the issue #7 number in blue if I actually own #7A, but NOT if I own #7F for instance.
In this case, can you maybe highlight the issue number in a different way, to indicate you do own that issue?
The Edit Multiple feature is an efficient tool for making changes to multiple (or all) of your database entries in one go. It has been part of the Connect web-based software for many years (since May 2015!). For the CLZ mobile apps, this “batch editing” ability was introduced much later, in July 2020.
However, when we did that, we were forced to completely re-design the feature’s user interface, to make it work well on the small phone screen. And a strange thing happened: the UI/UX we ended up with, turned out be much better than the original Edit Multiple design of the Connect web-based software and the Collector desktop software 🙂
So today, we are bringing that new Edit Multiple setup to the Connect web-based software!
This update is all about the Pre-fill screen, you know, the screen that appears when adding items and lets you pre-fill fields while adding, like Location (= Storage Box for comics), Owner, Purchase Date/Store/Price, etc…
This Pre-fill screen was introduced in Dec 2020, with a fixed set of fields. Then a year later, in March 2022, it was made completely user configurable, so that *you* could choose which fields appeared on the screen.
This screen turned out to be a popular tool, but we’ve seen one problem with it:
Sometimes, users pre-fill a field for a specific movie (e.g. Purchase Price or Quantity), then forget to CLEAR it for the next items they add. Causing lots of items to be added with that same field set incorrectly.
So today, we are making another tweak to the Pre-fill screen:
It is getting crazier and crazier: 677 new releases on this week’s New Comic Book Day!
Without counting variants, there are 290 unique new issues.
The CLZ content team has been working hard the past few days to make them all available in the CLZ Core, with cover images, variant descriptions and cover artist info. Enjoy!
A small but useful update for your Comic Connect software:
- Filter your series folder panel by Completed status
This was already available in the CLZ Comics mobile app, but it now possible in the Comic Connect software too.
Just tap the checklist icon at the top and choose “Show completed” to only show all series that have been marked as Completed.
If you have been active in our CLZ Comics group on Facebook, you are probably aware that many questions in the group can be answered with:
“Just use Manage Pick Lists”
Renaming Storage Boxes, Merging duplicate Series, fixing series sort problems, fixing typos in creator names, etc… it is all done in the Manage Pick Lists screen. An important and powerful screen, but… not so easy to find if you don’t know where to look or don’t even know what to look for.
With this update, we are trying to fix all that. We have made the screen much more accessible / discoverable AND we have made several improvements to the MPL screen itself.
We just back got from NYCC (check out some photos here) and are already at the office, completing all of today’s NCDB release in our Core online comic database.
It’s a long list today, with 580 new comics, counting variants. Without counting variants, there are 277 unique new issues.
All of them are now ready for you in Core, with cover images, variant descriptions and cover artist info.
TIP: use the Pull List feature to discover all this week’s new releases
- tap the + icon on the bottom right to open the Add Comics screen
- go to the Pull List tab (top right)
- within the Pull List tab, set the week selector (top left) to “This week”
- and go to the sub-tab called “Discover”
This will give you all NCDB releases, grouped by series. Or, tap the “All Releases” entry at the top to scroll them all in one big list!
This update is all about the Pre-fill screen, you know, the screen that appears when adding items and lets you pre-fill fields while adding, like Raw/Slabbed, Grade, Grading Company, Purchase Date/Store/Price, etc…
This Pre-fill screen was introduced in Jan 2021, with a fixed set of fields. Then a year later, in Jan 2022, it was made completely user configurable, so that *you* could choose which fields appeared on the screen.
This screen turned out to be a popular tool, but we’ve seen one problem with it:
Sometimes, users pre-fill a field for a specific comic (e.g. Purchase Price or Quantity), then forget to CLEAR it for the next comics they add. Causing lots of comics to be added with that same field set incorrectly.
So today, we are making another tweak to the Pre-fill screen:
- The Pre-fill screen now highlights filled fields in orange, so that they stand out more.
- Also, we added a “Clear” button, to quickly clear all Pre-fill fields.
Fixed
- iOS: iPad: Year folders: the wrong year folder could be selected sometimes.
The Link with Core screen is a tool in the CLZ Cloud site and the Connect web-based software that is used to link entries with CLZ Core. E.g. items that you added manually, or items that you imported. The Link with Core tool is mostly used by users coming from other software and are switching to CLZ.
Today’s update is a “behind the scenes” update, to make the Link screen faster and to improve search results.
Improved
- The search now uses our elastic search engine, giving you better and more meaningful results for your unlinked items.
- Better uses of indexes and the elastic engine makes everything much faster too!
On top of that, we’ve improved the search results in the Link with Core screens for some Connect flavours specifically:
- Comic: Now takes series popularity into account.
- Movie: Now now also digs into our vast library of “alternative” and foreign titles for movies to obtain a result that matches your movie.
- Music: Now also uses Discogs for finding results.
What is Linking with Core?
Connect is built around our central online database: Core. All factual data and cover images are used and shown directly from Core. If you have been using the Add screen to catalog your items, then most, if not all of your items will already be linked to Core.
If you’ve added some items “manually” or if you’ve imported a list from CSV (or from somewhere else), there will not be a lot of data in them.
To automagically fill in data for your items, the items need to be linked with Core. If you have unlinked items, you can link them to Core using the Link with Core screen which is found in the menu top left!