What's new in Music Collector?
v23.1: Simplified Sort Name editing for all pick list entries
Today, a nice update for the Music Collector software, that will make your cataloging life a bit easier again.
In this version, we simplified the editing of Artist Sort Names (and other person entries).
In the past an Artist entry had editable sub-fields First Name, Last Name and “The”, which worked together to automatically generate a SortName.
Now it is much simpler and easier. The First, Last and The fields are gone and have been replaced with a simple directly editable Sort Name.
Improved:
- Adding by Barcode: the last barcode you scanned is now automatically selected in the queue
- Adding by CDID: the last CD you scanned with your CD-Drive is now automatically selected in the queue (and at the top of the list)
- Further improvements for sorting text with numbers in it (especially with – symbols)
- Faster sorting, resulting in overall performance improvements especially for large databases
v23.0.3: Improved Add Screen stability and Sorting / Details Panel fixes
Fixed:
- Several small Add Screen stability issues
- Sorting problems for certain fields
- Details panel would not show Chorus in specific cases
Fixed:
- Adding Albums by CDID didn’t allow you to select multiple results and add them “as multi-disc album” anymore.
- The alphabet bar wasn’t working correctly for albums with multiple artists where the name started with a number.
- Dark Skin: In the Folder panel, we’ve made the barchart color a bit brighter.
- In the Pre-fill popup you could not select an “empty” item for pick lists.
- Sorting your list by date wasn’t always working properly.
- The program will now ask you if you’re sure you want to overwrite an existing file when using “Export to XML” or “Save Database As” (this was already working for other export/save options).
As announced last weekend, here it is, Music Collector version 23 for Windows, with full support for our new CLZ Scanner barcode scanner app!
And as indicated earlier, support for the old CLZ Barry scanner app has now been removed.
Also new in this version: Improved support for barcodes that were used over multiple series.
What is CLZ Scanner?
The aptly-named “CLZ Scanner” is a barcode scanner app, nothing more, nothing less. It is an app that you use on your phone to scan barcodes and then instantly send those scanned barcodes to the Add Music screen of the Music Collector software running on your computer. From there, you can then easily and comfortably add the scanned albums to your computer software.
CLZ Scanner replaces the old CLZ Barry app.
In today’s update, no big new features. Instead, we decided to spend some time fixing a lot of outstanding issues. While we were at it, we also implemented some small tweaks requested by users. Here’s what’s tweaked and fixed:
Tweaks:
- Year folders now sort from most recent year to older
- Transfer Field Data: It is now possible to transfer artists to the Notes field
Fixes:
- Link Screen: Fixed various “Access Violation” errors
- Edit Screen: File paths for missing cover images weren’t showing
- Main Screen: filtering on Collection Status “Sold” didn’t show correct filter text in the bottom of the screen
- Images View: Mouse-over text could show wrong album information
- Pre-fill: Packaging field wasn’t used when adding albums from files
- Update from Core could clear track artists if they were the same as the album artist
- Edit in List: Fields could be cleared when modifying the column fields during editing in list
- Edit in List: Fixed some problems with editing price/value fields
Fixed:
- Various “Access Violation” errors fixed in the Link Albums screen
- User Defined Fields: default values weren’t used when adding albums
- Pre-fill: User Defined Fields weren’t remembered between sessions
- Light Skin: Rating stars weren’t visible
Fixed:
- Edit screen: Pick list popups for certain fields didn’t remember their sort order
- Pre-fill wasn’t working after the “move to other collection status” popup
Fixed:
- Adding albums from music files or importing a file would cause albums to enter the database without a collection status
- Fields in the Pre-fill screen could look bad on screens with high DPI
- “Collection Status: Sold” was missing from various places
- Setting an item to Collection Status: Sold could cause an access violation
Fixed:
- Crash when opening the Manage Pick Lists screen
- Edit Album: Tracks were cleared when (re-)scanning a CD
It’s been a few months since the last Music Collector update, but behind the scenes we have of course been preparing for a big v22 update! And today, it is finally ready for release, with 3 cool new features:
- User-configurable Pre-fill screen: choose your own fields
- User-configurable Add / Update from Core
- Support for WebP images
- New collection status “Sold” and new collection status icons and colors
In this update, we are improving the Submit to Core system.
We have created a completely new site for processing your submitted entries, which is now fully responsive to your browser size and therefore now fully mobile-compatible.
At the same time, we created a new auto-login system, making submitting easier and more seamless.
We’ve added some updates and fixes to the box set area in the details panel:
Updated:
- Added a “show more” button to the Notes section for very long notes
- Added a “show more” button to box sets with more than 3 albums
- You can now click an album title to directly select and show it
Fixed:
- Current Value was missing its label
- The Cat. number field was missing
Improved box set area in details panel
The box set area now shows all albums inside the box set. It also includes a link to edit the box set directly so you can modify any box set specific details or change the order of albums in the box set quickly.
Read more
Version 21.4 is now available for your Music Collector software, with a nice graphical update for your folder panel. The folder panel now show horizontal bars in the background behind the folder entries, representing the “relative size” of the folder, that is, relative to the biggest folder in your collection.
Fixed:
- Date fields didn’t always transfer correctly
A nice new v21.3 update is available for Music Collector now, in which we introduce a new super useful database management tool, called Transfer Field Data (new in the Tools menu).
In short, this tool lets you copy field values from one field to another, in batch, so for your entire database, or for a selection of albums.
Fixed:
- Smarter syncing of musicians and instruments
- More responsive checkboxes in Add Albums screen
- The Sort button in the main screen would sometimes not open the Sort Settings screen
The program wasn’t working on older macOS versions. This build fixes that problem.
Fixed:
- Program wasn’t working on older macOS versions
A small update to the Music Collector for Mac software today, just to help you make the switch to the Music Connect web-based software.
We have received feedback from Music Collector users that they were missing some fields in Music Connect / Cloud, so 2 weeks ago we updated Connect to add many of those requested fields.
Last week, we added many new fields to the CLZ Cloud storage and the web-based Music Connect software, all based on feedback from our users.
Of course, new fields in the CLZ Cloud won’t help you much if you can’t sync them from Music Collector 🙂 So in today’s v21.2 update, we enhanced the CLZ Cloud syncing system to support all the new fields.
It is important to have your album entries linked to the corresponding disc entries in our Core online music database, especially when syncing to the CLZ Cloud and/or the CLZ Music mobile app. Because a correct Core link is what gives you all automatic album details, like cover images, tracks, labels, genres, formats, etc..
All album entries you added through the Add Albums from Core screen, will of course be linked with a Core entry automatically. However, if you added an album manually, or if you imported a list of albums, e.g. from a CSV file or by adding music files, some of your entries may arrive “unlinked”. In which case you would need to do the linking afterwards.
Previously, linking discs with Core was done in an old and clunky screen, based on a very old version of the Add from Core screen. But not anymore!
As of today, Music Collector has a completely new Link Discs with Core screen.
v21.0.3 Extra Collection Status dropdown button in Add Screen
Add Screen: Select Collection Status with the extra dropdown button
We’ve added an extra Collection Status dropdown button to the left hand panel in the Add Screen:
Fixed:
- Options: “Use Field Default” option for Collection Status didn’t work
- Export to HTML was broken
Instead of jumping on the next big feature update, we decided to take a couple of weeks to work on various small improvements and fixes. Here’s what’s new and fixed in today’s update:
New: Clear your CLZ Cloud right from the Sync screen
No more need to login to the CLZ Cloud site and use “Clear Database” there. It is now possible to clear/reset your CLZ Cloud straight from the Sync screen, using the Clear CLZ Cloud button at the bottom.
BTW: please only use this when strictly necessary, in case of problems. Clearing the cloud and re-syncing all items is a heavy operation and causes seriously load on our servers. Thank you!
New: Find Duplicates results can now be exported to a TEXT file
By popular demand: you can now export the results of the Find Duplicates screen, either to take with you as a text file, or for printing.
New: Use the Statistics screen on a selection
Something that “got lost” when we replaced the old Database Totals screen with the fancy new Statistics screen: being able to see totals for the selected items in the main screen.
So… now that feature is back! Just select items in the main screen, using the checkboxes or Select All, then open Tools / Statistics to see totals and charts for just those items.
New: Filter area in status bar now highlights when a filter is active
A common question in support: “Why don’t I see all my items anymore”. Always turns out that a filter is active, either in the Quick Filter Panel, the Alphabet Bar or the search box.
To make this clearer, the Filter area in the status bar at the bottom now highlights in yellow when a filter is active.
Improved right-mouse click context menus, with sub-headers
Through the years, new commands kept being added to the right click context menus, and to be honest, they became a bit messy. So about time we cleaned them up.
All main screen context menu’s have now been cleaned up, re-ordered and re-grouped with nice sub-headers.
Fixed:
- Update from Core on multiple albums was not working
- Add from Core: in some situations album covers were not downloading
- Import XML: several fixes to importing of credits, musicians and purchase prices
- Printing, when printing track lists, the Box Set field did not work
- Card View: mouse wheel scrolling was broken
- After Select All in list, some action bar button did not show up
- After editing, the list did not scroll to the edited item anymore
- Statistics: rare Access Violation while loading the screen
- Picklist item images are now automatically resolved when folder changes
- Update File Links: manual mode missing trailing slash by default
We’re well into 2021, so it’s time for Music Collector 21.
In this update we bring you a great new time-saving tool in the Add Albums screen.
New Pre-fill screen that pops up when adding albums
When adding an album to your database using the Add Album screen, it will now pop-up a new screen called “Pre-fill album details, letting you set various fields right then and there.
Fields available in the Pre-fill screen:
- Location
- Owner
- Purchase Date
- Purchase Store
- Purchase Price
- Quantity
- Tags
No more need to edit your added albums afterwards!
(BTW: of course, using the new Pre-fill screen is optional. If you don’t want to use it, just uncheck the “Show Pre-fill screen” toggle at the bottom. You can always re-enable it through the program’s Options screen.)
