What's new?

Fixed:

• In some case, new entries added through Add from Core would get images with .tmp extensions, instead of .jpg.
• Editing pick list items directly from the folder panel did not work anymore.
• Dragging items between folders did not work anymore.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger!

Here’s another big update for your Music Collector software, with two further performance improvements:

Faster image downloads

We were able to make several improvements to the way images are downloaded (cover art), making it much faster than before.

This change affects all places where images are downloaded from our servers, that is, when Adding Albums from Core, when Updating from Core and when down-syncing from CLZ Cloud.

Faster Update from Core

On large collections the old Update from Core feature was quite slow, as it updated your albums one by one, that is, doing separate requests to our server for each and every album.

So for this update, we also complete rewrote the Update from Core feature to do the updates in batches of 100 albums at a time, making it much much faster! (roughly 4 times as fast).

Remember: Update From Core can be used to update your local album entries with possible extra data from our Core online music database. To use this feature, select some albums, right click, then choose Update from Core.

Fixed:

• Add Albums from Core: when adding by barcode and the barcode is not found, it now automatically pops up the Unrecognized Barcode screen, so that you can 1. add the album anyway and 2. report the missing barcode to our Core.
• When using My Rating as the folder field, the “0” folder was missing.
• When using multiple levels of folders in the folder panel, sometimes the displayed counters were wrong.
• Images View: it is now possible to change thumb size using Ctrl + mouse wheel.
• Card View: Composer will now show instead of artist if it is filled in.

Fixed:

• Images View: Improved spacing between thumbnails
• Images View: Mouse over on images didn’t show the title of the item
• Cover Flow: Now uses big sharp images instead of the small thumbnails
• Find Cover: Could give an Access Violation when finding GIF images

In yesterday’s build the thumbnails couldn’t be set as small as they used to and we forgot to put in the dark background for the classic images view. Both fixed now!

Fixed:

• Thumbnails can now be set as small as before
• Classic shelf in dark skin: dark background was missing

When users send us screenshots during support conversations, we are seeing that many of you are using the Shelves View when browsing your collections. And we can’t blame you, that IS a cool looking view 🙂 However, it *could* be a bit slow and jerky, especially when displaying many cover images in one list.

So our Windows guy Joe has spent several weeks to make this Shelves View faster and smoother. At the same time, our in-house graphics man AJ has created two new Shelf styles. Here’s what’s new:

• Images are now loading a lot faster.
• Scrolling is faster and smoother.
• Shelves background is smoother, no more visible tile edges.
• Shelves now always continue over the full width, even when a row is not full.
• Two new Shelf Styles are now available: White and Concrete.

The new “White” style:

The new “Concrete” style:

One of the most common complaints about the CLZ Music app has always been the lack of support for multi-disc albums. So we finally sat down and designed a good user interface to fix these problems once and for all.

The solution we implemented has two parts:

Add Albums screen: Add as Multi-Disc Album

This lets you add your new multi-disc albums the right way, straight from the Add Albums screen. Just select multiple 1-disc results and add them combined into a multi-disc album.

Merge existing albums into a Multi-Disc Album

This is for existing entries in our app, where the discs of a multi-disc album may be listed as separate albums. You can now combine/merge these into one album with multiple discs. Just tap and hold to select the albums, then select MERGE from the menu button.

Redesigned Select Folder Field screen

Through the years, the number of available folder fields has grown enormously, making the Select Folder Field screen a bit “unwieldy”. We decided to come up with a better solution.

This update includes a re-designed Select Folder Field screen, with all folder options nicely grouped under sensible headers, and the most popular options (Artist, Genre, Format) instantly accessible at the top.

Fixed:

• In the Add from Core screen, when adding an album that is already in your app as ‘On Wish List’ or ‘On Order’, the app will now offer to change its status to ‘In Collection’
• When scanning barcodes the “beep” sound would only sound on the first scan
• Search on own collection could be forgotten during scrolling/browsing your collection
• Field defaults screen could cause a crash

One of the most common complaints about the CLZ Music app has always been the lack of support for multi-disc albums. So we finally sat down and designed a good user interface to fix these problems once and for all.

The solution we implemented has two parts:

Add Albums screen: Add as Multi-Disc Album

This lets you add your new multi-disc albums the right way, straight from the Add Albums screen. Just select multiple 1-disc results and add them combined into a multi-disc album.

Merge existing albums into a Multi-Disc Album

This is for existing entries in our app, where the discs of a multi-disc album may be listed as separate albums. You can now combine/merge these into one album with multiple discs. Just tap and hold to select the albums, then select MERGE from the menu button.

Redesigned Select Folder Field screen

Through the years, the number of available folder fields has grown enormously, making the Select Folder Field screen a bit “unwieldy”. We decided to come up with a better solution.

This update includes a re-designed Select Folder Field screen, with all folder options nicely grouped under sensible headers, and the most popular options (Artist, Genre, Format) instantly accessible at the top.

Fixed:

• Details view didn’t show multiple artists for single tracks
• Edit Screen: disc button could change colors when it shouldn’t

New in the Cover tab of your Edit screen: built-in Crop and Rotate tools for your cover images!

Super useful for fine-tuning images that you uploaded or found through the Find Online tool. You can even Crop/Rotate images that you received from Core, in which case they will be automatically turned into a custom image.

To use the new Crop/Rotate tools, open your Edit screen go to the Cover tab and click the “Crop/Rotate” icon on the top right above the Front or Back cover image:

Then:

• Click the Rotate icon to rotate the image 90 degrees to the right.
• Drag the blue crop rectangle to indicate your desired crop area.
• Click Apply to apply the changes.

After feedback from some of our most active Music Connect users, we decided to make several improvements to the track editing on the Tracks tab of the Edit Album screen:

• After clicking Add Track, the cursor is automatically put in the Title box of the added track.
• Hitting Enter while in the Title box of the last track now automatically adds another tracks AND puts the cursor in its Title box.
• Re-order discs by dragging the disc tabs.
• Use checkboxes to select tracks. From the blue action bar that appears, you can now:
  • Remove the selected tracks
  • AutoCap the selected tracks
  • and (NEW): move the selected tracks to another disc

New in Connect today: We have added several keyboard shortcuts to the most commonly used features:

For the Main screen:

• Navigate through your items with your arrow keys (works in List, Images, Shelves and Card View!)
• Use c + a or c then a for Add from Core
• Use c + m or c then m for Add Manually
• Use c + h or c then h for Add Hardware from Core (Game Connect)
• Use c + j or c then j for Add Hardware Manually (Game Connect)
• Use c + e or c then e for Edit Selected Item

For the Edit screen:

• Use cmd/ctrl + s to Save and close
• Use cmd/ctrl + j to Save and go to Previous item
• Use cmd/ctrl + k to Save and go to Next item

Fixed:

• Fixed several issues with AutoSync that could cause Access Violation errors
• Updated a couple of translations

Fixed:

• When downloading new entries from CLZ Cloud, previously cleared fields could get filled in.
• In the Add from Core screen, when adding an album that is already in your app as ‘On Wish List’ or ‘On Order’, the app will now offer to change its status to ‘In Collection’.
• On devices with intermittent internet connection, app could revert to trial mode
• After down-syncing updated cover images, the list could still show old cover.
• Improved error messages in case of core search problems.

Faster CLZ Cloud syncing!

We have made several structural changes to the CLZ Cloud syncing, making it much much faster than before, especially when syncing large amounts of entries up to the CLZ Cloud or down from the CLZ Cloud.

To enjoy the faster syncing, you need to use the actual Sync with CLZ Cloud screen.
(The Auto-Syncing in the background is also slightly faster now, but if you need to sync many entries up or down, please use the Sync with CLZ Cloud screen.)

Fixed:

• Link to Core: changing the search criteria could crash the program
• Add screen: changed the “already in collection” font color in dark skin to be more readable
• Main screen: The “Rating” column could not be moved to a different place
• Improved cover scaling for syncing
• Field Defaults: Location field was missing
• Manage pick lists: Compositions: next/previous buttons wouldn’t save certain fields
• Editing an album could multiple the length (time) of an album
• Subtrack length wasn’t shown in the template

In the Add Albums from Core screen, it was already possible to select multiple 1-disc search results and add them together as one multi-disc albums. But, as of today, you can also merge existing albums in your database into a multi-disc album.

Just select them in your list with the checkboxes, then select Merge Albums from the blue Action bar.

See this feature in action here:

Previously, the “Add to …” button in the Add screen let you choose between “Add to Collection” or “Add to Wishlist”. But as of today, you can now choose from ALL possible Collection Status option directly. For instance, this lets you add an item as “On Order” straight from the Add screen!

Now, the possible choices are:

• In Collection
• For Sale
• Wish List
• On Order
• Not In Collection

Fixed:

• Scanning CDID would give the “no results” entry before the actual result

A big update for Music Connect again, in which we introduce many new settings for further customizing your software to your own liking.
And while we were at it, we updated the Settings screen with clearer grouping and naming of settings.

Here’s what’s new:

Auto Capitalization

This is a completely new feature, for automatically capitalizing your album titles.
Auto capping can be done:

• when adding albums from Core. This is OFF by default as our Core delivers nicely capped album titles in general.
• as you type titles in the Edit and Add Manually screens, very useful when adding albums manually
• by clicking the AutoCap (aA) button above the Title box in the Edit screen

The Settings screen lets you choose between 4 Auto Cap methods:

• First Letter of Each Word with Exceptions
• First letter only with exceptions
• UPPER CASE
• lower case

The Auto Cap Exceptions list comes pre-filled with a sensible list of common exceptions, but is completely user configurable.

Date Format

Choose how date formats are displayed throughout Connect.

Timezone

Choose your own timezone and all Date Added and Date Modified fields will be displayed according to that timezone. (previously these all showed in UTC time)

BTW: also new today: new column options Date/Time Added and Date/Time Modified, for showing the full added and modified timestamps.

Sorting

Four new options that control the sorting and how names and titles are displayed.

• When sorting, ignore sort titles: check this if you prefer to ignore all sort title when sorting and just have the software sort on the regular Title field.
• When sorting, ignore sort names for Artists, Composers and Conductors: check this if you prefer to ignore all sort names when sorting and just have the software sort on the display name field.
• When displaying, show sort title: when sorting by title, showing the actual sort titles that it sorts on can make your list a bit “easier on the eye”.
• When displaying, show sort names Artists, Composers and Conductors: showing the actual sort names for persons can make your list a bit “easier on the eye”.

Faster CLZ Cloud syncing!

We have made several structural changes to the CLZ Cloud syncing, making it much much faster than before, especially when syncing large amounts of entries up to the CLZ Cloud or down from the CLZ Cloud.

To enjoy the faster syncing, you need to use the actual Sync with CLZ Cloud screen.
(The Auto-Syncing in the background is also slightly faster now, but if you need to sync many entries up or down, please use the Sync with CLZ Cloud screen.)

Improved stability when using Auto-Syncing

At the same time, we have resolved several issues with the Auto-Syncing in the background, problems that could cause Access Violations in some situation. So this 20.2 version should provide a more stable experience too.

A very nice cosmetic update for your Connect software today: a new “Shelves View”!

Shelves View is a fourth view for your album list, similar to Cover View, but with your cover images standing on a nice shelves background. You can even choose between 6 different shelf styles using the Shelf Style selector:

• Wood Light
• Wood Dark
• Glass
• Metal
• Carbon
• White

Also new, for both Shelves View and Images View, as “Size Slider” to control the size of the images.

Toolbar tweaks

Because of the introduction of the new view, the Shelf Style selector and the Size Slider, we have also made several changes to the various Connect toolbars:

• A new “View” toolbar right above the list, with 4 buttons for switching between the 4 views (List, Card, Cover and Shelves), the Size Slider and the Style Selector (for Shelves) and finally the Sort Order button (on the far right).
• The new “View” toolbar replaces the “Filter” toolbar that was in that spot.
• The “Filter” toolbar now only appears when a filter is actually active, and now has a pale yellow background to make it super-clear that you are looking at a filtered list.
• The number of albums indicator has been moved (back) to the center of the top toolbar.

Faster CLZ Cloud syncing!

We have made several structural changes to the CLZ Cloud syncing, making it much much faster than before, especially when syncing large amounts of entries up to the CLZ Cloud or down from the CLZ Cloud.

To enjoy the faster syncing, you need to use the actual Sync with CLZ Cloud screen.

(The Auto-Syncing in the background is also slightly faster now, but if you need to sync many entries up or down, please use the Sync with CLZ Cloud screen.)

New design for Sync with CLZ Cloud screen

While we were at it, we decided to do a quick make-over for the Sync screen, with a new look and layout and a direct link to your CLZ Cloud page online.

Fixed:

• Manually added albums could get an empty RPM

Faster CLZ Cloud syncing!

We have made several structural changes to the CLZ Cloud syncing, making it much much faster than before, especially when syncing large amounts of entries up to the CLZ Cloud or down from the CLZ Cloud.

To enjoy the faster syncing, you need to use the actual Sync with CLZ Cloud screen.

(The Auto-Syncing in the background is also slightly faster now, but if you need to sync many entries up or down, please use the Sync with CLZ Cloud screen.)

New design for Sync with CLZ Cloud screen

While we were at it, we decided to do a quick make-over for the Sync screen, with a new look and layout and a direct link to your CLZ Cloud page online.

Fixed:

• Made the touch area for scrollbars a bit bigger (useful for quick scrolling)

It’s been a bit quiet with Connect updates in the past 2 months, as we have been preparing a *huge* update. BUT it is live now!

All settings are now saved server-side, in your CLZ Cloud

We have taken the advantage of the Connect web-based software to the next level, by storing all your settings on the server side, your CLZ Cloud (instead of in local browser cookies).
So any computer or device you log in to will automatically have the same folder option selected, the same columns selected for the list view, the same sort order, the same layout, etc..

Connect now even stores your Add screen’s barcode queue on the server side, so you scan barcode into the queue on one computer and process the queue later, from any other device.

All your existing settings will be automatically transfered to the server, the first time you login.

BTW: this change finally resolves the problem of losing all settings for users who have their browser configured to remove all cookies on exit.

Create your own Favorites for Columns and Sort Orders

While we were working on the settings, we figured this was a good time to add some more customizability to the Columns and Sort Order features. You can now create and save your own Column and Sort Order settings as Favorites, then easily switch between them.

To create and manage your Favorites, click the Column or Sort Order button and choose Manage Favorites:

Manage Column Favorites:

Manage Sorting Favorites:

The new 20.1 version introduced smarter automatic album grouping when scanning a folder of music files. For some users this could introduce bad album grouping (for instance if you have your multi disc albums as loose folders together with other loose albums of the same artist).

This version introduces a checkbox at the top of the Add/Link Music Files screen to disable smart album grouping and tries to focus on your album tags only. Keep in mind that your file tags should be correct to make this work.

New:

• Checkbox to enable/disable smart album grouping based on folder structure.

Improved:

• Add/Link Music Files defines loose albums even better now.

Fixed:

• Edit Screen: adding files on the tracks tab wasn’t working correctly

This one is for the music file catalogers among you! In this version 20.1, we have enhanced the music file cataloging features of Music Collector and added support for more file formats.

What’s new?

• Better reading/writing of file tags:
  • Support for FLAC file tags (READ/WRITE) + covers and disc indexes.
  • Support for DSF file tags (READ ONLY).
  • Support for AIF file tags (READ ONLY).
  • Support for ID3v2 tags (READING) (ID3v3 was already supported).
  • If the tags for number of discs for your music files is off, the program will recognise the issue, and won’t create empty discs.
• Better parsing of folders and file structure:
• Improved album parsing based on folder structure (also looks at disc indexes or disc numbers in folder titles).
• The program now tries to look for CD1/CD2 or Disc 1/Disc 2 folders and use that information accordingly.
• New Parse Settings button that takes you to the Options screen to add “parse formats”.
• Creating a new parse format: You can now click a parse item to add it.
• Edit Screen: you can now browse and select multiple files in one go to add to the file links tab of an album.

Now recognises multiple file tags better and groups multi-disc albums better:

Now finds the cover inside FLAC files:

Fixed:

• Submitting an album to Core could generate a wrong error.