What's new in CLZ Books for Android? (page 2)

A big step forward for the CLZ Books app today, in which we add many new editable fields:

• Illustrator
• Cover Price
• Extras
• For audiobooks:
• Narrator
• Length
• Abridged Yes/No
• About the original book:
• Original Title
• Original Subtitle
• Original Country
• Original Language
• Original Publisher
• Original Publication Date

Of course, all the new fields sync to/from the CLZ Cloud too.

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 book 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, Studio), 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:

• Edit screen: the “Read it” checkbox wouldn’t always work
• Re-introduced a “sync changes pending” icon to the “Sync with CLZ Cloud” menu item

It’s finally here: CLZ Books 5.0 for Android! With support for multiple collections, automatic syncing of your own images, plus a re-designed top bar and menu.

On top of that, (and the main reason why it took so long):

* Starting with v5, CLZ Books is now a subscription app!

Read on below to find out how that affects you (hint: it doesn’t!).

What’s new in CLZ Books 5.0 ?

CLZ Books is now a subscription app, costing $1.49/month

To allow us to keep delivering our CLZ online services (CLZ Cloud and CLZ Core) and our continuous updates to the app, the app has now become a subscription app. For new users, this subscription gives them access to the CLZ online services:

• CLZ Core: for adding books by ISBN or by author and title
• CLZ Cloud: for online backups and syncing between devices.

IMPORTANT: Of course, since you have purchased the app earlier, you have automatically received a life-time “Basic”-level subscription, which gives you access to your existing CLZ Core and CLZ Cloud services. You do not need to pay for a subscription!
In other words, the app now being a subscription app has no effect on you whatsoever!
If you still see any “unlock” problems with your app, please CONTACT US here and we’ll get it resolved ASAP.

Please note: We may introduce new “premium” CLZ services to the CLZ Books app later, which are not part of your free life-time “Basic” subscription. At that time, if you want to use the new services, you will be able to optionally upgrade to a “Premium” subscription.

Now supports and syncs multiple collections !

It is now possible to manage multiple “collections” within your app. The collections you create will be listed in the main menu, so you can easily switch between them.
Use the menu to add new collections, edit their names, change the order, etc…

Multiple collections now also sync through the CLZ Cloud, e.g. to/from the Book Connect cloud-based software or the Book Collector desktop software. So if you have created multiple collections on the desktop side, these will now finally be separated on the mobile app too!

Already have multiple collections in the CLZ Cloud?

If you already have multiple collections in the CLZ Cloud, here’s what to do to get your existing entries split up into multiple collections on your mobile app too:

1. Tap the menu top left
2. Tap “Sync with CLZ Cloud” and make sure you’re in sync.
3. Tap the menu top left again and tap “Maintenance”
4. Tap “Update all from CLZ Cloud”
5. Now use “Sync with CLZ Cloud” from the menu again.

Automatic cloud-syncing of your own “custom” images

Before v5, if you replaced the automatic Core front cover with your own image (e.g. from Camera Roll), it would not automatically sync to the CLZ Cloud. You had to “force” the upload by using Upload to CLZ Cloud in the Edit screen.

For version 5 we made this more automatic. We introduced a new toggle “Custom Image” in the Edit screen. This toggle will be automatically set when you replace the Core image. Once the Custom Image toggle is set, that cover will automatically sync to and from the CLZ Cloud.

Re-designed top-bar

• The menu icon now includes the “CLZ Books” mark (bigger tap area)
• The “Collection Status” filter button has been moved to the right

Re-designed main menu

• The menu now clearly shows your Account and Subscription Status at the top. Tap either of those to manage them.
• New “Maintenance” screen that now contains:
  • the “Clear Database” option
  • the “old Import from Book Collector” option
  • the new “Update from CLZ Cloud” option (only use when instructed by support staff)

How to update your CLZ Books app to version 5:

• On your device, open the Play Store app.
• Tap the menu button on the top left, then tap “My apps & games”.
• Find the CLZ Books entry and tap “UPDATE” on the right.

• All panels in the main screen (folders, list and details) are now resizable using draggable separators between the panels, so that you can customize the layout to your own liking.
• The resizable panels in the Add screen have been updated to use the nicer look of the draggable separators.

New: Redesigned app icon

We designed new icons that give new users a better indication of what the app actually does (as opposed to just a different color CLZ logo), but still obviously belong together, when shown together.

And if you have Android 8.0 or higher, we’re also including an “adaptive app icon” as of today which are in line with all your other app icons!

Secure HTTPS connections, for your security and privacy

As indicated in our GDPR email from a couple of weeks ago, we are updating our software and services, to be more secure and to better protect your privacy.

Starting with version 4.10.4, CLZ Books now uses secure HTTPS connections for all communications with our servers:

• for logging in with your username and password
• for syncing your data with CLZ Cloud
• for sending your searches to Core.

To make this possible, we have created new secure “entry points” on our servers, that are only allowing secure HTTPS connections. The new CLZ Books app only communicates with those secure entry points.

For your privacy and security, we strongly recommend updating your app to v4.10.4

Changes

• The buttons to switch folders, sorting and view options have been moved to more logical places to make them more accessible.
• The skins and templates options are now only available from the settings screen.
• The selection mode button has been removed, just tap and hold on an item to start selecting items.

Fixed:

• Update from Core could (in some cases) overwrite manually entered information for the Authors, Publisher, ISBN, Series, Edition, Sub title, Dewey, Loc, Width and Height fields.
• Re-added index field to book information cell

Great news for all users of our book database solutions, on any version (old or new), on any platform (Connect, Windows, Mac, iOS and Android):

Our Core online book database now recognizes 97% of all ISBNs searched!

In the past few weeks, our web-developers have been working on several improvements to our Core online book database system, which has increased the success rate for ISBN searches to 97 percent!

Basically, this means that on average, for every 100 ISBNs you scan into the Add Books screen, our Core online book database will recognize 97, leaving only 3 as “unrecognized”.
(in the past, the success rate has always been around 89% to 90%.)

Note that this 97% is a world-wide average, over all users from all countries.

For US and UK books, the results are even better, at 99%. In other countries, the hit-rate will be slightly below 97%. But for everyone, it will definitely be better than before!

How can you start enjoying the improved ISBN searches?

The above is a “server-side” change, so you don’t need to do anything 🙂

You can now instantly experience the benefits, in the Book Connect web-based software, the Book Collector desktop software (Windows or Mac) and the CLZ Books mobile app (iOS or Android).

Whatever version you have! No update needed, no payment needed!

New for the Add Books screen:

• Add button is now bigger and easier to spot (some new users missed the little round “+”).
• Add button now “remembers” your collection vs. wish list selection. No need to pick from the Collection/Wish List popup menu every time you add anymore.
• Remove from queue button is now bigger and easier to spot. Tap and hold on a barcode in the queue to select barcodes you want to remove.

Fixed:

• Accented characters in sortnames/titles were sorted incorrectly.
• Main screen: the over-sensitive quickscroll bar in the thumbnail view has been fixed.
• Edit: ‘Done’- button doest not scroll from screen on manual scroll.
• Edit: New ‘Unsaved changes’ dialog.
• Cloud sync: Sync reporting ‘invalid xml’ in rare cases.

We’ve added new fields to sort on to change the order in which your books are displayed in your list. Your book 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:

• Author
• Title
• Publication Date
• Number of Pages (New!)
• Order of Entry (New!)
• Index
• Reading Date (New!)
• My Rating (New!)
• Purchase Date (New!)
• Purchase Price (New!)
• Current Value (New!)
• Quantity (New!)
• Dewey (New!)
• LoC Classification (New!)
• Series / Volume (New!)
• Series / Issue (New!)

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

What’s new in the Add Books screen?

• Single Search Box: Just one box for search (e.g. like Google or Amazon). No more separate Author and Title boxes. Just enter (part of) the author’s name and (part of) the title and you will get the best matching results. (see the screen shot below with “crichton jurassic” results”).

• Search by Publisher and Year: Getting a lot of results? Filter down to the book edition you’re looking for by adding the publisher and/or publication year to your search! (see screen shot below)

Fixed:

• Custom written plots could be overwritten with the default plot when books were updated from the online CLZ Core for Books database.
• The app did not open the details page when a search result was selected in the quick search box while the [All Books] folder was active in phone mode.

Quick Search: Search-As-You-Type suggestions

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

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

• Subtitle
• Series
• LoC Classification
• LoC Control Nr
• Dewey
• Plot
• Tags
• Notes

Full list of fields that are now searched:

• Title
• Author
• ISBN
• Publisher
• Subtitle
• Series
• LoC Classification
• LoC Control Nr
• Dewey
• Plot
• Tags
• Notes

A new v4.8 update for your app is available now, with:

Automatic CLZ Cloud syncing
Add or edit books 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, I strongly recommend 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 Books app, we have made further tweaks to the Add Books from CLZ Core screen, to make it clearer than previous versions:

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

Fixes in this update:

• After changing the sort order the list could sometimes scroll to a random position.
• Small CLZ Cloud Sync tweaks.
• After restarting the app it would sometimes repeatedly scroll to the last added book.
• After manually typing a barcode in the add by barcode screen you weren’t able to search another one.

New:

• Added loan fields to the CLZ Cloud sync.

Fixed:

• After tapping the “Not Found?” button to add a book anyway, the app could crash on adding an author.

Coming up:

• A loan manager to loan and return books.

New:

• Added a new “All Books” folder with a back button to go back to your folders

Changed:

• Made some improvements to the barcode scanner

Fixed:

• Manual focus for barcode scanning
• Crash in the add auto screen when adding a mix of new books and books on wish list by barcode
• Crash in the pick cover option in the edit screen

This update to the CLZ Books app for Android brings user interface improvements to the Add Books screen:

• All panels are now resizable (list, details, camera)
• When adding a book that is already on your wish list, the app now lets you change its status to “In Collection”.
• Adding By ISBN barcode:
  • Camera scanner is now integrated in Add screen, not a separate screen
  • Tap the keyboard icon in the camera panel to enter an ISBN manually
  • ISBN Barcode queue is now remembered between sessions
  • Press and hold to delete an ISBN barcode from the queue
• Adding By Author/Title:
  • Book not found? Easy add it manually using the special entry in the results list

An important v4.3.9 update for your CLZ Books Android app is now available.

This update introduces an easier way to deal with “Unrecognized ISBNs”.
A new screen that not only helps you to add the book to your database anyway, but also helps your fellow CLZ Books users by instantly adding the missing ISBN to the CLZ Core central online book database.

(this feature was introduced for our Windows, Mac and iOS versions earlier, and in the meantime, people have used this new tool to add over 22 thousand new books to our Core!)

• In the Add screen, when a scanned ISBN is not recognized, a new “Unrecognized ISBN” screen will appear.
• In this screen, just enter the Author, Title, Publisher and Year, then click Add Book.
• This will:
  1. Add the book to your own database, with the information you filled in.
  2. Add the book to our Core central online book database.

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

Read more

New:

• Added Folder options for Country and store
• CLZ Cloud Sync button now indicates “out of sync” status using red exclamation mark
• App now automatically restores the Unlock Full App in-app purchase
• Fixed hardware keyboard enter not working in tablet search field
• Fixed screen rotation not working on phones

A huge v4.3 update for your CLZ Books app is now available.
And prepare to be shocked 🙂 (in a good way, don’t worry):

The app looks completely different now, with a cleaner brighter look and an improved user interface.

What’s new in CLZ Books 4.3 for Android?

• New “Material”-based interface, with two skins/themes: Light & Dark.
  (The app now starts in the Light skin. If you prefer the Dark look, just use the View menu top right)

• Big floating blue “+” button for adding books.
• Access all other features and tools from “hamburger” menu top left.
• Clear and easy switch between All / In Collection / Wish List at the top.
• Access all other view options from menu on top right.
• Add screen: tabs at the top to switch between Author/Title and ISBN modes.
• Add Manually is now a separate menu item in the menu on the left.
• Redesigned book list entries.
• Old Import from Book Collector has been moved to Settings screen!

• New “Manage Pick Lists” tool for editing and merging Authors, Publishers, Genres, Subjects, etc…
• Edit screen: Edit the Sort Names for Authors for complete control over correct author sorting.
• Edit screen: Now edit the names of Publishers, Genres, Subjects etc…
• Edit screen: New “value picker” screen for quickly filling fields like Author and Genre.
• New Tools menu, with Manage Pick Lists, Field Defaults and Empty Database tools.

CLZ Books is now free to download, with a database limit of 100 books.

If you purchased CLZ Books *before* the 4.0 release, then the 4.0 version will be automatically unlocked to an *unlimited* database size. You do NOT need to pay again 🙂
If, for whatever reason, this didn’t work for you, then just CONTACT US and and we’ll unlock it manually, free of charge!

Improved Add Books screen:

• Easily switch between Add methods (Title/ISBN/Manual).
• Re-designed search results with included cover images.
• Add by ISBN now automatically opens Camera Scan screen.