What's new?
Earlier this year, we updated our Connect software to make it fully localizable / translatable. Shortly after, we went live with Dutch and German version of Connect.
Today, after the hard work of three loyal CLZ users, three more language options went live on the site:
- French
- Spanish
- Hungarian
Thank you, Philippe, Rafael and Pető!!
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
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-game “Demo Mode” for new users
For new users who just downloaded the app, we introduced a new “Demo Mode” that lets you add 5 games before committing to the actual 7-day free trial subscription.
Fixed on Android:
- Edit Comic: When you’ve edited something, and you tapped “Next”, it would skip an item.
v23.3: Simplified Sort Name editing for all pick list entries
We have simplified the database structure and editing of person pick list items and other pick lists with sort names. In the past you had editable fields like First Name, Last Name and “The”, which worked together to generate a SortName.
Now it is much simpler and easier. There is just a Display Name and Sort Name for each of the pick list fields.
This change makes it easier to set Sort Names for your entries AND this simple database structure better matches the database structure of CLZ Cloud and CLZ Games, resulting in more accurate data syncing.
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 platform?”.
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 games 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!
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
Fixed:
- Adding: the app could crash while adding a game
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
Improved:
- Add Screen: Loading details panel of a result feels a bit faster now
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
- Backdrops could still show behind the list when switched off in Settings
- Add Screen: Scanning a barcode: When the device was rotated, the barcode scanner could stop working
- Multi-level folders: When using the “Show sort names” feature, the breadcrumb at the top could show strange sort names for certain folders
Fixed:
- Card View: titles were sometimes displayed wrong.
- Fixed a couple of folder labels that were displayed wrongly at the top.
- iPad: made the switching between folders appear more smooth.
- iPad: breadcrumb wasn’t always displayed correctly when backing out of a folder.
A huge update for your CLZ Games mobile app today, which introduces a powerful feature for browsing and filtering your game collection: using multiple levels of folders.
Previously, it was only possible to use one level, so either Platform folders OR Genre folders OR Completeness folders OR Location folders, etc… But starting with this version, you can use nested folders, so for instance, use Platform folders, then within each platform folder have Genre folders.
A nice update for all Connect users who use multiple collections, especially for those who have a LOT of collections.
New in this re-design:
- Single row tab-bar. No more lost screen estate caused by multiple rows of tabs.
- Got more tabs than fit on screen? Scroll the bar horizontally.
- Or use the next/prev buttons on the right to jump page by page.
- Alternatively, click the menu icon on the bottom left to pick a collection from a menu.
- The menu also provides quick access to the Manage Collections screen.
- Drag tabs to change their order.
- Double click a tab to rename a collection.
A big project our web-dev team has been focused on the past few months is making our Connect web-based software available into other languages. A huge project that consists of:
- Making the software translatable, basically ensuring that ALL UI text is retrieved from a translation database.
- Creating a nice and easy web-based CMS tool that translators can log in to and translate text, preview in Connect, etc…
- Doing the actual translations of all UI texts.
And today we can finally show the first results: Connect is now available in Dutch!
Yesterday, Youtuber Mystic (over 700 thousand subscribers) featured our CLZ Games app in a video where he is cataloging his games and checking their values.
Fixed:
- Sorting problems for certain fields
- Several small Add Screen stability issues
Fixed
- When using “Update Value” on a game, it would sometimes grab the wrong value (e.g. loose+box while you asked for loose+manual)
- Dark Skin: In the Folder panel, we’ve made the barchart color a bit brighter.
- In the Pre-fill popup you could not select an “empty” item for pick lists.
- Sorting your list by date wasn’t always working properly.
- When using “Export to XML” or “Save Database As” the program will check if the file already exists.
V23.2: Now supports our new CLZ Scanner barcode scanner app
As announced last weekend, here it is, Game Collector version 23.2 for Windows, with full support for our new CLZ Scanner barcode scanner app!
And as indicated earlier, support for the old CLZ Barry scanner app has now been removed.
Also new in this version: Improved support for barcodes that were used over multiple series.
What is CLZ Scanner?
The aptly-named “CLZ Scanner” is a barcode scanner app, nothing more, nothing less. It is an app that you use on your phone to scan barcodes and then instantly send those scanned barcodes to the Add Games screen of the Game Collector software running on your computer. From there, you can then easily and comfortably add the scanned games to your computer software.
CLZ Scanner replaces the old CLZ Barry app.
v23.1: Game trailers now appear as clickable thumbnails
Another update for your Game Collector software, that could make using the software quite a bit faster and more responsive!
In this update, we are changing the way Youtube trailer videos are shown in the details panel. Instead of an embedded YouTube player (which can be very slow to load), the trailers are displayed as a list of video thumbnails and title. Just click to open the video on the Youtube site.
This new setup has the following advantages:
- Browsing through your games is a lot faster now.
No more annoying “hangs” while the Youtube video loads. - It resolves the problem of many videos not being “allowed” to be embedded nowadays.
- Clicking a trailer will now always open it in your default browser!
(previously it always opened in Internet Explorer)
New:
- Menu now shows last “PriceCharting Values update” date
- Menu now shows last “Sync with CLZ Cloud” date
- Improved messaging for subscription status
Fixed:
- After searching in your own collection by scanning a barcode, the result will now show instantly
- Add Game: when scanning a barcode and then add manually, the barcode is now filled in
Changed:
- Improved messaging for subscription status
v23.0: New: Updated Values report and more value data from PriceCharting
After months of working on comic related updates only (for our CovrPrice partnership), the CLZ team is finally freed up to work on our other products again, phew!
So today, we can release a nice update for your Game Collector software, in which we improve on the Pricecharting integration for getting game values.
- New “Updated Values Report” after updating values from PriceCharting
- Support for the separate Box Only and Manual Only values
- Support for the Graded values (“Graded” is now an extra Completeness option)