What's new in CLZ Music Mobile? (page 4)
Here it is, version 6.0 of the CLZ Music mobile app!
In this major update, we finally bring you THE most requested feature: being able to Edit Multiple Albums in one go. But there’s more, as we took this opportunity to completely re-design the Edit Album screen and to implement super useful Crop and Rotate tools for album cover images.
Here’s the full list of what’s new in version 6.0:
NEW: Edit Multiple Albums in one go!
Finally make changes to multiple (or all) album entries in one go.
Here’s how:
- Tap and hold on a album in the list to enter Select Mode
- Now tap more albums to select them.
- Tap the menu button on the bottom right and choose “Edit [x] Albums”.
- In the screen tap appears, select which fields you want to edit.
(Tips: use the search box to find fields, tap the star icons to set Favorite fields) - Tap Edit at the top right.
- Now set values, or leave fields gray to clear them.
- Tap Done at the top right to save the changes to the selected albums.
Warning: the Edit Multiple feature is a very useful and powerful features, but… remember what Uncle Ben said: With great power comes great responsibility!
IMPROVED: Edit Album screen
A new look for all edit boxes and a more compact layout, making it much easier to edit your album entries, without scrolling through long lists of fields.
- The cover image is now on its own tab, so the main tab starts with the most important edit fields at the top.
- Fields are now laid out side-by-side, making it easier to edit all fields without endless scrolling.
- More compact look and user interface for all text edit fields.
- More compact display and editing of multi-value pick list fields like Authors, Genres, Subjects and Tags.
- Date fields: enter year, month day manually or use calendar icon to use date setter popup.
NEW: Built-in Crop and Rotate tool for cover images
In the Edit Album screen the Cover is now on its own tab, with new Crop and Rotate tools for instant rotating and cropping of self-made cover photos or downloaded images.
IMPROVED: Folder Field selection screen
Yep, another update of this screen, to make it fully consistent with the Select Edit Fields screen.
It now includes a search box at the top for quickly finding the field you want, plus the ability to create your own Favorites (just tap the star icons).
Version 6.0 is coming up for all five CLZ mobile apps:
CLZ Books, CLZ Music, CLZ Movies, CLZ Comics and CLZ Games (probably in that order).
For “Vee Six” we decided to finally implement THE most commonly requested feature:
Editing Multiple entries in one go! (aka: Batch Editing)
At the same time, v6 will come with completely re-designed Edit screens. Check out some sneak preview screenshot below. More information about app-specific v6 features and improvements will follow later!
Finally: Edit Multiple entries in one go!
This has been the most common feature request for many years: How can I edit (or clear) the Grade/Location/Owner/etc… for many of my database entries in one go?
And in v6, it will finally be possible:
- Just select the entries you want to edit (using tap and hold), and choose Edit from the menu.
- Then select which fields you want to edit (or clear).
- Finally, set the values you want to set and click Done.
Some screenshots:
(These screenshots have been taken from the iOS edition of CLZ Comics, but the other 9 apps will look very similar):
Edit screen re-design
Also new in v6: completely re-designed Edit screens, to make them clearer, more compact and nicer looking.
No more long lists of fields, one per row. In the new screen, fields are placed side by side where possible, with the Cover on a separate tab. Resulting in a more compact screen, requiring less scrolling. Especially on tablet devices!
Some sneak preview screenshots:
(These screenshots have been taken from the iOS editions of CLZ Books and CLZ Music, but the other 8 apps will look very similar):
One of the most common complaints about the CLZ Music app has always been the lack of support for multi-disc albums. So we finally sat down and designed a good user interface to fix these problems once and for all.
The solution we implemented has two parts:
Add Albums screen: Add as Multi-Disc Album
This lets you add your new multi-disc albums the right way, straight from the Add Albums screen. Just select multiple 1-disc results and add them combined into a multi-disc album.
Merge existing albums into a Multi-Disc Album
This is for existing entries in our app, where the discs of a multi-disc album may be listed as separate albums. You can now combine/merge these into one album with multiple discs. Just tap and hold to select the albums, then select MERGE from the menu button.
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”. We decided to come up with a better solution.
This update includes a re-designed Select Folder Field screen, with all folder options nicely grouped under sensible headers, and the most popular options (Artist, Genre, Format) instantly accessible at the top.
Fixed:
- In the Add from Core screen, when adding an album 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’
- When scanning barcodes the “beep” sound would only sound on the first scan
- Search on own collection could be forgotten during scrolling/browsing your collection
- Field defaults screen could cause a crash
One of the most common complaints about the CLZ Music app has always been the lack of support for multi-disc albums. So we finally sat down and designed a good user interface to fix these problems once and for all.
The solution we implemented has two parts:
Add Albums screen: Add as Multi-Disc Album
This lets you add your new multi-disc albums the right way, straight from the Add Albums screen. Just select multiple 1-disc results and add them combined into a multi-disc album.
Merge existing albums into a Multi-Disc Album
This is for existing entries in our app, where the discs of a multi-disc album may be listed as separate albums. You can now combine/merge these into one album with multiple discs. Just tap and hold to select the albums, then select MERGE from the menu button.
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”. We decided to come up with a better solution.
This update includes a re-designed Select Folder Field screen, with all folder options nicely grouped under sensible headers, and the most popular options (Artist, Genre, Format) instantly accessible at the top.
Fixed:
- Details view didn’t show multiple artists for single tracks
- Edit Screen: disc button could change colors when it shouldn’t
Fixed:
- When downloading new entries from CLZ Cloud, previously cleared fields could get filled in.
- In the Add from Core screen, when adding an album 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.
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:
- Manually added albums could get an empty RPM
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)
A small update for your CLZ Music app today: When adding albums by Artist/Title, you can now filter the search results to only show a specific format.
After searching for artist/title, tap the new “All Formats” button at the top right and switch it to “Vinyl” to see vinyl results only, or set to “CD” to list CDs only.
In this update we introduce a new quick-search for your folders, sorting your folders by the counters, and more stable cloud syncing through our brand-new dedicated Sync-server.
Quick-search your folders
Grouping in folders is a powerful way to browse and filter your collection. Just group by Artist, or Label, etc… tap a folder and the list will give you all albums for the selected Artist or Label.
However, if your collection spans thousands of albums, that “tap a folder” part is sometimes easier said than done. It may require lots of scrolling in the folder list.
But not anymore! This version introduces a new search box right above the folder list, that lets you instantly search/filter the folder list as you type! Just typing a few letters is often enough to bring the folder you are looking for into view:
Sort folders by count
By default, the folders are sorted alphabetically. But as of today, there is another option: sort your folders by the counter, that is by the number of albums contained.
Sorting by the counters is a nice way to find the most popular Artists, Labels, Genres, etc..
Switch between the Alphabetical and By Count sorting using the sort toggle at the top:
Improved barcode scanning
We have improved the scan engine and gave it a larger “scan area”. This should help scan barcodes faster and easier.
Now uses our brand-new CLZ Cloud Sync-server
Previously one big server was handling the Connect website, the CLZ Cloud website AND the CLZ Cloud syncing from the desktop programs and the mobile apps.
But this week we have set up a brand-new dedicated Sync-server to handle just the CLZ Cloud syncing.
In today’s update, CLZ Music has been updated to sync through this new server, which should result in faster syncing and a more stable syncing experience during high load times (weekends).
In this update we introduce a new quick-search for your folders, sorting your folders by the counters, and more stable cloud syncing through our brand-new dedicated Sync-server.
Quick-search your folders
Grouping in folders is a powerful way to browse and filter your collection. Just group by Artist, or Label, etc… tap a folder and the list will give you all albums for the selected Artist or Label.
However, if your collection spans thousands of albums, that “tap a folder” part is sometimes easier said than done. It may require lots of scrolling in the folder list.
But not anymore! This version introduces a new search box right above the folder list, that lets you instantly search/filter the folder list as you type! Just typing a few letters is often enough to bring the folder you are looking for into view:
Sort folders by count
By default, the folders are sorted alphabetically. But as of today, there is another option: sort your folders by the counter, that is by the number of albums contained.
Sorting by the counters is a nice way to find the most popular Artists, Labels, Genres, etc..
Switch between the Alphabetical and By Count sorting using the sort toggle at the top:
Filter search results on format
When searching by Artist/Title you can now filter the results to only show a specific format. After searching for artist/title, tap the new “All Formats” button to switch the results to “Vinyl” to see all vinyl results!
Improved barcode scanning
We have improved the scan engine and gave it a larger “scan area”. This should help scan barcodes faster and easier.
Now uses our brand-new CLZ Cloud Sync-server
Previously one big server was handling the Connect website, the CLZ Cloud website AND the CLZ Cloud syncing from the desktop programs and the mobile apps.
But this week we have set up a brand-new dedicated Sync-server to handle just the CLZ Cloud syncing.
In today’s update, CLZ Music has been updated to sync through this new server, which should result in faster syncing and a more stable syncing experience during high load times (weekends).
Fixed:
- Field Defaults: It wasn’t possible to set the rating field back to zero.
- Manage Pick Lists: Merging list items caused too many sync changes.
A big update for the CLZ Music app, introducing a new Statistics screen, a cool “infographic” style screen, showing totals and statistics about your music collection.
To open it, just choose “Statistics” from the menu.
In this new screen, you can find:
- The number of albums in your collection, and how many artists.
- How many tracks, and the total runtime.
- A top 5 list of your most recent additions.
- A nice pie chart showing the distribution of your albums over formats (CD, Vinyl, etc.)
- A bar chart of your albums by artist.
- A bar chart of your albums by genre.
A big update for the CLZ Music app, introducing a new Statistics screen, a cool “infographic” style screen, showing totals and statistics about your music collection.
To open it, just choose “Statistics” from the menu.
In this new screen, you can find:
- The number of albums in your collection, and how many artists.
- How many tracks, and the total runtime.
- A top 5 list of your most recent additions.
- A nice pie chart showing the distribution of your albums over formats (CD, Vinyl, etc.)
- A bar chart of your albums by artist.
- A bar chart of your albums by genre.
The app could crash during syncing of certain items. Shouldn’t happen anymore now!
Fixed:
- App could crash while syncing with CLZ Cloud
A big step forward for the CLZ Music app today, in which we add more new editable fields:
- Recording Date
- Studios
- Live (yes/no)
- Extras
- Conductors
- Orchestras
Of course, all the new fields sync to/from the CLZ Cloud too.
A big step forward for the CLZ Music app today, in which we add more new editable fields:
- Recording Date
- Studios
- Live (yes/no)
- Extras
- Conductors
- Orchestras
Of course, all the new fields sync to/from the CLZ Cloud too.
Fixed:
- Custom images were uploaded too often
Fixed:
- Custom images were uploaded too often
- Add by Barcode: Barcode wasn’t showing in the result
Changed:
- Add by barcode: Swipe to remove a single barcode wasn’t working. To remove a single barcode now, just press and hold on it!
Fixed:
- When changing a cover, the list and images view wasn’t updated correctly
- Date pickers weren’t showing correctly
- Some colours were wrong (tabs/switches)
Instead of working on new features, we decided to take a few weeks to look at existing screens and functionality and see where things could be improved, of course all based on your feedback.
Today’s update brings you the first batch of user interface improvements that we implemented (more coming up!), plus it bring the app fully up-to-date with the new iOS 13 “sheet-style” popup screens!
Fixed:
- Crash in Field Defaults screen
- Edit screen: Edit pencil buttons were broken
- Custom covers could upload too often
- Some further modifications to the Manage Pick List screen and pick list pop-ups in the edit screens
Instead of working on new features, we decided to take a few weeks to look at existing screens and functionality and see where things could be improved, of course all based on your feedback.
Today’s update brings you the first user interface improvements we implemented (more coming up!):
Easier to find Edit and Remove buttons on album details screen (phone only)
Easier editing of pick list fields, especially multi-value fields
- Selected/checked values are now always at the top
- For multi-value fields (like Genre), check/uncheck multiple values in one go!
- Easier to find big button at the top for adding NEW values..
Complete Re-design of Manage Pick List screen
- Easier to find big button at the top for adding NEW values.
- Remove Unused and Merge action have now been moved to action (…) button top right.
- Easier to use Merge mode.
Add by barcode: New Clear Queue button and new “Scanning tips” popup
Fixed:
- Re-introduced a “sync changes pending” icon to the “Sync with CLZ Cloud” menu item
Fixed:
- Fix for a crash that some iPhone users experienced after adding/editing entries
Several small tweaks for your CLZ Music app today:
- iPhone: details page now has clearer Edit and Remove buttons at the bottom
- “Sync with CLZ Cloud” menu now indicates whether there are sync changes pending.
Fixed:
- Issue where users could not sign up for a new CLZ account.
- Improved error handling in the Add-screen.
Fixed:
- Fixed a crash when removing an album from within the edit screen
- ‘Add manually’ button was missing in the add screen
- ‘Move to other collection’-option was missing its icon
- When adding an album by barcode that was “already in collection”, the barcode wasn’t cleared from the barcode queue