What's new in Game Collector? (page 3)

We received reports that the Find Cover screen was giving quite a few “image could not be loaded” errors lately, and we’ve found an issue in the program that caused this. We’ve fixed this and you should be able to load almost any image you find now.

We also changed some background code in the Add, Edit and Main screens to make the program more stable.

Improved:

• Find Cover screen: now allows more images to be shown and downloaded

Fixed:

• Stability: We fixed a couple of Access Violation errors that could pop up
• Add screen: Fixed a false “Barcode already in queue” error
• Add screen: “Change Cover” could break the preview panel
• Edit Screen: Year dropdown for dates would scroll all the way to the top, now uses current year
• Edit Screen: Date Pickers would sometimes not be able to pick today’s date if next/previous was used
• Edit Screen: User Defined Fields: Date Picker button was in the wrong place
• Sync with CLZ Cloud: Fixed syncing issues if the currency of Windows was set to something with a period (such as “kr.”)

A BIG update for your Game Collector software today, with an important change:

Secure HTTPS connections, for your security and privacy

As indicated in our GDPR email from a couple of weeks ago, we are updating our software and services, to be more secure and to better protect your privacy.

Starting with version 18.3, Game Collector now uses secure HTTPS connections for all communications with our servers:

• for logging in with your username and password
• for syncing your data with CLZ Cloud
• for sending your searches to Core.

To make this possible, we have created new secure “entry points” on our servers, that are only allowing secure HTTPS connections. The new Game Collector software only communicates with those secure entry points.

For your privacy and security, we strongly recommend updating to version 18.3.

We fixed an issue in two panel mode where, on start-up, the items in your database sometimes wouldn’t show up correctly.

Fixes:

• Several Access Violation errors in the main screen.
• List View: Double clicking on checks would make list unresponsive.
• Edit Screen: Using Next/Prev would cause strange effects with checkboxes in main screen.
• Main Screen: The width of the columns wasn’t remembered correctly sometimes.

Game Collector offers powerful batch commands, for performing actions on multiple games in one go, e.g. editing, removing or updating from Core.
However, we are finding that many users have never use these these batch actions, either because they are not aware of their existence or because they don’t know how to actually select multiple games (by Shift or Ctrl-clicking).

In today’s update we addressed these issues:

New Selection Checkboxes in the List View, for easy selection of multiple games

The List View now features checkboxes on the left. Use the checkboxes to easily select multiple games, no Shift or Ctrl-clicking needed. Of course the classic Shift/Ctrl-clicking still works too, this is just an extra method.

Don’t need the checkboxes? You can hide them using Tools / Options / Customization.

A new Action Bar with batch actions

As soon as multiple games are selected (that is, more than 1), a new Action Bar appears above the list. It shows how many are selected, plus offers buttons for the most popular batch actions.

Also new: Action Bar above Details Panel

At the same time, we also added a new Action Bar above the details panel, for quick access to commands operating on the selected game.

TIP: The commands in this new Action Bar have been removed from the main toolbar, to make that one a bit cleaner. However, if you are upgrading from an older version, it will remember your toolbar. To get the new clean main toolbar, choose View / Toolbars / Reset.

Don’t need or want this new bar? You can hide it using Tools / Options / Customization.

With super hi-res 4K (or even 5K) screens becoming quite common, more and more people are running Windows with the Font Size (DPI scaling) set to 125% or 150%, to keep text readable. So earlier this year, we released maintenance builds for all Windows editions to fix various layout problems when running Windows with “large fonts”.

Today, with version 18.1 we’re taking the next step: Game Collector is now fully “DPI Aware”. Starting with this version, if you have increased your font size in Windows, all screen texts will look sharper, less fuzzy, making full use of your hi-res screen.

To give you an idea, here are 2 close-up screenshots of what it looked like in the old version versus the new version:

Old version:

New version:

New collection status icons

We added new collection status icons to the main screen’s list view and card view to make the screen less clogged up and easier on the eye.

Fixed:

• Edit Game:
  • Index field didn’t have localized or custom caption
  • Clicking next or previous could create a second + button in the User Defined Fields tab
• Templates:
  • Fixed an issue where the template could become “white” if arrow keys were used on the keyboard.
  • Clicking an image would show a drag/drop menu. The image now opens properly.
• Quick Search: Fixed normalization for quick searches so words with umlauts/accents etc. are now easier to be found.
• Fixed a problem with folder paths for users that have their Documents folder rooted to an external drive (program wouldn’t install properly).
• Link Screen could show “Link Selected” button even if there were no matches.
• Manage Column presets:
  • Clicking in certain parts of the screen could cause Access Violations.
  • Clicking the Edit menu could break the focus in the screen.
• Light Skin: Better visibility for selected items in your lists.
• User Defined Fields: It was possible to create invisible User Defined Fields which would then never show up in the edit screen.
• Add Screen: Scrollbar position wouldn’t update sometimes.

Fixed:

• Main Screen:
  • using CTRL to deselect items would not update the selected counter at the left bottom
  • showing/hiding the quick filter panel would expose the details view when it was closed
  • when the details view image popup was scrolled down, opening it again would scroll down again
  • quick search suggestions: selecting a suggestion would not clear the previous quick search
  • selecting the window’s “restore” option when running full screen could hang the program in some cases
  • refresh of the statistics view could fall back to the currently active folder instead of selected statistics field
• User Defined Fields: fields with an ampersand (‘&’) in their name weren’t always displayed correctly throughout the program
• Edit Game: clicking OK while uploading cover would cause a crash. Buttons are disabled now during upload.
• Clicking OK/Next/Previous in an edit pick list item screen without editing its details would trigger unnecessary cloud changes
• Using “search” in some file open dialogs for images wouldn’t find .png files
• Syncing with CLZ Cloud: locally inserted items would update empty fields with Core fields after syncing

In this maintenance build, we fixed a long-standing problem:
On Windows systems with the DPI or Font Size set to 125% or 150%, many screens had strange font size and layout problems, particularly visible in the Edit Game and Edit Hardware screen, but also affecting other screens.

This has been a particularly tricky problem to fix, but Ronald and AJ jumped into the magical world of Windows display settings and, after a week of cursing and yelling, they have finally been able to fix it. Phew… peace and quiet again.

Various tweaks and fixes, based on your v18 feedback:

Tweaks to the Edit screen:

• Developer/Publisher lists: right click to directly access that specific Manage List screen.

Fixes:

• Edit Multiple: boolean fields would be reset to “No”.
• Add from Core: Stopping a running search could cause an Access Violation.
• Main Screen: Selected filter wasn’t restored on starting the program.
• Select Column/Sort/Folder fields: adding/removing a field after changing the order of the fields, would reset that order again.
• Various stability improvements.

Fixed

• Pick Item Screens: when using the quick search the list wasn’t always sorted correctly
• Manage Pick List:
  • When using the quick search the list wasn’t always sorted correctly
  • “auto resort” check box didn’t work
• Reassign Index fields sort fields were stored as “reassignindex” as sort fields preset
• Manage Presets: removing all presets would cause an Access Violation after closing the screen
• Edit Game: navigating Links using ALT+N or ALT+P would navigate the games instead

New:

• Pick Item Screens: adding a new item will now use the quick search string to pre-fill the name field

Fixed:

• Edit Screen: ALT+N/ALT+P for Next/Previous played a Windows sound
• Edit Screen: Adding a new item to a list sometimes displayed a popup that was too small
• Reassign Index Fields: Saving your selected fields wasn’t possible sometimes
• Export/Print field selection menus were missing “Manage Presets…” caption
• Clean Templates: Several layout improvements

NEW: Fully Automatic CLZ Cloud Syncing!

The free CLZ Cloud service is at the center of all our cataloging solutions (desktop, mobile and web), the glue that binds them all together.
Tens of thousands of users are using the CLZ Cloud syncing every day, to transfer data between their desktop, Connect and mobile software, to update their online collection list, or simply for keeping an online backup of their precious database.

Now, it is time to take the CLZ Cloud to the next level, with automatic syncing:
Add or edit games in Game Collector and these changes will auto-upload to the CLZ Cloud instantly. Did you make changes using CLZ Games or directly in Game Connect? Just start your software and changes will download automatically.
No more need to go to the Sync with CLZ Cloud screen, ever.

With “Sync Automatically” switched on…

1. Your online cloud backup is always up-to-date.
2. Your cloud viewer always shows the current state of your collection.
3. All your CLZ tools (desktop, mobile and Connect) will always be in-sync.

Automatic Cloud Syncing is an optional feature, switched OFF by default. If you don’t want to auto-sync, or don’t want to sync with the CLZ Cloud at all, just leave it switched OFF.

Revamped Edit Game screen

A huge refresh of the Edit Game screen, bringing the look and feel more in line with the recent Add Games from Core screen.

• Button bar is now at the bottom of the screen
  With OK button high-lighted in blue, nice Next/Prev arrow buttons, etc…

• Clearer blue + buttons for checkbox list fields (like Genres)
• Same blue + buttons for dropdown fields (like Platform and Format)
• Revamped Edit screen for pick list items
  Button bar at the bottom with blue OK button, smaller generate buttons, etc..

But it’s not all just cosmetic changes:

Improved interface for adding Publishers and Developers

The new interface helps you make better use of your existing publisher and developer pick lists:

• Drag the icon in the first column to change the order.
• Click the “x” in the last column to remove entries.
• Right-click to Modify the name and sort name of a company in the list.

Fixed:

• Add Games from CLZ Core:
  • Failed search would remain in barcode queue but would not be visible in the list
  • Expanding a result would sometimes scroll to a different part of the list

Fixed

• Add Games from CLZ Core: Access Violation when adding several games by barcode

Fixed:

• Add Games from CLZ Core:
  • (un)checking an item in a selection would not (un)check all those items

New:

• Add Games from CLZ Core: the 4 “Add by” tabs now have icons.

Fixed:

• Edit Game/Hardware: Screenshot & Links: adding “image files” as local links would add them as “screen shot” instead.
• Main Screen: Quick filter panel option “keep active” wasn’t applied directly after restarting software.
• Edit Game: Links tab: When editing a local link, the “previous” button didn’t work.

Fixed:

• Add Games from CLZ Core: program could crash when updating platform list.

• Add Games from Core: Search Results list is now loading/refreshing faster, especially for long lists.
• New option for CLZ Barry: Auto-Connect. When enabled, the built-in Buddy for Barry automatically connects to the server when you start the program or open the Add screen.
• The Expire Date of your Update Plan is now always visible in the lower right bottom of the main screen.
• Image open dialogs could crash the program when used a lot and browsing through thousands of images

Big changes today! The Add Games Automatically screen has been completely re-designed, to make it both easier-to-use and easier-on-the-eye (and it’s now called “Add Games from CLZ Core”):

• A simple two-panel design: Search Results on the left, Preview on the right.
• The Search Results now show cover images for every game.
• Automatic Preview of selected result (no more double clicking).

See it in action:

Here’s the full list of improvements:

Read more

Fixed:

• Edit Screen: clicking “Update” would cause an Access Violation

Fixed:

• Edit Screen: switching tabs could throw a “Cannot focus a disabled or invisible window” error when the screen was still loading.
• Edit Screen: clicking “Update” could throw a “hotkey not registered” error.

New:

• Links to renew your update plan will now automatically log you into your account on the website.
• Check for Updates: now has a link to the “What’s New” blog on our website.
• My CLZ Account popup: now has a link to the “What’s New” blog on our website.

Fixed:

• Edit Game: using ALT+N or ALT+P to navigate to Next or Previous Game could throw a “Cannot focus a disabled or invisible window” error.
• “Completed” field didn’t properly sync down from CLZ Cloud.
• Updating games or Pricecharting values will clear them for unlinked games.

For Game Collector, the v17.1 update has turned out to be a bigger update then the v16 to v17 update 🙂
Because for v17.1 we have added several game-specific fields and features, especially targeted at the serious video game collector:

New “Completeness” field: Loose vs CIB vs New

This is for the real video game collectors, especially those that are into collecting retro games:

• Added: a new “Completeness” field, to indicate how complete your copy of a game is. Choose from:
  • Loose, meaning “cartridge or disc only”.
  • CIB, meaning “Complete In Box”, everything included.
  • New, meaning CIB and also still sealed.
• Two extra checkbox fields “Manual” and “Box”.
  
  To further specify the “Loose” status. You know, for those cartridges with just a manual, no box. Or in a box, but with the manual missing.

Read more

We’ve expanded the quick search box to now also allow “search-as-you-type” with suggestions for pick list fields.

How does it work?

In the quick search box top right of your screen you should see a “dropdown” button. Use this to select which field you wish to perform a search on. If “search-as-you-type” is available for that field, it will instantly work once you start typing in the box.

Example

You can now select the field “Edition” in the quick search box, start typing some edition information like “special”, and instantly see suggestions (based on what you typed) of editions you have in your database. Click on an edition entry to see all games you have in that edition.

Fixes in this version

We also fixed some issues with the program in this version:

• Images Popup:
  • “size window to picture” showed image slightly smaller
  • .tiff images were not showing

New:

• Images popup now also supports “Size Picture to Window without stretching” option
• Quick search: suggestions now also are shown when searching on “Title” field

Fixed:

• Main Screen:
• Quick Search: applying a filter could cause unexpected behaviour
• Images Popup:
  • the status bar wasn’t always showing the right image path when opening
  • .bmp images were not showing
  • only screen shots were showing from the local images
• CueCat scanner wasn’t working properly any more