News: all updates for our software and apps
Do you remember the section “Our plans for 2011” of our previous newsletter, where I mentioned we were working on an “undisclosed” PROJECT 4?
Well, all lights are green now, so I am finally able to reveal what it is!
In today’s newsletter:
- PROJECT 4 revealed
- V1.3 updates for all iPhone apps
- Server upgrade
- New in Connect : Post collection updates to Facebook and Twitter
- 12,000 fans on Facebook!
PROJECT 4 revealed
Great news for Comic Collector users!
Because “Project 4” is comics-related and it’s something Comic Collector users have been requesting for years:
** Adding Comics by Barcode **
Yep, the upcoming Comic Collector 5 (Windows *and* Mac) will finally let you add comics by barcode, either by typing the barcode, or by using a scanner.
This has been a huge project and we have been working on it for months, with a large part of the Collectorz.com team, both programmers and content managers.
Adding barcode scanner support was easy, been there, done that …
But of course, scanning barcodes is useless without an online comic database that can actually look up comic details and images BY BARCODE.
And that is what made this a such a big undertaking:
- I (Alwin) have negotiated partnerships with Diamond and MyComicShop.com, to arrange databases of comic barcodes for older comic releases and to make sure we get barcodes for upcoming issues *before* they are released.
- Sven has programmed admin tools for importing and matching these barcodes.
- Mark and Rowdy have been matching over 75 thousand imported barcodes to our existing database entries (and are still matching thousands each day).
- Robbert has added barcode search capabilities to the online search engine and to Comic Collector Connect (not live yet, coming soon).
- Ronald has implemented barcode scanner support and barcode searching in the new Add Comics Automatically screen (for the Windows version).
- Dinh has done the same for upcoming v5 release for Mac OS X.
A lot of work, but it’s gonna be worth it.
Check out screen shots of the new “Search by Barcode” feature here:
Windows: https://www.collectorz.com/comic/preview.php#barcodes
Mac OS X: https://www.collectorz.com/comic/macpreview.php#barcodes
NOTE: On release day, we will be able to provide very good barcode coverage for American comics and trade paperbacks.
HOWEVER: Even though our new system fully supports barcodes and ISBNs for *European* comic books and even though we have *some* European barcodes, we can NOT guarantee any level of coverage for European comic books.
V1.3 updates for all iPhone apps
Pim is working on 1.3 updates of all our iPhone apps.
These updates will finally bring the iPhone apps up-to-date with all the features the Android and iPad editions had in their first release:
- Support for syncing data over USB via iTunes:
Export to a file in the Win/Mac version (latest version required!), then transfer the file to your iPhone using iTunes, over the USB cable. - Browse your In Collection items, your Wish List, or your entire database, using the 3 main tabs on the bottom left: All, Collection, Wish List.
- New data fields: lots of new fields that you have been requesting.
- New folder options: now allows grouping into folders for *lots* of fields.
- Improved look of folder lists: with icon and “Apple Style” counter on right.
- New Cover Flow view (as “landscape mode” of Thumbnail View).
- Improved layout of List Views.
- Improved Thumbnail View : no more placeholder images while scrolling.
- Sorting: Select sort field from popup menu (Title, Year, Index)
- New “HTML based” Detail page:
- Choose from 4 styles: Blue, Black, White or App Color
- Next Next/Previous buttons in lower left and right corners.
- Swipe left/right for previous/next item
- Supports Portrait and Landscape modes in all views and pages.
- Supports retina displays: hi-res icons, buttons and cover images.
The CLZ Movies and CLZ Books edition are live already:
https://www.collectorz.com/movie/clz-movies
https://www.collectorz.com/book/clz-books
The other 3 will be released within a week.
Server upgrade
We are currently working on a major hardware upgrade of our database server, the server running our five online media databases and Collectorz.com Connect (the new box has a faster CPU, more memory and a super-fast hard disk system).
This should dramatically increase the performance of Connect and the speed of searches in your Add Automatically screen.
However, the move to the new system is a taking a long time, mainly because of the large size of the databases and the enormous amount of cover images.
During the move, the server will stay up and running, but you may experience slow response times. Sorry for the inconvenience.
New in Connect: Post collection updates to Facebook and Twitter
You can now post “Just added … to my collection” updates to your Facebook or Twitter feed, straight from the Add page in your Connect account. Also, on an entry’s info page, you can use the new “Share” popup to post
“Now watching …” / “Now reading” / “Now playing” updates.
These little social updates automatically contain a link to the entry’s page in your online collection (so make sure your collection is set to “Public”).
More information about this new feature can be found in the manual.
Choose Help/Manual and choose “Twitter and Facebook” on the left.
For example, here’s the manual topic for the movie edition:
https://connect.collectorz.com/movies/manual/twitter-facebook
Wanna know more about Connect? Then check out our new “What is …” pages
for music: https://www.collectorz.com/music/music-connect
for movies: https://www.collectorz.com/movie/movie-connect
for books: https://www.collectorz.com/book/book-connect
for comics: https://www.collectorz.com/comic/comic-connect
for games: https://www.collectorz.com/game/game-connect
12,000 fans on Facebook!
Our Facebook page keeps growing and last week we reached 12,000 fans.
Wanna stay connected too? Just go here and click the Like button at the top:
https://www.facebook.com/Collectorz
That’s all folks!
Alwin Hoogerdijk
Collectorz.com – https://www.collectorz.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Collectorz (over 12,000 fans now!)