What's new?
It’s New Comic Book Day! This week, NCDB brings 602 new comic releases. Of course, that number includes many variants, but still, there are 276 actual new issues!
Our CLZ Content Team (Rowdy, Justin and Taco) have prepared nice entries for all these new releases in our Core central online comic database, complete with cover art, variant descriptions and creator lists with the specific cover artists listed for all variants.
When you return home with your weekly purchases, everything will be ready for you. Easily add your new books By Barcode or By Issue. Or, browse all new releases using the Pull List tab of the Add Comics screen!
New:
- Added in-app getting started tips for new users (tap “dismiss” to dismiss)
New:
- Added in-app getting started tips for new users (tap “dismiss” to dismiss)
Fixed:
- Fixed: adding items did not work for users that were not logged in
Fixed:
- Editing User Defined Credits could cause a database corruption on restart
- Slab Certification Number would not sync down from CLZ Cloud
- Have/Want summary did not show comics that were part of a Trade Paperback
- Access violation error could occur when sorting in the Updated Keys report screen
In this update, we try to tackle a problem that we often see in our support system:
Users changing phones without updating their CLZ Cloud first. Or even worse, without even having a CLZ Account yet.
Which of course cause data loss (and a lot of sadness).
So in this version, we are trying to create more awareness of:
- The importance of creating a CLZ Account, so that you can Sync with CLZ Cloud.
- The importance of keeping your CLZ Cloud up-to-date by actually Syncing with CLZ Cloud.
New Sync button in main screen
When not in sync with CLZ Cloud, a new Sync button will appear on the main screen, above the Add button. This way you will always know if there are still items to sync up to CLZ Cloud or down from CLZ Cloud (even when you use auto-sync).
(Don’t like this button? In the Settings screen, switch OFF the setting that says “Show on-screen sync button”)
New “Sync with Cloud!” bar when not logged in
When using the app while not logged in to a CLZ Account, a new bar will appear at the bottom of the main screen that says “Sync to CLZ Cloud for an online backup”.
Hopefully that will help prevent future data loss.
(Don’t like this bar? In the Settings screen, switch OFF the setting that says “Show backup suggestion bar”)
New 5-comic “Demo Mode” for new users
For new users who just downloaded the app, we introduced a new “Demo Mode” that lets you add 5 comics before committing to the actual 7-day free trial subscription.
Fixed on iOS:
- When adding comics and you were prompted to change the collection status of an existing item, pre-fill data was ignored.
Fixed on Android:
- Edit Comic: When you’ve edited something, and you tapped “Next”, it would skip an item.
v23.7.2: Missing Add Creator/Character button in Edit Comic screen
Fixed:
- For unlinked comics, the add button was sometimes missing from the Edit Comic screen
v23.7: Cloud-sync your customized creator and character lists
The CLZ development team has just finished a huge project, something we have been working on for several months: the ability to modify a comic’s creator and character lists, for both the Comic Connect web-based software and the CLZ Comics mobile app.
Of course, your Comic Collector desktop software has allowed you to modify your creator and character lists for many many years. But still, the project we just completed has resulted in a big v23.7 update for Comic Collector too, which introduces FOUR new features:
- Cloud-sync your customized creator and character lists to the CLZ Cloud and the CLZ Comics mobile app
- A quicker and easier way to add new creators and characters, by searching our Core lists
- Simplified Sort Name editing for all pick list entries
- Improved database and display format for characters
First, what is Core?
CLZ Core is our central online comic database, that is the database that you search when adding comics by barcode or title, the database that provides you with automatic issue details like variant, variant description, release dates, cover art, creator lists, character lists, etc…
(Not to be confused with CLZ Cloud, which is your database, stored in the cloud. Cloud is what you sync with, to make online backups of your data and to sync your data between devices.)
After the CLZ Comics 8.5 release, we have seen some common questions, by email and in this group. So let me answer the most common ones here:
Q: Will my changes to creators/characters automatically affect Core?
A: No, they will not. Just like with any other change or correction you make: if you want to change it in Core too, you need to use the Submit to Core command.
In version 8.5 of the app, the Submit to Core feature has been expanded to also upload your custom creator/character list to the Core submit form.
Fixed:
- When using Update from Core it would keep coming back with updates (even though there weren’t any further updates)
Fixed:
- When tapping “Edit” the app could crash
v8.5: Modify the Creators and Character lists of your comic entries!
I know it was a long wait, but here it finally is: CLZ Comics 8.5, with the long awaited editing tools for your creator and character lists!
The entire CLZ development team has been working on this major feature for several months. A huge project that we have been postponing for many years, because of the complexity and the enormous amount of work. But today we can finally go public with it, resulting in a major 8.5 update for the CLZ Comics mobile app:
As of today, it is finally possible to modify the CREATORS and CHARACTERS lists of your comic entries! And of course, to sync your customized lists to and from the CLZ Cloud.
The entire CLZ development team has been working on this major feature for several months. A huge project that we have been postponing for many years, because of the complexity and the enormous amount of work. But today we can finally go public with it, resulting in a major update for the Comic Connect web-based software:
As of today, it is finally possible to modify the CREATORS and CHARACTERS lists of your comic entries!
Also, once the upcoming version 8.5 of the CLZ Comics app is live (early next week), it will be possible to sync those customized cast and crew lists to the CLZ Comics mobile app.
Continuing with our quest to revamp and re-design features and screen of the Connect web-based software. Today we took on the Import from CSV/TXT screen.
Connect and CLZ Cloud users often ask us about printing or exporting only a part of their collection, e.g. “how do I print just my wish list?” or “how do I export a list of just one series?”.
Now, this was possible, but it took a few steps that were not intuitive for many users. You had to:
- Make the selection in the main screen first, e.g. by using folders, the collection status filter or the search box
- Checkbox all comics in the selection, using the checkboxes in the list
- Then use the Print or Export button on the special blue action toolbar above the list
With today’s update, we are making this a lot easier. And while we were at it, we also freshened up the user interface of the Print to PDF and Export to CSV screens.
Great news for all our German-speaking customers: starting today the Connect web software is also available in German!
Our programmers have been working for months to make the Connect software available in other languages (other than English). This meant:
- Make the Connect software translatable, to ensure that all interface texts come from a translation database.
- Making a nice and easy translation tool for our translators, so that they can translate all texts efficiently and also maintain the translation when new functionality is added.
- And of course, to do the actual translation.
And today we can take the next step: Connect is now available in German!
Coming up soon: the ability to add and edit the creators and characters lists, in both the CLZ Comic mobile app and the Comic Connect web-based software. And of course, the syncing of these custom lists between the desktop, web-based and mobile editions.
Read more
Fixed:
- When adding an issue for a new series, the series sort name was not downloaded from Core
- Updated the link to the online manual in the app menu
- The search filter in multilevel folders wasn’t always remembered when navigating back out of a folder
Improved:
- Adding by Barcode: the last barcode you scanned is now automatically selected in the queue
- Further improvements for sorting text with numbers in it (especially with – symbols)
- Faster sorting, resulting in overall performance improvements especially for large databases
(most noticeably after clicking the Add button in the Add Comics screen)
Fixed:
- Adding: the app could crash while adding a comic
Fixed:
- When using multi-level folders, the folder panel search text would sometimes copy over to the next folder (and not be remembered when going back)
- After syncing, the main screen did not always refresh
- A crash could occur when entering Selection Mode in Card View if no cards were available
- A crash could occur when selecting folders
- When switching between collection statuses while in multi-level folders, the app could show a wrong selection of items
- The app crashed on devices with iOS13
- iPad: The folder panel search did not have an “X” to clear the search
- iPad: Cover Flow: A crash could occur when using the Select Random Item button.
Fixed:
- Shake to Shuffle could cause a crash in some cases
- Opening an item, swiping to the next, then edit “in-details-panel” would reset the details to the first item
- Add Screen: Scanning a barcode: When the device was rotated, the barcode scanner could stop working
- Add Screen: Tapping between results could end up showing a different result
- Multi-level folders: When using the “Show sort names” feature, the breadcrumb at the top could show strange sort names for certain folders
Fixed:
- Fixed a possible Crash on startup
Fixed:
- Main screen: Tapping a Series from the search suggestions would not show the Series.