News: all updates for our software and apps (page 57)

We got a couple of reports about an error happening with the new security build which has been addressed in 18.4.2.

A BIG update for your Movie Collector software today, with an important change:

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 18.4, Movie Collector 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 Movie Collector software only communicates with those secure entry points.

For your privacy and security, we strongly recommend updating to version 18.4.

Fixed:

• Movies added through a box set that were supposed to get a format set sometimes didn’t.
• It was possible for movies added through a box set got the box set cover instead of their own movie cover.
• The ‘Unrecognized Barcode’ popup would crash the app on iPad.

During 2017, our content managers worked for months to enhance our Core online movie database with movie list information for thousands of multi-movie box sets.

As of today, CLZ Movies can use this new Core data: Just use the enhanced Add Movies screen to find a box set, either by title or by barcode, and our Core “knows” which movies are in the box.

See it in action:

Find and add box sets by barcode

Scan a box-set barcode and Core will show you which movies it contains. Click Add to Collection at the bottom right and all contained movies will be added to your database, automatically linked by a box set entry.

Find and add box sets by title

Alternatively, use the Title tab and enable the new Box Set search to find box sets by their title.

Note: the new Movies, TV Series and Box Sets switches now let you search each of these three Core section separately OR combined.
AND: The switches also operate on the Search-As-You-Type suggestions, for even quicker searching and adding!

New box set panel on movie details page, with movie list!

A nice new box set panel at the top of the movie details for each of the contained movies. Now showing the list of the contained movies, in the correct order, AND with clickable links to go straight to the other movies in the set!

Change the order of movies in a box set

At the bottom of the list of movies you will find a link to “change order of movies…” to modify the order in which the movies are displayed in the details page.

Two updates for the Book Connect software and the CLZ Cloud viewer today. One a big step forward in usability, the other a nice cosmetic improvement:

Book Details now integrated in main screen

Up till now, when you clicked a book entry to see its’ full details, you were taken to the book details page, that is, a new page in your browser. One had to click “Back” to get back to the book list again. Often resulting in an annoying back and forth clicking, each time causing you to lose your position in the list.

But not anymore! Starting with today’s update, the book details are now integrated in a panel within the main collection view:

No more back and forth clicking. Just click a book entry to see its’ details, click another one to see that book’s details. Nice and easy, never lose your spot again.

Choose from two Layouts:

• Horizontal Split: folders on the left, list on the top right, details on bottom right
• Vertical Split: 3 panels side by side, folder, list and details

In either layout, the 3 panels are fully resizable by dragging the black “splitter bars” between the panels, so that you can customize the layout to your own liking.

The book details panel comes with its’ own “action bar”, with the main actions you may want to take on the selected book (Edit, Share, Delete, Duplicate, Loan and Link with Core).

Improved Cover View and Card View

At the same time, we made some small tweaks to both the Card View and Cover View, so that they’re making better use of your specific screen width. Both now use a “fully justified” layout, with the Cards auto-resizing to fit your screen width and the Cover distributing over the width, both resulting in a cleaner, less “jagged” view.

Two updates for the Game Connect software and the CLZ Cloud viewer today. One a big step forward in usability, the other a nice cosmetic improvement:

Game Details now integrated in main screen

Up till now, when you clicked a game entry to see its’ full details, you were taken to the game details page, that is, a new page in your browser. One had to click “Back” to get back to the game list again. Often resulting in an annoying back and forth clicking, each time causing you to lose your position in the list.

But not anymore! Starting with today’s update, the game details are now integrated in a panel within the main collection view:

No more back and forth clicking. Just click a game entry to see its’ details, click another one to see that game’s details. Nice and easy, never lose your spot again.

Choose from two Layouts:

• Horizontal Split: folders on the left, list on the top right, details on bottom right
• Vertical Split: 3 panels side by side, folder, list and details

In either layout, the 3 panels are fully resizable by dragging the black “splitter bars” between the panels, so that you can customize the layout to your own liking.

The game details panel comes with its’ own “action bar”, with the main actions you may want to take on the selected game (Edit, Share, Delete, Duplicate, Loan and Link with Core).

Improved Cover View and Card View

At the same time, we made some small tweaks to both the Card View and Cover View, so that they’re making better use of your specific screen width. Both now use a “fully justified” layout, with the Cards auto-resizing to fit your screen width and the Covers distributing over the width, both resulting in a cleaner, less “jagged” view.

Two updates for the Music Connect software and the CLZ Cloud viewer today. One a big step forward in usability, the other a nice cosmetic improvement:

Album Details now integrated in main screen

Up till now, when you clicked an album entry to see its’ full details, you were taken to the album details page, that is, a new page in your browser. One had to click “Back” to get back to the album list again. Often resulting in an annoying back and forth clicking, each time causing you to lose your position in the list.

But not anymore! Starting with today’s update, the album details are now integrated in a panel within the main collection view:

No more back and forth clicking. Just click an album entry to see its’ details, click another one to see that album’s details. Nice and easy, never lose your spot again.

Choose from two Layouts:

• Horizontal Split: folders on the left, list on the top right, details on bottom right
• Vertical Split: 3 panels side by side, folder, list and details

In either layout, the 3 panels are fully resizable by dragging the black “splitter bars” between the panels, so that you can customize the layout to your own liking.

The album details panel comes with its’ own “action bar”, with the main actions you may want to take on the selected album (Edit, Share, Delete, Duplicate, Loan and Link with Core).

Improved Cover View and Card View

At the same time, we made some small tweaks to both the Card View and Cover View, so that they’re making better use of your specific screen width. Both now use a “fully justified” layout, with the Cards auto-resizing to fit your screen width and the Covers distributing over the width, both resulting in a cleaner, less “jagged” view.

Two updates for the Comic Connect software and the CLZ Cloud viewer today. One a big step forward in usability, the other a nice cosmetic improvement:

Comic Details now integrated in main screen

Up till now, when you clicked a comic entry to see its’ full details, you were taken to the comic details page, that is, a new page in your browser. One had to click “Back” to get back to the comic list again. Often resulting in an annoying back and forth clicking, each time causing you to lose your position in the list.

But not anymore! Starting with today’s update, the comic details are now integrated in a panel within the main collection view:

No more back and forth clicking. Just click a comic entry to see its’ details, click another one to see that comic’s details. Nice and easy, never lose your spot again.

Choose from two Layouts:

• Horizontal Split: folders on the left, list on the top right, details on bottom right
• Vertical Split: 3 panels side by side, folder, list and details

In either layout, the 3 panels are fully resizable by dragging the black “splitter bars” between the panels, so that you can customize the layout to your own liking.

The comic details panel comes with its’ own “action bar”, with the main actions you may want to take on the selected comic (Edit, Share, Delete, Duplicate, Loan and Link with Core).

Improved Cover View and Card View

At the same time, we made some small tweaks to both the Card View and Cover View, so that they’re making better use of your specific screen width. Both now use a “fully justified” layout, with the Cards auto-resizing to fit your screen width and the Covers distributing over the width, both resulting in a cleaner, less “jagged” view.

Two updates for the Movie Connect software and the CLZ Cloud viewer today. One a big step forward in usability, the other a nice cosmetic improvement:

Movie Details now integrated in main screen

Up till now, when you clicked a movie entry to see its’ full details, you were taken to the movie details page, that is, a new page in your browser. One had to click “Back” to get back to the movie list again. Often resulting in an annoying back and forth clicking, each time causing you to lose your position in the list.

But not anymore! Starting with today’s update, the movie details are now integrated in a panel within the main collection view:

No more back and forth clicking. Just click a movie entry to see its’ details, click another one to see that movie’s details. Nice and easy, never lose your spot again.

Choose from two Layouts:

• Horizontal Split: folders on the left, list on the top right, details on bottom right
• Vertical Split: 3 panels side by side, folder, list and details

In either layout, the 3 panels are fully resizable by dragging the black “splitter bars” between the panels, so that you can customize the layout to your own liking.

The movie details panel comes with its’ own “action bar”, with the main actions you may want to take on the selected movie (Edit, Share, Delete, Duplicate, Loan and Link with Core).

Improved Cover View and Card View

At the same time, we made some small tweaks to both the Card View and Cover View, so that they’re making better use of your specific screen width. Both now use a “fully justified” layout, with the Cards auto-resizing to fit your screen width and the Covers distributing over the width, both resulting in a cleaner, less “jagged” view.

Up until today, the quick search box in Comic Connect (and the CLZ Cloud viewer for comic) only searched in the Series title, Issue title, Barcode and Tags fields. Pretty limited, but necessary for performance reasons.

However, with the new search engine we created last year, it became possible to search more fields while keeping the search super-fast. So lets use that capability!

From now on, if you use the search box, it will also search in many more fields. The complete lists of fields that are now searched:

• Series Title
• Issue Title
• Barcode
• Crossover
• Story Arc
• Series Group
• Plot
• Tags
• Notes

Example: searching for the crossover “Crisis On Infinite Earths” will return all issues that are part of that crossover:

As some of you may know, we have a page detailing the 50 most popular movies of this week in our Core online movie database. It also details the new DVD, Blu-ray, 4K releases for last month and this month.

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could quickly add those to your Collection or Wish List? Yes. It would. So we added 2 new tabs to the Add Movies screen!

New: Most Popular tab

Open your Add Movies screen and click the “Most Popular” tab to see the 50 most popular movies of this week in our online movie database. Select one to add it to your collection or wish list!

New: New Releases tab

The second new tab in the Add Movies screen is the “New Releases” tab showing you all new releases of last month and this month. Use the little expand button to see which editions are new (including their release date!).

Up until today, the quick search box in Movie Connect (and the CLZ Cloud viewer for movie) only searched in the Title, Year, Barcode and Tags fields. Pretty limited, but necessary for performance reasons.

However, with the new search engine we created last year, it became possible to search more fields while keeping the search super-fast. So lets use that capability!

From now on, if you use the search box, it will also search in many more fields. The complete lists of fields that are now searched:

• Title
• Title Extension
• Original Title
• Series
• Episode Titles
• Year
• Barcode
• Plot
• Notes
• Tags

Example: searching for “hogwarts” will return all Harry Potter movies, because the word appears in the plot summary:

This June 2018 newsletter is all about the extra fields that we added to the movie, comic and music editions of Connect, the CLZ Cloud syncing and the CLZ mobile apps, all based on your requests and suggestions in the past few years.

But first, a quick reminder of this week’s CLZ Summer Sale (3 days left!):

CLZ Summer Sale: Pre-pay for 1 year and get 6 extra months free!

This week only, for all Update Plans and Connect subscriptions:
Pre-pay for 1 year and get 6 extra months free!

LOGIN to the Summer Sale page here

More fields for Cloud, Connect and CLZ mobile apps

For many years, the CLZ Cloud has been at the center of all our cataloging solutions. Starting out basic, with most of the details shared from our Core, but through time enhanced with more and more cloud fields, so that you can sync your own data between desktop, mobile and Connect.

Adding new fields to the CLZ Cloud is a *lot* of work, as it requires changes to the cloud storage itself, to the Connect web-apps and to the syncing system. Then when that’s done, all desktop programs and mobile apps need to updated to support the new sync fields. Quite a project, involving *all* CLZ developers.

To make this as efficient as possible, we usually bundle the field additions, doing all requested fields in one go. Last year, the CLZ Clouds for books and games have received a big upgrade with extra fields, plus we added track list syncing to the music cloud.

Now it is time to add a lot of fields to the movie, comic and music editions:

New fields for movie cloud:

• Is TV Series (yes/no)
• Release Date
• Runtime
• Audience Rating
• Region
• Studio
• Distributor
• IMDb Number
• IMDb Rating
• Box Set

All of the above fields are now fully editable in Movie Connect, fully editable in CLZ Movies and now sync your own data between Movie Collector, CLZ Movies and Movie Connect. Of course this requires the latest versions of Movie Collector and CLZ Movies.

New fields for comic cloud:

• Edition
• Crossover
• Story Arc
• Imprint
• Age
• Cover Price
• Cover Date

All of the above fields are now fully editable in Comic Connect, fully editable in CLZ Comics and now sync your own data between Comic Collector, CLZ Comics and Comic Connect. Of course this requires the latest versions of Comic Collector and CLZ Comics.

New fields for music cloud:

• Original Release Date
• Packaging
• Media Condition
• Vinyl Color
• Vinyl Weight
• RPM
• Disc Titles
• Composer Sort Names

All of the above fields are now fully editable in Music Connect.
Updates to support the new fields are coming up for all Windows, Mac, iOS and Android editions, within 4 weeks.

New in Connect: selection checkboxes and action bar

A cool user interface update for the Connect software, in which we makes it easier to select items and easier to perform batch actions on the selected items.

Select using checkboxes

To select items, just click the checkboxes on the left of each entry in the list. Checkboxes are also available in Card View and Images View, just hover your mouse over an item.

No more need to go into “Select Mode” first. The Select Mode is automatically activated as soon as you checkbox the first movie, clearly indicated by the blue Batch Action Bar that replace the regular toolbar.

Batch Action Bar

While in Select Mode, the blue Batch Action Bar appears, always showing you the number of selected entries. Also:

• Use the “Select all” checkbox to select all entries in the current list in one go
• Use the “x Cancel” button on the right to leave Select Mode
• And of course, use any of the action buttons (Edit, Delete, Print, Export, Duplicate and Loan) to perform an action on the selected items

New in Movie Connect: Automatically add multi-movie box-sets

Yes, this time-saving tool finally made it to the Connect edition!

See it in action:

Just use the enhanced Add Movies screen to find a box set, either by title or by barcode, and our Core immediately shows which movies are in the box. Click Add to Collection at the bottom right and all contained movies will be added to your database, automatically linked by a box set entry.

Enjoy!

We fixed an issue in two panel mode where, on start-up, the items in your database sometimes wouldn’t show up correctly.

We fixed an issue in two panel mode where, on start-up, the items in your database sometimes wouldn’t show up correctly.

We fixed an issue in two panel mode where, on start-up, the items in your database sometimes wouldn’t show up correctly.

We fixed an issue in two panel mode where, on start-up, the items in your database sometimes wouldn’t show up correctly.

We fixed an issue in two panel mode where, on start-up, the items in your database sometimes wouldn’t show up correctly. We also addressed a problem with cover prices not syncing up correctly.

By popular demand, we have added 8 more fields to Music Connect, and we’ve moved some fields around. Most new fields can be found on the new “Edition” tab in the edit album popup!

• Packaging
• Media Condition
• Vinyl Color
• Vinyl Weight
• RPM
• Disc Titles
• Composer Sort Names (use the Manage Pick Lists page to modify sort names of composers)
• Original Release Date (this one exists next to Release Date)

Of course, most fields can also folder grouped on, added as column, sorted on, etc.

Note: We renamed the old “Condition” field to “Package/Sleeve Condition” so you now have a “Package/Sleeve Condition” field and a “Media Condition” field.

We will be adding these fields to the desktop and mobile app sync within a couple of weeks too.

Fixed:

• Main Screen: The width of the columns wasn’t remembered correctly sometimes.

Fixed:

• Main Screen: The width of the columns wasn’t remembered correctly sometimes.

Fixes:

• Several Access Violation errors in the main screen.
• List View: Double clicking on checks would make list unresponsive.
• Edit Screen: Using Next/Prev would cause strange effects with checkboxes in main screen.
• Main Screen: The width of the columns wasn’t remembered correctly sometimes.
• Main Screen: “Follow album” option didn’t work correctly.
• Multiple Selection Action Bar didn’t always show the “check all” check box when switching between Album and Track view.

Fixes:

• Several Access Violation errors in the main screen.
• List View: Double clicking on checks would make list unresponsive.
• Edit Screen: Using Next/Prev would cause strange effects with checkboxes in main screen.
• Main Screen: The width of the columns wasn’t remembered correctly sometimes.

Fixes:

• Several Access Violation errors in the main screen.
• List View: Double clicking on checks would make list unresponsive.
• Edit Screen: Using Next/Prev would cause strange effects with checkboxes in main screen.
• Main Screen: The width of the columns wasn’t remembered correctly sometimes.

Fixes:

• Several Access Violation errors in the main screen.
• List View: Double clicking on checks would make list unresponsive.
• Edit Screen: Using Next/Prev would cause strange effects with checkboxes in main screen.
• Main Screen: The “keep filter active” checkbox and “Reset Filter” button were hidden.