What's new in CLZ Comics? (page 13)

As you all know, we have seen no new comic releases in the past 2 months. Luckily, things are slowly starting up again. At Collectorz.com, we took this opportunity to focus on the older comics in our database, especially the 1970 to 2000 era, where barcode recognition by our Core was still “below par”.

And with today’s CLZ Comics update, you can start enjoying the fruits of our labor!

Better barcode search results for older comics (1970 to 2000 era)

Over 35 thousand extra barcodes are now being recognized.
Add By Barcode feature now correctly handles multiple comics with the same barcode (quite common in this era) and nicely just presents to you all comics that match your searched barcode, even when spread over multiple series.
Improved barcode search engine.

In the screenshot below you can see a barcode that is used in 9 issues spread over 3 series. The Add Screen will now show you all possible results we have for that barcode:

Re-designed search results in Add Comics screen

While we were at it, we also re-designed the search result entries for both title and barcode searches:

Clearer layout of all search result entries.
Issue numbers are now listed in “badges” on the left, separate from series titles and now change color depending on Collection Status.

add by barcode key

And with today’s CLZ Comics update, you can start enjoying the fruits of our labor!

Better barcode search results for older comics (1970 to 2000 era)

Over 35 thousand extra barcodes are now being recognized.
Add By Barcode feature now correctly handles multiple comics with the same barcode (quite common in this era) and nicely just presents to you all comics that match your searched barcode, even when spread over multiple series.
Improved barcode search engine.

In the screenshot below you can see a barcode that is used in 9 issues spread over 3 series. The Add Screen will now show you all possible results we have for that barcode:

Re-designed search results in Add Comics screen

While we were at it, we also re-designed the search result entries for both title and barcode searches:

Clearer layout of all search result entries.
Issue numbers are now listed in “badges” on the left, separate from series titles and now change color depending on Collection Status.

add by barcode key

Better barcode search results for older comics (1970 to 2000 era)

Over 35 thousand extra barcodes are now being recognized.
Add By Barcode feature now correctly handles multiple comics with the same barcode (quite common in this era) and nicely just presents to you all comics that match your searched barcode, even when spread over multiple series.
Improved barcode search engine.

In the screenshot below you can see a barcode that is used in 9 issues spread over 3 series. The Add Screen will now show you all possible results we have for that barcode:

Re-designed search results in Add Comics screen

While we were at it, we also re-designed the search result entries for both title and barcode searches:

Clearer layout of all search result entries.
Issue numbers are now listed in “badges” on the left, separate from series titles and now change color depending on Collection Status.

add by barcode comics key

New in the Cover tab of your Edit screen: built-in Crop and Rotate tools for your cover images!

Super useful for fine-tuning images that you uploaded or found through the Find Online tool. You can even Crop/Rotate images that you received from Core, in which case they will be automatically turned into a custom image.

To use the new Crop/Rotate tools, open your Edit screen go to the Cover tab and click the “Crop/Rotate” icon on the top right above the Front or Back cover image:

Then:

Click the Rotate icon to rotate the image 90 degrees to the right.
Drag the blue crop rectangle to indicate your desired crop area.
Click Apply to apply the changes.

crop editing images key rotate

Adding Creators and Characters as folder options has been on our ideas list for a long time, but it was never implemented because of performance problems.
After all, on large collections, the list of creators or characters can get HUGE.

But during the past few weeks, our mobile team has been working to improve the performance of the folder lists, including the recently introduced folder list search.

Soo… today we can finally introduce the new folder options.
(BTW: the performance improvements we made will also make your Series folders faster!)

New folder options for Creators and Characters

With this update, we introduced 22 (!) new folder options:

Characters
All Creators (group by all creators, regardless of their “role”)
Plus: separate folder options for all 20 creator roles:
like Artist, Colorist, Penciller, Cover Artist, Writer, etc…

IMPORTANT: for correct sorting of Creator folders, you need to use Update from Core on all your comics. Here’s how:

Go to your All Comics list.
Tap and hold on 1 comic to select it, then choose Select All on the top right.
Now tap the menu icon on the bottom left, then choose Update from Core.

Redesigned Select Folder Field screen

Through the years, the number of available folder fields has grown enormously, making the Select Folder Field screen a bit “unwieldy”. And with todays addition of 22 more folder options, we *had to* come up with a better solution.

That is why version 5.5 also includes a re-designed Select Folder Field screen, with all folder options nicely grouped under sensible headers, and the most popular options (Series, Publisher, All Creators and Storage Box) instantly accessible at the top (see screenshot above).

Faster Update from Core

The Update from Core feature has become essential in this update, so that you can retrieve the correct sort names for your Creators from Core and get nicely sorted Creator folder list.

However, on large collections the old Update from Core feature was quite slow, as it updated your comics one by one, that is doing separate requests to our server for each and every comic.

So for this 5.5 update, we also complete rewrote the Update from Core feature to do the updates in batches of 100 comics at a time, making it much much faster!

Enjoy!

characters creators folders key update from core

But during the past few weeks, our mobile team has been working to improve the performance of the folder lists, including the recently introduced folder list search.

Soo… today we can finally introduce the new folder options.
(BTW: the performance improvements we made will also make your Series folders faster!)

New folder options for Creators and Characters

With this update, we introduced 22 (!) new folder options:

Characters
All Creators (group by all creators, regardless of their “role”)
Plus: separate folder options for all 20 creator roles:
like Artist, Colorist, Penciller, Cover Artist, Writer, etc…

IMPORTANT: for correct sorting of Creator folders, you need to use Update from Core on all your comics. Here’s how:

Go to your All Comics list.
Tap and hold on 1 comic to select it, then choose Select All on the top right.
Now tap the menu icon on the bottom right, then choose Update from Core.

Redesigned Select Folder Field screen

Faster Update from Core

The Update from Core feature has become essential in this update, so that you can retrieve the correct sort names for your Creators from Core and get nicely sorted Creator folder list.

However, on large collections the old Update from Core feature was quite slow, as it updated your comics one by one, that is doing separate requests to our server for each and every comic.

So for this 5.5 update, we also complete rewrote the Update from Core feature to do the updates in batches of 100 comics at a time, making it much much faster!

Enjoy!

characters creators folders key update from core

CLZ Core is our central online comic database, that is the database that you search by barcode or by Series in the Add Comics screen. In general, the comic information delivered by Core is quite complete and correct, but you may sometimes run into entries that are quite sparse (e.g. just series, issue number and publisher) or even entries with incorrect data.

As of today, *you* can help us improve that, using the new Submit to Core feature!
Just fill in the correct data in your own entry, then select the comic and choose Submit to Core from the toolbar above the comic details:

Which takes you to a form the core.collectorz.net site, where you can see our Core data on the left and your own data on the right. Now use the green arrow icons to use your data to correct and complete our data. Then finally, click the big green Submit Changes button on the bottom:

Thanks for your help!

core submit

New in Connect today: We have added several keyboard shortcuts to the most commonly used features:

For the Main screen:

Navigate through your items with your arrow keys (works in List, Images, Shelves and Card View!)
Use c + a or c then a for Add from Core
Use c + m or c then m for Add Manually
Use c + h or c then h for Add Hardware from Core (Game Connect)
Use c + j or c then j for Add Hardware Manually (Game Connect)
Use c + e or c then e for Edit Selected Item

For the Edit screen:

Use cmd/ctrl + s to Save and close
Use cmd/ctrl + j to Save and go to Previous item
Use cmd/ctrl + k to Save and go to Next item

keyboard shortcuts

Fixed:

The app could crash when editing certain fields defaults.

field defaults

Fixed

When a comic was edited, empty ‘value’, ‘purchase price’ and ‘cover price’ fields were set to 0.00.

editing values

Fixed:

When downloading new entries from CLZ Cloud, previously cleared fields could get filled in.
In the Add from Core screen, when adding acomic that is already in your app as ‘On Wish List’ or ‘On Order’, the app will now offer to change its status to ‘In Collection’.
On devices with intermittent internet connection, app could revert to trial mode
After down-syncing updated cover images, the list could still show old cover.
Improved error messages in case of core search problems.

adding syncing

Fixed:

The app could crash when editing certain fields.

editing

Fixed:

Downsync from CLZ Cloud, comics without series were not added.
Downsync from CLZ Cloud: cleared fields could get filled in.
Edit screen: Multi-value fields are now saved in the order they are picked.
Add from Core did not display subscription related errors.
Add from Core now suggests move to collection for WishList entries.
When scanning barcodes, the beeping sound was broken.
Field Defaults: ‘Storage Box’ was still called ‘Location’.

adding barcode scanner clz cloud editing field defaults

Previously, the “Add to …” button in the Add screen let you choose between “Add to Collection” or “Add to Wishlist”. But as of today, you can now choose from ALL possible Collection Status option directly. For instance, this lets you add an item as “On Order” straight from the Add screen!

Now, the possible choices are:

In Collection
For Sale
Wish List
On Order
Not In Collection

adding collection status key

A big update for Comic Connect again, in which we introduce many new settings for further customizing your software to your own liking.
And while we were at it, we updated the Settings screen with clearer grouping and naming of settings.

Here’s what’s new:

Date Format

Choose how date formats are displayed throughout Connect.

Timezone

Choose your own timezone and all Date Added and Date Modified fields will be displayed according to that timezone. (previously these all showed in UTC time)

BTW: also new today: new column options Date/Time Added and Date/Time Modified, for showing the full added and modified timestamps.

Sorting

Two new options that control the sorting by Series and how Series are displayed:

When sorting, ignore sort names for Series and Signees: check this if you prefer to ignore all sort names when sorting and just have the software sort on the display name.
When displaying, show sort names for Series and Signees: showing the actual sort names that it sorts on can make your list a bit “easier on the eye”.

customization key settings timezone

Fixed:

Issues could end up in another series after syncing.
Crash when syncing a removed comic without an issue title.

sync

A very nice cosmetic update for your Connect software today: a new “Shelves View”!

Shelves View is a fourth view for your comic list, similar to Cover View, but with your cover images standing on a nice shelves background. You can even choose between 6 different shelf styles using the Shelf Style selector:

Wood Light
Wood Dark
Glass
Metal
Carbon
White

Also new, for both Shelves View and Images View, as “Size Slider” to control the size of the images.

Toolbar tweaks

Because of the introduction of the new view, the Shelf Style selector and the Size Slider, we have also made several changes to the various Connect toolbars:

A new “View” toolbar right above the list, with 4 buttons for switching between the 4 views (List, Card, Cover and Shelves), the Size Slider and the Style Selector (for Shelves) and finally the Sort Order button (on the far right).
The new “View” toolbar replaces the “Filter” toolbar that was in that spot.
The “Filter” toolbar now only appears when a filter is actually active, and now has a pale yellow background to make it super-clear that you are looking at a filtered list.
The number of comics indicator has been moved (back) to the center of the top toolbar.

key shelf shelves

Faster CLZ Cloud syncing!

We have made several structural changes to the CLZ Cloud syncing, making it much much faster than before, especially when syncing large amounts of entries up to the CLZ Cloud or down from the CLZ Cloud.

To enjoy the faster syncing, you need to use the actual Sync with CLZ Cloud screen.

(The Auto-Syncing in the background is also slightly faster now, but if you need to sync many entries up or down, please use the Sync with CLZ Cloud screen.)

New design for Sync with CLZ Cloud screen

While we were at it, we decided to do a quick make-over for the Sync screen, with a new look and layout and a direct link to your CLZ Cloud page online.

Fixed:

Made the touch area for scrollbars a bit bigger (useful for quick scrolling)

clz cloud key syncing

Faster CLZ Cloud syncing!

New design for Sync with CLZ Cloud screen

While we were at it, we decided to do a quick make-over for the Sync screen, with a new look and layout and a direct link to your CLZ Cloud page online.

clz cloud key syncing

It’s been a bit quiet with Connect updates in the past 2 months, as we have been preparing a *huge* update. BUT it is live now!

All settings are now saved server-side, in your CLZ Cloud

We have taken the advantage of the Connect web-based software to the next level, by storing all your settings on the server side, your CLZ Cloud (instead of in local browser cookies).
So any computer or device you log in to will automatically have the same folder option selected, the same columns selected for the list view, the same sort order, the same layout, etc..

Connect now even stores your Add screen’s barcode queue on the server side, so you scan barcode into the queue on one computer and process the queue later, from any other device.

All your existing settings will be automatically transfered to the server, the first time you login.

BTW: this change finally resolves the problem of losing all settings for users who have their browser configured to remove all cookies on exit.

Create your own Favorites for Columns and Sort Orders

While we were working on the settings, we figured this was a good time to add some more customizability to the Columns and Sort Order features. You can now create and save your own Column and Sort Order settings as Favorites, then easily switch between them.

To create and manage your Favorites, click the Column or Sort Order button and choose Manage Favorites:

Manage Column Favorites:

Manage Sorting Favorites:

columns cookies favorites key settings sort order

In general, our CLZ Core online comic database gives you excellent results on your barcode searches. However, it can always happen that you scan a comic’s barcode and it comes up as “unrecognized”, meaning that the barcode is not listed in our CLZ Core yet.

In today’s update, we have added a new “Unrecognized Barcode” screen, that serves two purposes. It lets you:

Easily add the comic to your database anyway
Report the barcode as missing, so that we can add it to our Core ASAP

Just fill in the following fields:

Series
Issue No and Variant
Variant Description
Cover Year and Month

and hit Add to Collection at the bottom.

BTW: please make sure that you scanned the FULL barcode before reporting it as missing!

Let’s work together to get all comic barcodes added to the CLZ Core!

Barcode search now supports multiple results

For older comics (1970 to 1990 era), publishers sometimes re-used barcodes on different issues in the same series. The CLZ Comics app has never supported that situation well, it would just returned ONE of those issue.

However, with more and more barcodes for older comics now being added, we have updated the barcode search engine to fully support this situation. When searching for a barcode that was used for multiple issues, the app will now give you all matching results, for you to choose from.

barcode key search unrecognized

Easily add and report comics with “unrecognized barcodes”

In today’s update, we have added a new “Unrecognized Barcode” screen, that serves two purposes. It lets you:

Easily add the comic to your database anyway
Report the barcode as missing, so that we can add it to our Core ASAP

Just fill in the following fields:

Series
Issue No and Variant
Variant Description
Cover Year and Month

and hit Add to Collection at the bottom.

BTW: please make sure that you scanned the FULL barcode before reporting it as missing!

Let’s work together to get all comic barcodes added to the CLZ Core!

Barcode search now supports multiple results

barcode key search unrecognized

Easily add and report comics with “unrecognized barcodes”

In today’s update, we have added a new “Unrecognized Barcode” screen, that serves two purposes. It lets you:

Easily add the comic to your database anyway
Report the barcode as missing, so that we can add it to our Core ASAP

Just fill in the following fields:

Series
Issue No and Variant
Variant Description
Cover Year and Month

and hit Add to Collection at the bottom.

BTW: please make sure that you scanned the FULL barcode before reporting it as missing!

Let’s work together to get all comic barcodes added to the CLZ Core!

Barcode search now supports multiple results

barcode key search unrecognized

Here’s a handy tool that will save you a lot of time when adding new comics to your database: the Quick Fill popup!

In the Add Comics screen, when clicking the Add to Collection button, the new Quick Fill screen will popup, and lets you set some fields for the comics you are about to add. This way, you don’t have to go back later and use the Edit screen to set these!

The following fields can be set:

Collection Status
Quantity
Purchase Store
Purchase Price
Purchase Date
Grade
Storage Box

The popup will show and work for all different add methods (Series, Barcode, Pull List) and will work for single and multi-adds alike!

Switching the Quick Fill popup ON or OFF

Don’t like the popup? Then just uncheck the “Always show..” checkbox at the bottom. Switch it ON again through the menu > Settings > “Show Quick Fill popup when adding comics”.

adding key

Re-introduced the Images View for Series lists (which can now also searched and sorted!)

images view search sorting

Recent changes