What's new in CLZ Games? (page 6)

The ability to select your own Columns for the List View is an important customization feature of Game Connect. The same holds for selecting the Sort Order fields.

However, the “field selection” screens for doing these customizations were a bit outdated and finding a field could be tricky. So we decided to re-imagine the field selection screens to make them easier to understand, easier to use and better to use on mobile devices too.

Redesigned Field Selection screen:

• Available fields are now grouped, like the tabs in the Edit screen.
• Easily find the field you want with the search box top left.
• Use checkboxes on the left to select fields.
• Use the “x” button on the right to remove fields.
• Drag and drop fields on the right side to change the order.
• For sorting: use the ASC/DESC button to change the sort direction of that particular field.
• Works great on both your desktop and mobile browsers!

Select Columns screen:

Select Sort Order screen:

We’ve added new fields to sort on to change the order in which your games are displayed in your list. Your game list will adapt to sort and show the field you’re sorting on. On top of that we’ve redesigned the Select Sort Order screen to make it more clear what you’re choosing.

Open the Select Sort Order screen by tapping the menu top right, then tap “Sort order”.

All available sort fields:

• Platform, then Title (New!)
• Platform, then Release Date (New!)
• Title
• Release Date
• Order of Entry (New!)
• Purchase Date (New!)
• Purchase Price (New!)
• Price Charting Value (New!)
• Current Value (New!)
• Completion Date (New!)
• My Rating (New!)
• Quantity (New!)
• Index
• Storage Device (New!)

All fields can be sorted either ascending or descending. Tap the field you wish to sort on, then tap “Apply” to confirm.

We’ve just updated Game Connect to introduce an easy way to deal with “Unrecognized barcodes”.
A new screen that not only helps you to add the game to your database anyway, but also helps your fellow Game Connect users by instantly adding the missing barcode to the CLZ Core central online game database.

(this feature was introduced for our Windows, iOS and Android versions earlier, and in the meantime, people have used this new tool to add over 49 thousand new game barcodes to our Core!)

• In the Add Games screen, when a scanned or typed barcode is not recognized, a new “Unrecognized barcode” screen will appear.
• In this screen, find the game by searching for its title (and find a cover if you want) then click Add to Collection.
• This will:
  1. Add the game to your own database, with the information you picked.
  2. Add the game to our Core central online game database.

The result: for the next user who searches for this particular barcode, it will be recognized 🙂

Quick Search: Search-As-You-Type suggestions

Instantly find and select a particular game in your local database:

• In the Quick Search box, just start typing the first few letters of the title you are looking for.
• While typing, a drop-down list will appear, showing the first five matching games (for most games, it only takes 2 or 3 letters before it shows up).
• Once you see the game 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:

• Series
• Descriptions
• Notes
• Tags

Full list of fields that are now searched:

• Title
• Barcode
• Platform
• Series
• Descriptions
• Notes
• Tags

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 Game Connect (and the CLZ Cloud viewer for games) only searched in the Title, Platform, Barcode 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 the Series, Notes and Description fields. The complete lists of fields that are now searched:

• Title
• Platform
• Barcode
• Tags
• Series
• Notes
• Description

Example: searching for “tennis” not only give you games with “tennis” in the title, but also games where the word “tennis” appears in the description:

Live today in your Game Connect software: a completely re-designed Edit Game 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 Genre field, have a blue plus button to pick a genre from your genre list. Click it, and either start typing or just pick a genre 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
• Storage Device
• 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:

Quick Search: Search-As-You-Type suggestions

Instantly find and select a particular game in your local database:

• In the Quick Search box, just start typing the first few letters of the title you are looking for.
• While typing, a drop-down list will appear, showing the first five matching games (for most games, it only takes 2 or 3 letters before it shows up).
• Once you see the game 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:

• Series
• Descriptions
• Notes
• Tags

Full list of fields that are now searched:

• Title
• Barcode
• Platform
• Series
• Descriptions
• Notes
• Tags

A new v4.8.1 update for your app is available now, with:

Automatic CLZ Cloud syncing

Add or edit games 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:

1. Sync your data between devices, e.g. between your phone and your tablet. Or from your old phone to your new phone.
2. View your database online using the free CLZ Cloud viewer website.
3. 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:

• 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.

Now live in your Game Connect software, a complete re-design of the Add Games screen, with a new look, easier interface and new features.

Adding Games by Barcode

Scanned barcodes will be automatically added to your queue, with the game information populating instantly. Use the big blue Add to Collection button at the bottom right to add the selected game to your database, OR use the little blue “+” buttons to add straight from the queue.

Adding Books by Title and Platform

Search by title to see a list of matching game results. Optionally, filter the results by Platform.

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 games 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, We strongly recommend to signup up for one from the app. Using the CLZ Cloud is completely free!

The CLZ Cloud syncing will let you:

1. Sync your data between devices, e.g. between your phone and your tablet. Or from your old phone to your new phone.
2. View your database online using the free CLZ Cloud viewer website.
3. Make an online backup of your data. Better safe than sorry!

In today’s update for the CLZ Games app, we have made further tweaks to the Add screen, to make it clearer than previous versions:

• Add from CLZ Core:
  • Color high-lighting: Games already ‘on wish list’ now have an orange title, games already “in collection” show up with a blue title.
  • Slightly smaller font for the game title, so that longer titles fit better.

In today’s update for the CLZ Games app, we have made further tweaks to the Add screen, to make it clearer and (hopefully) more stable than previous versions:

• Slightly smaller font for the game title, so that longer titles fit better.
• Color high-lighting: Games already ‘on wish list’ now have an orange title, games already “in collection” show up with a blue title.
• Improved scroll behaviour.

Fixes in this update:

• Full screen cover scroller on iPhone/iPod devices was not properly updating its title bar
• No platform icons in platform folder on iPad devices

Now live, a new design and layout for the game detail page in both Game Connect and the free CLZ Cloud viewer.

Some highlights of the new look:

• bigger cover image
• new and bigger platform logos and icons
• more logical layout and placement of all fields

Screen shot:

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

New:

• Redesigned Selection Mode
  • Tap and hold on a game to select it, select as many games 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 games (Remove / Update from CLZ Core / Update game values from CLZ Core).

Fixed:

• Crash when saving a cover image to the camera roll
• Odd scrolling behavior when expanding/collapsing a game title search result in the Add Automatically screen
• Odd scrolling behavior when scanning game barcodes in the barcode scanning screen
• Stuck keyboard after searching in main list
• Autocorrect was enabled for the main list search bar

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).

Read more

This new version lets you download current value information for your games from the popular game pricing site PriceCharting.com:

• When adding new games, they automatically come with game value info.
• Values are determined based on the Completeness field (Loose vs CIB vs New).
• See totals for your collection using the new Database Totals screen.
• Download up-to-date value information for your entire collection using the Update button in the Database Totals screen.

Fixed:

• On tablet devices: After adding a game to the collection it wasn’t selected
• Templates: Improved layout and colors.

This new version lets you download current value information for your games from the popular game pricing site PriceCharting.com:

• When adding new games, they automatically come with game value info.
• Values are determined based on the Completeness field (Loose vs CIB vs New).
• See totals for your collection using the new Database Totals screen.
• Download up-to-date value information for your entire collection using the Update button in the Database Totals screen.

New:

• Group on the “Completeness” field by tapping the menu top right, then tap “Folders > Completeness”.

Fixed:

• Fixed a “non SQL exception” error that could occur during adding of certain games.

For CLZ Games on Android we have added several game-specific fields and made more fields available to edit in the edit game screen: This update is 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 toggle 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.
• Group on the “Completeness” field by tapping the menu top right, then tap “Folders > Completeness”.

Read more

New:

• New fields you can now sort your games on:
  • Edition
  • Format
  • Region
  • Series
• New fields you can now folder group your games on:
  • Region
  • Series

For CLZ Games on iOS we have added several game-specific fields and made more fields available to edit in the edit game screen: This update is 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 toggle 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.
• Group on the “Completeness” field by tapping the menu top right, then tap “Folders > Completeness”.

Read more

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!