Synchronize with Connect

Introduction

Book Collector Connect is our online software for publishing your Book Collector database online. After uploading your database to Connect, you can access it from any computer and from any online mobile device. You can also share your book list with friends and family, by just emailing them a web-link. To use Connect, or it's Sync & Share features, you'll need to register for a trial account with Connect.

Create a free trial account here.

Contents

• Uploading your Collection
• Linking your Collection
• Uploading Images
• Update Details
• Downloading your Collection

Uploading your Collection

Follow the steps below to sync your collection.

1. Start Book Collector and click Connect > Synchronize from the main menu.



2. A message may appear asking you to link your books, click here to learn more about linking, and why it's important.


3. Enter your Connect Username and Password.


4. Click Upload to Connect to start the process.

A list will appear showing the intended actions. When you sync to Connect, the sync will either add, update or remove books from your Connect database.

The color of the book indicates what will happen when synching.

• Red - This means that the book is in your Connect database, but not in your local database. The book will be removed from Connect.


• Green - This means that the book is in your local database, but not your Connect database. The book will be added to Connect.


• Yellow - This means that the book is in both databases, but the data does not match, Connect will be updated with new info from your local collection.

Linking your Collection

Connect is built around our central database. When you upload your collection to Connect, your personal details (such as Location, Collection Status, Notes, Rating etc) will be updated, but factual information (such as plot, characters, cast, crew, actors, musicians, cover images etc ) is taken from our central database.

Factual information is therefore only stored once in our central database and linked to for every Connect user. That's why it's important to link your books to those in our central database.

When uploading to Connect, if you have unlinked books in your collection a warning will appear, notifying you that you have unlinked books in your collection. Click 'Yes' when prompted. The Link Books screen will appear.

Link books screen

The above screen shot shows a few unlinked books. The top half shows the books you are linking, the bottom half shows the results from our database. Clicking on a result from the top half will display results in the bottom half of the screen from which you can select the most accurate match.

This screen looks a lot like the Add Automatically screen, and works in almost the same. Here's a step by step:

1. Your first book is already being searched.
2. Check the results and if you're happy, click Link (it's the button beneath the results)
3. The next unlinked book will be searched.
4. Repeat from step 2.

Alternatively you can click on Search All. Especially if you have barcodes for all your books, this can be very helpful. Just wait until all unlinked books have been searched and hit Update All.

Click here to learn more about linking and why it's important.

Uploading Images

After the books have been uploaded, Book Collector will try to upload cover images for your titles. The images are restricted to 500kb in size, if your images are larger than this, they won't be uploaded. Images are only uploaded if:

• The image is below 500kb in size
• Your book is not linked
• We don't already have a cover for that book
• The cover we have is of lower quality

If we already have a cover for your book, the default image from our central database will be used.

Update Details

If you make changes to your local collection, then upload to Connect, those books will be highlighted in Yellow. For example, after adding some books to your collection and syncing to Connect, you then update your local database with additional information such as the owner, location, purchase details etc. This book will appear as an update.

Click Update Details to find out what's different.

Upload to Connect screen

Clicking the Update Details button will open a new screen showing your Sync Log, showing where the differences are. In the example shown below, you can see that the Location and Owner fields have changed. (Click image to enlarge).

If you find that the same books are showing as updates, please use the Sync Log to establish where the mismatches lie in your local database. Correct your local database then try syncing again.

If you find a long list of updates that keep appearing, we recommend updating your local collection. You can do this by clicking Edit > Select All followed by Edit > Update Books Automatically.

Downloading your Collection

Downloading your collection back from Connect works almost the same as uploading to Connect.

1. Click on "Connect > Synchronize"

   

2. Comic Collector may ask you to link unlinked books in your collection.
3. The Synchronize Screen pops up. Fill in your Connect User Name and Password.
4. Now click "Download from Connect".

Now you have to tell Comic Collector which changes to your local software database (the one on your computer) you'd like to process. The intended changes are shown in that screen, and automatically checked.

The color of the book indicates what will happen when synching.

• Red - This means that the book is in your local database, but not in your Connect database. The book will be removed from your local database.


• Green - This means that the book is in your Connect database, but not your local database. The book will be added to your local database.


• Yellow - This means that the book is in both databases, but the data does not match, your local database will be updated with new info from Connect.

Don't want some of these changes happening to your local database? Simply uncheck the box in front of the change.

Click "Download from Connect" to make the changes final on your online account.