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Here is a first draft of information about the Advanced Find. Let me know if something needs to be added, deleted, modified, or explained better. ******************************************** I believe the database currently used by CB is SQLite. Here is a link to the SQL (Structured Query Language) for SQLite Select. https://www.sqlite.org/lang_select.html Here is a link to the Built-in Scalar SQL Functions https://www.sqlite.org/lang_corefunc.html Because of the limits put on Advance Find, a lot (most) of the SQLite documentation is of no use but it will get you the syntax for the ones you would use. (NOTE: I am supplying these links in case they help someone. Personally, I would use them as examples of how NOT to write a manual. I know what I am doing with SQL and I find these (while accurate) are to read/follow.) ******************************************** The Query functionality in the Advanced Find is limited to just the WHERE clause. You can't control the Select (what columns are returned), the From (the tables involved), or the Group By (used with Aggregate Functions like Sum, Count, Average, etc.). The main reason for this business decision is that every row returned has to be unique to allow them to be updated (changed) individually. Below are sections that are explained in more detail below: Data Types Comparisons Order By Random Notes ******************************************** DATA TYPES: To make it simple, there are just four Data Types (there are actually sub-types for some of these). Text: This is character data and can contain any alpha/numeric/special characters. All Text searches are case-insensitive (ignores case of letters). The constant compare value needs to be contained in single 'tick' marks (double 'tick' marks also work but single is the more standard way). I.[Title] = 'batman' This will return just the one Title 'Batman" as it is an exact match (and shows that Case doesn't matter) Date: This contains Date information. It has to be a valid date. (i.e. Feb 31, 2021 is NOT a valid date). Despite the display of the date in CB as m/d/YYY, the date in SQLite is in ISO standard format of YYYY-MM-DD. This is important because... I.CoverDate = '2020-12-01' will return rows (assuming there is data with that value). I.CoverDate = '12/1/2020' will NOT return any rows. Also it has to be an exact match as all the digits are important: I.CoverDate = '2020-12-1' will NOT return any rows. And like Text, Date constants need to be contained in single 'tick' marks. Number: This contains Numeric information (Integer or Decimal). I.QtyInStock = 2 I.IssueNum = 0.5 I.IssueNum = -1 Binary: This is represented by a Check-box. It is a True/False or 1/0 value. As you can see it has two states. Basically, it translates to 'Is Checked' or 'Is Not Checked'. These are equivalent and will return rows where the CustomCheck2 check-box IS Checked I.[CustomCheck2] IS True I.[CustomCheck2] = 1 And, as you might guess, change to False or 0 to find if a check-box Is Not Checked. ******************************************** COMPARISONS: When using the Where clause, you are normally comparing a Column value to a constant to find something. Some comparison operators are: = Equal To <> Not Equal To < Less Than > Greater Than <= Less Than or Equal To >= Greater Than or Equal To These work as you would expect: I.Title = 'Batman' (Finds Only exact match) I.Title <> 'Batman' (Finds All except 'Batman') I.Title < 'Batman' (Finds All from !Gag! (Harrier) to Baticomic) I.Title > 'Batman' (Finds ALL from 'Batman & Robin (Panini Deutschland)' to '…One to Go') I.Title <= 'Batman' (Same as < but also includes 'Batman') I.Title >= 'Batman' (Same as > but also includes 'Batman') BETWEEN: Syntax is BETWEEN x AND y It is inclusive (meaning the value of X and Y will be included in the results). It is equivalent to using the >= and <= together. For example, these produce the same results: I.IssueNum BETWEEN 5 and 10 I.IssueNum >= 5 AND I.IssueNum <= 10 Either of these will find all IssueNum values of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 (assuming only integer values and the value exists). Note: X has to be Less than (or equal) to Y for it to work. This is easier to see if you use the >= and <= I.IssueNum BETWEEN 10 and 5 is equivalent to I.IssueNum >= 10 and I.IssueNum <= 5 There can't be a value that is both Greater than 10 and Less than 5 IN: Syntax is IN (value1, value2,...) Searches for a list of possible value instead of just one. It is equivalent to using multiple = comparisons. For example, these produce the same results: I.IssueNum IN (5, 8, 25, 32) (Note: the values can be in any order) I.IssueNum = 5 OR I.IssueNum = 8 OR I.IssueNum = 25 OR I.IssueNum = 32 Either will find all IssueNum values of 5, 8, 25 and 32. IS: This one is a little different it only has a couple formats: IS True IS False It is mainly used for Binary Data Types. (NOTE: there is also an IS NULL but that should rarely be needed. What is does is check to see if a column contains NULL. NULL is nothing. It is not a 'space' or an empty-string. Rarely, you may need it if a column in CB allows NULL and you need to find them.) LIKE: Syntax is I.Title LIKE 'Batman%' This will find values but uses wild-card symbols to allow finding non-exact matches. The wild-card values are Percent ( % ) and Underscore ( _ ) where a % represents zero to many characters and _ is one and only one character. (NOTE: You can use multiple _ in a row to indicate a specific number of characters.) Examples: I.Title LIKE '%Batman%' will find anything that contains 'Batman' in it (NOTE: Just because % is at the beginning doesn't mean that there has to be something in from of 'Batman' in the Title.) I.Title LIKE 'Bat%Man' will find anything that starts with 'BAT' and ends with 'MAN' and may or may not have other values between them. I.Title LIKE '_Batman' will find anything that that starts with a single character before 'Batman' (NOTE: There has to be a value as this will NOT return just 'Batman') I.Title LIKE '_atman' (one underscore) will return anything that starts with some single character and ends with 'atman' (i.e. 'Batman', 'Catman, 'Ratman') I.Title LIKE '__man' (two underscores) will return anything that starts with two characters and ends with 'tman' (i.e. 'Batman', 'Catman', 'Hitman', 'Ratman') I.Title LIKE '______' (six underscores) will return anything with 6 characters (i.e. '10 Gen','Action', Batman', 'Zordon', etc.) (There are also some NOT versions, like NOT BETWEEN, NOT IN, and IS NOT but NOT logic is best left to Expert Advanced users (or insane ones...). Having said that, they can be useful on occasion so I am at least mentioning them) Boolean Logic Expressions: The Where clause uses Boolean Logic Expressions. Besides the more familiar operators (<, >, =, etc.), it also includes AND, OR, and NOT. They are used to concatenate single comparisons into more complex comparisons. For the Where clause, the comparisons have to end up as TRUE to return rows. With AND, all comparisons have to be True for the Where clause to evaluate as True and return a row. With OR, at lest one comparison has to be True for the Where clause to evaluate as True and return a row. Here is a list to show how this works (the values True and False are being used as the comparisons to emulate the result of comparisons): AND- All have to be True: 'True' AND 'True' evaluates to TRUE , row returned. 'True' AND 'False' evaluates to FALSE, row NOT returned. 'False' AND 'True' evaluates to FALSE, row NOT returned. 'False' AND 'False' evaluates to FALSE, row NOT returned. OR- At least One has to be True: 'True' OR 'True' evaluates to TRUE , row returned. 'True' OR 'False' evaluates to TRUE , row returned. 'False' OR 'True' evaluates to TRUE , row returned. 'False' OR 'False' evaluates to FALSE, row NOT returned. This is also the case for more that two comparisons: 'True' AND 'True' AND 'True' evaluates to TRUE, row returned. 'True' AND 'True' AND 'False' evaluates to FALSE, row NOT returned 'True' OR 'False' OR 'True' evaluates to TRUE, row returned. 'False' OR 'False' OR 'False' evaluates to FALSE, row NOT returned. You can use both AND and OR in the same Where clause but you need to be aware of the Order of Precedence (the order the expressions are evaluated in). AND is processed before OR. To make it easier on you, it is best to use Parenthesis to control the order the comparisons are done. Consider this: I.Title = 'Batman' OR I.IssueNum = 2 AND I.Printing = 2 OR I.Variation = 'HC' I.Title = 'Batman' OR (I.IssueNum = 2 AND I.Printing = 2) OR I.Variation = 'HC' At first glance, the first one is hard to tell what is going to happen. The second one, with parenthesis, is what it actually being done. With the parenthesis, it is easier to see that it will return Any Batman rows, along with Any rows with IssueNum 2 & Printing 2, along with Any rows that have a Variation of HC. While it is still a complex query, it should be easier to understand what will happen. Here is another similar comparison where the only difference is the ANDs and ORs: I.Title = 'Batman' AND I.IssueNum = 2 OR I.Printing = 2 AND I.Variation = 'HC' (I.Title = 'Batman' AND I.IssueNum = 2) OR (I.Printing = 2 AND I.Variation = 'HC') Again, while both will return the same rows, with the parenthesis, it is easier to see that this will return Any Batman with IssueNum 2, along with Any row that has Printing 2 and Variation HC. ******************************************** ORDER BY: There isn't much to say about the Order By clause. It pretty much does what you would expect. Sorts the resutls as requested. The one thing not obvious is you can control the direction of the ordering with ASC (the default value) or DESC. I.Title ASC would sort A-Z and/or 0-100 (ASC is the default and you don't need to add it) I.Title DESC would sort Z-A and/or 100-0 You can mix and match the use of ASC and DESC I.Title ASC, I.IssueNum Desc I.Title Desc, I.IssueNum Desc, I.Variation ASC Keep in mind the Data types when doing sorts. Number and Dates sort as you would expect. Text sorts characters from left to Right. If you have what looks like numbers in a Text field, the sort order would be 1, 10, 100, 2, 20, 200, etc. It would not be 1, 2, 10, 20, 100, 200. The following will sort the results the same way (or at least very similar) to the way CB sorts its display: I.Title, I.IssueNum, I.ItemType, I.Variation, I.Printing ******************************************** [start 2022-01-14 addition] DATA TYPES: Strftime: Strftime allows you to access a date in different ways. The basic syntax is: strftime(format, column-name) Some of the more useful formats are: %m month: 01-12 %d day of month: 00 %w day of week 0-6 with Sunday=0, Saturday=6 %Y year: 0000-9999 NOTE: the format character is case-sensitive. Use upper/lower case as shown. The Month format is probably the most useful as it can be used with both CoverDate and StreetDate. While Day of Month and Day of Week can be used with either, most CoverDate Day values are 1 (excepting items put out multiple times a month) and wont' really get you useful results. While the Year function does work, it is not as efficient as using BETWEEN: strftime('%Y', I.CoverDate) = '2002' takes 23 seconds to process I.CoverDate BETWEEN '2022-01-01' and '2022-12-31' takes 1.75 seconds to process You can also combine this with the BETWEEN function to limit the year ranges for a result. Some examples: Find all items with a day of '15': strftime('%d', I.StreetDate) = '15' Find all items with a day of '15' for years 2000-2009: strftime('%d', I.StreetDate) = '15' AND I.CoverDate BETWEEN '2000-01-01' AND '2009-12-31' Find all items with a day of Wednesday': strftime ('%w', I.StreetDate) = '03' [end 2022-01-14 addition] ******************************************** RANDOM NOTES: What is Item # and why not to use it in Order By: While Item # is the displayed value, it isn't the best field to do Finds with, in most cases. Item # is composed of 4 other columns. They are, in order, ItemType, IssueNum, Variation, and Printing. Item # 1/HC-2 is composed of: ItemType: none used (or regular issue but don't try to find regular issue in ItemType as it is only a display item) IssueNum: 1 Variation: HC Printing: 2 If you try to use Item # in the Order by, it will sort all ItemTypes first. Also, Item # is a Text field and NOT a numeric. You will also get 1, 10, 100-109, 11, 110-119, 12, 120-... This is why it is better to use the various components of the Item # instead of Item # itself when sorting to match CB order: I.Title, I.IssueNum, I.ItemType, I.Variation, I.Printing ====== Use of [] in Column names: Some of you may be curious what the brackets ( [] ) around column names are for (and why I don't use them). If the creator of a Table use a column name with a space (i.e. 'Issue Number') then it is required to enclose it in brackets ( [Issue Number] ) when referencing it so the database sees it has a 'single' name. If there is no space (i.e. IssueNumber), then the brackets are optional. Since the SQL processor adding the columns doesn't know if there are spaces or it, it defaults using brackets, just in case. It doesn't hurt to have them and not need them. However, to me, they just clutter up the display of the query (the less I have to look at and ignore, the better) so I never type them in when I write a query. A similar point could be made for parenthesis. Most SQL processors put way too many, unnecessary parenthesis in their statement. Don't get me wrong. As I showed above, parenthesis can (and sometimes must) be used to make the query either easier to understand or do what you want. But the over-use of them can make for a cluttered query. (Okay, my pet peeve part of this manual is over (for now...)) ====== [end 2021-12-30 addition to cover different Types and Columns] How to use Publisher Title columns in Advanced Find: One thing you may notice, is that only ISSUE columns are available in Advanced Find in the drop-down box. In the old days (pre-CB 2020) there used to be "I" (Issue tables) and "T" (Title tables) where you could access Publisher in Advanced Find. The "I" and "T" were qualifiers to indicate which table a column is in. --- Quick aside (geek alert)... The "I" in I.Title is the qualifier (or identifier) of a Table as defined in a From clause (since the From clause has not been displayed, you can see it directly). It is only really needed if you have more than one Table in the From and you Join them together (i.e. Issue table and Title table). The syntax would look like this: From Issue_Table I inner join Title_Table T on I.Title = T.Title The only thing you need to get from this is that the column Title is in both Tables. Because of this it needs to be qualified when reference (i.e. I.Title for the one int the Title_Table) --- Sadly, with CB 2020, only "I" table columns are (readily) available. However, there is a second way to qualify a column and that is with the actual Table name. So, while you can't select Publisher from the drop-down box, you CAN use it by qualifying it with the actual table name like this: ComicTitles.Publisher = 'Marvel' BookTitles.Publisher = 'Ballantine' MagazineTitles.Publisher = 'Time' ComicTitles.[CustomCheck1] IS TRUE BookTitles.[CustomCheck1] IS TRUE MagazineTitles.[CustomCheck1] IS TRUE NOTE: This is a non-supported feature which may or may not work in future releases of CB. (Maybe HC will make Title columns available in the Advanced Find in the future (hint, hint, hint, please...?) [start 2021-12-30 addition to cover different Types and Columns]

Mark, I just did the Friday update. It added 300MB to my dB for all the new Magazine entries. How many of your existing customers have a use for all 5,000 issues of The Daily Telegraph from Australia? This is just bloating the dB and making the updates take a lot longer. I would really, really encourage you to allow all of us existing users to CHOOSE whether we want all the Magazines in our local dB or not. And if you start bloating the dB with 'Books', then please add the same option there too. I subscribe to ComicBase to manage my Comics. Nothing else matters to me.

If this is feature I cannot find it. A comic, for example Action Comics 1000, has several issued 1000 with different variants. 1000a, 1000b, and so on. ( I think it has over 50 different covers) I would like a feature that allows me run reports of missing comics of variant covers only if I want them. If I have any issue of Action 1000, I want it to allow me to say I have it. So much space in my reports of missing comics are of variant covers I don’t want. I just want to have an entire run sequentially. Does that make sense? Jason

Instead of creating a new title, porting over a user's existing stock, and then deleting the old title, I think that there might possibly be another way to accomplish the same thing. CB could issue a program update that (for example) looks to see if the user has the title Star Wars (1st series) in their database(s). If they do, the update says something like: "This update will rename your existing title Star Wars (1st series) to Star Wars (1977 series). All of your inventory and issue data will be preserved, only the title will be changed to match to master database. Click "yes" to continue. If you click "no", this update will keep your existing title and create a new, separate Star Wars (1977 series)." For the users that click "yes", the updater will execute the "Modify Title" function to change the series title to Star Wars (1977 series). I imagine that something analogous could be done to change the Media Category for titles as well. I believe that the weekly content updates only import data into your database, so this kind of solution would almost certainly have to be done via a program update.

I would advise against putting an issue number in the title. A few years ago Marvel put out Marvel Comics #1000 and then followed up with a sequel Marvel Comics #1001. Murphy’s Law says that if you create a title Marvel Age 1000, there will be a follow-up Marvel Age #1001 or #2000 or #2099 or something. If you don’t put the issue number in the new title today then there is less of an opportunity for facepalming tomorrow. 🙂

I appreciate the mobile scanning feature when I'm out searching for comics. I have three suggestions and reasons for them to improve the app. 1. How many of us have been out and repurchased a 3rd or 4th of something we already have? (Raising Hand) this guy right here. Being able to cut down on that (unless I wanted to add another copy) and having access to my collection information on my mobile was one of the biggest selling points for me and keeps me renewing my membership. With that said, when you scan in a comic, and it populates with the content of that comic, it would help a lot if it also informed you if you already have this book in your collection with a line item titled "Own _____" above the "Add Qty___" line. I point this out because we either have to be the Rainman or be a Mentat to recall that information right then and there or leave the scan to go back to our Auto Report and scroll for days through our collection to see if we have it or not. 2. MN Guide data. It's great to see the NM Guide cost once the scan pulls up; however, if selected from the "Condition" pull down, another helpful thing might be to know the cost at that chosen condition. Right now, the feature of # of copies on Atomic Avenue is a great alternative to get price ranges, but again it takes us out of the app (well, not me; I have a dual-screen LG), and there are cases there are no available copies on Atomic Avenue so you would then have to click on Writer or Artist to get into Atomic avenue and manually type in the title. 3. If we scan it, another great addition would be another line item showing if we already marked this issue as one of our coveted "Wanted" items and, if not, the option to add it to our database as one we did want if we decide not to buy it at that time. I am pleased with the app and its faster scanning and pulling up comics when I'm out. I have realized that after you scan and go back to scan again, you have to tap the screen for the camera to open again. This might be something with my mobile, but I'm not sure. Thanks again to the app's programmers for making our (my) lives much more manageable.

Repoke suggestion for a Livestream conversation (assuming it didn't already happen, I missed few). Would like to see what new and modified information submissions look like from their side of the screen.

Adrian, this is a common and serious flaw in CB pricing algorithm. They base part of the price on the offered sales prices in AA. There are 6 seriously overpriced comics for sale for Superior Iron Man #8 right now. Those all get folded into the new 'value' in the weekly update. If there are no other sales, then the ONLY factor in the price will be those for sale. If any seller automatically adjusts their selling price based on the new update, then their issue for sale goes up (or down) every week! This is a serious problem that I have pointed out for years with using 'for sale' prices in AA. If the issue is widely traded, it's not that big of a deal. But if there aren't a lot of sales, then it radically skews the prices up or down depending on the sellers pricing. I wish CB would just drop the whole for sales pricing part of the model. But, it's always been this way and it's a problem.

If it helps this gemstone publishing site seems to list most (if not all) of the different versions: https://gemstonepub.com/price-guides/comic-book-price-guides/?sort=newest&limit=100&mode=1&page=1 Specifically, for #39, there appears to be: CB Item # Site description ---------- ----------------- HC 39/A HC Avengers 7.0 x 9.25 $35.00 TPB 39/A SC Avengers6.5 x 9.25 $30.00 (no cover, assuming you want both Avengers cover to be the same variation of A) HC 39/B HC Invaders 7.0 x 9.25 $35.00 (Captain America, Human Torch, Sub-Mariner) SC Invaders 6.5 x 9.25 $30.00 (Captain America, Human Torch, Sub-Mariner) Not in CB. Probably TPB 39/B SC Mass Market edition 6.5 x 9.25 $30.00 (the JSA with the yellow background) Not in CB. Same size as other SC, so probably TPB 39/C

It is 'Captain America (1st Series)' #Anl 2.

Hi, @Steven L. Dasinger Thanks for your reply. It's not that that titles have to change, it's that they can change. What #1 shows is that titles can change even for something as simple as a stray space or to correct an article placement, while #2 seems to be locked in amber especially for something like the Metal Men mini-series -- even though changing it would make it easier for all collectors to find. While I would prefer the year of release in the title rather than Series 1, Series 2, etc., I'd be find with it just to bring consistency. Don't get me wrong, I applaud the grammar and article corrections of #1, but I find it baffling that there is a reluctance to apply organizational standards to titles in a program designed to organize a comic book, book, or magazine collection. I think that this is the main frustration of myself and my fellow users. Thanks for listening, Walt

In addition to slowing things down, without the knowledge I now have from digging all over for information on these books, it doesn't make any sense. The original title was "Justice League" in 1987 but that became "Justice League International," which changed titles in 1989 to "Justice League America." The trouble is that the books in question were placed under Justice League America, throwing a word into the title that is nowhere on these books. I understand that these two have the same writer/artist as was on the main title at the time but finding it would be near impossible without knowing that or looking for the title.

Hi, Randall-- I get it and, unfortunately, I'm learning to live with it, too -- but it really SLOWS things down when you have to stop and wonder 🤔, where is this thing going to be found in CB? Let's go on a scavenger hunt!

Although ComicBase is an amazing program and the defacto standard for cataloging a comic book/magazine/book collection, it suffers from a major defect and that is how titles are created, named, and maintained especially if a title ends and is restarted with a new number one adding it as part of a series. A classic simple example of this is DC Comics's Metal Men, e.g. Metal Men Metal Men (3rd Series) Metal Men (4th Series) Metal Men (Mini-Series) In the example above, Metal Men (Mini-Series) would ideally be Metal Men (2nd Series). However, there is an underlying decision that makes renaming Metal Men (Mini-Series) problematic, as described by Pete, and that is that the title name is used as the foreign key in, what I presume, is the Item table. This defect can make it difficult to locate a specific title, organize titles in order of their publication and often results in additional titles added for titles that already exist. Based on the comments of @Peter R. Bickford in the live stream of 4/13/2022, it seems that it is unlikely to change. I think that's a shame since organization is the major component of a database application. After giving this just a little bit of thought, I think this may be a starting point of a solution that could solve the problem. Caveat: I'm suggesting this without knowing the intricacies of the DB structure and would welcome input. I expect that moving forward with this will not only take time to mull over but to implement as well, but ultimately will make ComicBase an even greater product than it already is. Here's my take: Create a new field called DisplayTitle in the table that contains Title. Copy the values of the existing Title field into DisplayTitle. Use this DisplayTitle for searching and display. When a new title is created either by CB or a user, copy that value into the DisplayTitle field as well. If a DisplayTitle needs to be changed, CB verifies the new display title, changes it and voila, after the next update, the title can be found and sorted correctly. This would allow the implementation of a title naming standard perhaps using the indicia, year, and even the publisher of the title. Something like Metal Men (1993 Series) (DC) The benefit of this is if the standard changes, titles can be easily updated. This solution addresses some of the problems that @Peter R. Bickford brought up in the live stream. It doesn't violate the foreign key constraints between Title and Item. It easily allows for renaming the DisplayTitle if the indicia changes between solicitation and publication of the title. There is no requirement to shift data around in the tables and potentially mess up a user's data, since it's simply a DisplayTitle change. I'd love to see something like this implemented. --Walt

But, of course, that requires one to properly match your understanding of which type of item you are scanning with how it is currently entered in ComicBase...

I'm wondering if newspapers could be spun off to their own section, separate from the Magazines section. As I mentioned earlier, I don't want to exclude magazines entirely. I would, however, exclude newspapers if I could. I can see where tracking all of that stuff in Human Computing's master database might be worthwhile for them, but I doubt many of us want to house a mega-database on our own systems. As ComicBase grows and expands well beyond comics, there may be a need to devise more ways for users to select the portions that meet their needs and exclude those that don't. I've got plenty of magazines related to comics and entertainment, but I don't need a newspaper index. I've got plenty of books, but I don't need an index of romance paperbacks or theological volumes.

Thanks for the catch! We've revved the setup sheet for the scanner here to remove any extra spaces that get inserted: https://www.comicbase.com/Support/CB_Wireless_Scanner_Easy_Setup.pdf The latest build of ComicBase (build 1669) also handles the issue. -Pete

There's also an additional benefit to this approach... it allows a user to define his own display name. It a setting is added to not override DisplayName, a user could easily maintain their own names.

That's my feeling as well for the same reason.

I think it's a great idea, I'm just afraid this is going to die on the vine and I'll be complaining about it again the next time I come across a crazy title.

It's worth noting that the confusion over incorrect and inconsistent titles in ComicBase cascades over to Atomic Avenue as well. So while we ComicBase users can figure things out and learn to work with them as they are, random shoppers using Atomic Avenue may not have a clue. It requires a bit extra to find issues of Donald Duck published by Gladstone, for example, if you don't realize that they will be listed under the title Donald Duck (Walt Disney's...) where the publisher is listed as Dell. I'm not yet selling on Atomic Avenue, but I imagine that more clarity and accuracy would positively affect sales. There are also seemingly random titles that are sometimes assigned to specials and FCBD comics. I've had difficulty finding some of those in the database. My most recent example: I just picked up a copy of a Doctor Who comic book that was exclusively released for the 2015 San Diego Comic Con. The cover logo only says Doctor Who, with 2015 Exclusive San Diego Comic Con International in the bottom corner. The indicia says Doctor Who: San Diego Comic Con Exclusive. I didn't find this among the existing Doctor Who entries, so I added it with the title from the indicia to my database. Only later did I accidentally stumble upon its existing entry: it's under Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor as #0. There are a few problems with this: (1) There is no "#0" anywhere on the actual comic book; (2) The San Diego comic does not precede the publication of #1--it came out around the time of #10; (3) Although the San Diego comic features the twelfth Doctor and is related to that series, the words The Twelfth Doctor appear nowhere in its title, unlike the series; and (4) While I might understand an argument for keeping the San Diego comic under this series as a Special Edition instead of #0, other Doctor Who convention specials are listed under their own titles, not as special editions of regular series, so there would still be a lack of consistency. It's a problematic, hard-to-find entry, yet I don't think it can be fixed without screwing up someone else's existing inventory. Publishers have definitely made a mess of things to untangle, and they are not themselves consistent, so discrepancies are bound to occur. I only wish they were easier to correct when pointed out, with some mechanism to transfer users' existing quantities to the corrected title or issue number. I understand that there are technological limitations in place, and circumventing them is well beyond me, but I hope someday this can be worked out.

I'm not sure if this was covered in an earlier video, I haven't watched the whole back catalog, but I think a good topic I would like to see a couple of examples of what a reviewer of submissions sees when reviewing submissions and how they process them. A couple of examples would be helpful - a wholly new issue, an edited Title description, an edited Notes, a newly-supplied Cover Artist, etc. What kinds of things are easily recognized, what kinds of things are best warned about ahead of time (and how to bring them up, and to whom).

Both the AA and the mobile app functions are pretty important, actually, especially as more items that were tracked in the original "single category" configuration of ComicBase get moved into the Magazine and Book categories.

I would put your collection in some kind of order first. It can alphabetical, divided by publisher, divided by character, whatever works for you. Putting the books into CB won't be an overnight process and having some system in place will make it a lot easier to step away whether it is for a day or two or a few months and get right back into the groove when you return. Creating a space is a great thing to do if you can. Setting up on the dining room table is fine until you have to clear it off for dinner. If you can have some little corner to yourself, you can bring in a box at a time and get them entered. Assuming you are using regular comic boxes, whether the long ones or short ones, find a divider of some kind. I taped two backing boards together so they stood out above the books by a couple of inches. Put that divider at the back of the box, behind all of the books, then as you enter books, move them behind the divider. This keeps the books in a single box and in the order you started with while making it clear what has and has not been entered. Bar code scanner or no, if you're having trouble finding a book in CB, you can enter the UPC numbers by hand. It may be slow but if it's only for the random difficult to find book, it works really well. Given that your collecting took off in the 80s and 90s, it is possible that you will have some small press stuff that is either not in the system or is difficult to find. That's a great time to post on the forums to ask where they might be. Don't get discouraged! That's a lot of books to enter and will take time a regular life pushes comics out from time to time. You will get it done!

Store variants and online store variants are tricky for us because our solicitation data mainly comes from Diamond and Lunar distribution who don't care them. Thank goodness for our user community who send in data for variants we aren't aware of. Unfortunately, we can have users assign different store variants than others possibly messing up what you might have set yourself for a variant. Not sure there's a good way to get around this, you might want to email support@comicbase.com about a store variant you might have assigned just so we know not override it if a different store variant it comes in.

If it is an older comic, the odds that two missing variants would be submitted in the same week are probably low. But for new and fairly recent comics, I can see this as a concern. You can always post on these boards or email support, that gives Marc, Pete, or somebody else at HC to communicate back to you if they will be using a different variant designation than the one that you selected.

For deletions, the best bet would be to either email support or post on these boards. The correction submission function from your database doesn't really handle deletions... and deletions often require some sort of explanation anyway, so best to do that via email or public board posting. Generally speaking, go ahead and create the entry in CB and submit. But, if you are entering something that is complicated for some reason, then posting to the boards can generate some helpful discussion. Also, if you can't find a fairly common title, it might be best to post on the boards for assistance before you create an entry. Hypothetical example: you can't find the 1970's Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man series... posting on the boards will result in somebody pointing out that the title is already in the database as Spectacular Spider-Man, The. Usually the reason behind that occurrence is that the existing cover file is larger than the cover file that you want to upload. The fix is to email the cover to support. Good rule of thumb: if the thing that needs correcting is complex and/or nuanced, please post on the boards! Even though these boards aren't necessarily a high traffic location on the interwebs, there is a pretty good pool of expertise here (from both HC and from CB users) that things often get sorted out pretty quickly. 😁

It would be interesting (to me at least) to have a better understanding of how database corrections are processed when they are submitted through CB via the "Submit New or Corrected Data" feature. Filling in an empty field seems pretty straightforward, but what if the correction is deleting duplicate or extraneous information? If someone thinks they have found a new title, is it appropriate to create an entry in CB first and submit it that way, or would that be better for the message board? How much headache do I cause when I upload a correction, immediately realize that I left something out or spelled something incorrectly, and then upload a corrected correction? What happens when I am trying to submit a corrected or larger cover image without any other data changes, and the CB software doesn't ask me for my cover? Did I just submit a "correction" that matches the master database 100%, and does that cause any confusion? Even if not, what is the best way then to get that cover-only correction to the team? I think having a better idea of how the corrections are processed or compared against the master database could help users decide whether it's best to submit something through CB, take it to the message board, or send a direct e-mail, and do so with the minimum amount of confusion for the CB team having to figure out the intent of the user while wading through multiple and duplicate submissions.

Not sure if it's feasable, but how about a button for, download covers for all titles in stock/in collection?

I can't comment intelligently on the cause of value changes without knowing your collection--all we really do is compute rolling averages on market pricing (a couple million data points each week). That said, one of the features we're looking to incorporate soon is to automatically generate a list of top dollar and percent gainers each week for your collection as it does the update, as well as other reporting tools. Watch for it as we get underway by checking the interim builds page on comicbase.com > support -Pete

I love being able to check my collection on the go using the app, but I have a pretty long wish list and a ton of titles in my collection so sometimes I really need to scroll a lot to get to the title I am interested in. A drop-down list allowing you to jump directly to a title or being able to search would make the reports much easier to use. Is this doable?

It might be a good idea to add the Mark/Unmark back to the context menu as well. We omitted it since the menu seemed to be getting awfully long, but it'd likely be a good idea to put it back. (You never really know how much some features are being used until you try omitting them from a version!) -Pete

The most recent content update deleted the GL issue, so the combined title is the one to use.

Because it collects only a couple of issues, the item type would be set to 'Collector's Set' rather than a 'regular issue'

Whichever is appropriate. Honestly, I didn't put that much thought into it. <Given name> <Family name> is the format for most of the creators in the database, but there's nothing stopping the reverse order if that's what's called for. All that being said, I'm fine with whatever the editors decide (it may not be my preferred solution, but that doesn't make it wrong).

i'm for keeping everything where they are and use of the "Item Title" field and/or Notes field to explain what each are if necessary

This works. I had to do it to my iPhone. https://webtrickz.com/exclude-apps-from-dark-mode-iphone/

We'll be posting revised CB2023 FREE Installer in about a hour that should be fix the problem.

The most recent update added the comic title Krampus: A Yuletine Adventure. That should really be Krampus: A Yuletide Adventure.

I don't know what that means but I think we both want some way to better organize titles. The answer from CB shouldn't be "We're not going to do anything."

Thank you for this. I'm not a computer guy so I get lost in the jargon. I believe what you are suggesting is exactly what I have in mind. That said, it concerns me a bit that I had the same thought because HC has people trained in this and that have actually built all of this. Wouldn't they have already hit on it?

I *think* that in current practice the difference is that there is a function in the ComicBase program that allows you to change the media type of a title that you are viewing. This has the effect of allowing the user to shift their existing inventory for the old title that was in the incorrect media category to the new title that is in the correct media category. I suspect that this is relatively easy to program because the title name doesn't change at all, just the media category in which that title resides. For titles that get renamed, it's a little more complicated b/c you'd need to have a simple way for the user to point their inventory in the old version of the title to the new version since there are thousands of titles in the database... this is why I suggested that it might be easiest to do the inventory shift during the content update that actually adds the new version of the title. This isn't to say that the problem can't be solved, only that I am guessing that this is the reason why changing a title's name is more complicated than changing a title's format. (If I'm way off base on that, I am sure that @Peter R. Bickford can set the record straight!)

Randall is correct, changing longstanding titles now makes things problematic b/c existing users' inventory data would be turned into a mess. It's a legacy of a nomenclature decision that was made many many years ago when the re-re-re-relaunching of titles didn't happen and nobody could have predicted that it would become such a commonplace thing. I agree that designating repeated titles by volume # is much more cumbersome as compared to designating them by the year that they launched, and several sites already do this. (Marvel also does this when describing the contents of their trade paperback and hardcover collections.) Long ago (i.e., on the old CB msg boards) I suggested that this problem could be overcome if CB's content updates would (with the user's permission) move existing inventory to newly corrected titles... for example, if CB changed the existing Star Wars (1st series) to Star Wars (1977 series), then the update would give a pop-up window for the user to give permission for their old SW 1st series inventory to all be moved to the new SW 1977 series title. Nothing ever came of it, and my knowledge of programming is insignificant enough for me to have no clue as to whether my suggestion could actually be implemented. But if it could, it would allow CB to do a lot of clean-up that would make the program much more accessible to brand new users.

You assumption is correct. Since the cover scan was manually deleted (outside of CB) it has no reason to change the value. I would still contact support and see if they can figure out why your original database isn't updating the Picture Information.

Well, THAT only took almost a year instead of "a week or so". Unfortunately, there were some changes to the exported reports used as input data that requered some redesign, and it took waaaaaaaay longer than expected. Shows what shrinking free time will get you... @Fred Slota, I've uploaded the fixed version here: Thanks for your patience, and I hope it fits your needs. Adam

I had to drop off a few minutes before the Livestream ended last night but I went back to see what I had missed later in the evening. I just thought I'd mention that the entire video was still available and nothing had been cut. I'm not sure when you plan on making the cuts but I thought I would flag it for you. Although I must admit I'm glad that nothing has been cut yet otherwise I would have missed the final announcement!

I've had all the variants listed above in my collection for years and they are only now showing up as unrecognised items. From a collector's point of view, the kind of paper a comic is printed on makes a difference to me. I would would much rather have the glossy paper than newsprint as the glossy paper ages much better. I know that if I bought a comic off of Atomic Avenue with the expectation that it was printed on glossy paper and instead received one printed on newsprint, I would not be happy. And for what it's worth, I bought all the newsstand editions from mycomicshop.com, and they listed the newsstand and direct editions separately.

The "Titles" pop-up is the window that I think you are looking for. Does it have a "Modify" button in it? If so, then that is what you are looking for.

Until HC figures out an official way to way to check for any Titles that you have in your Database but are NOT in the Master Database HC maintains, here are steps to get the same (and better) information. It is better because the old method only found Titles. This method will find Titles OR Issues. 1) Make a copy of your database. Use Menu item File->Save a Copy and give it a new name. 2) Switch to the new copy. Use Menu item File->Open... 2.1) Optional. Change Theme. Use Menu item File-Theme... Using a color that is NOT your normal Theme will let you know this is NOT your real database. 3) Run an Update. Use Menu item Internet->Check for Updates This is only needed if you have not run the most recent update. If you are not sure you can 'force' an Update by Pressing and Holding the SHIFT key when selecting Check for Updates. 4) Set all comic Quantity in Stock to 0 NOTE: Make sure you ARE in you database copy (the Theme Color would help). You can check by looking at the title bar (far top left corner) where you ComicBase Edition (database name) is displayed. Use Menu item Items->Mass Change. Set Change: to Qty in Stock Click To: Value and enter 0. Apply To: All Titles. Click Make Changes. (This can NOT be undone. See Note about making sure what you are working with...) Do this for Comic Books, Books and Magazines. 4) Force an Update. Press and Hold SHIFT key while selecting Menu item Internet->Check for Updates Using the SHIFT key 'forces' the system to re-run the last update. 5) Display results. When the Update is completed, click the See What's New button. Anything Deleted (Titles or Issues, Comics Books, Books, or Magazines) is NOT in the Master database but WAS in your database. PS While these specific steps are for CB 2021 (and CB 2020), they should work for earlier versions.

make sure you are using the latest build for CB2020 (v20.0.3.3829), you can download/install the latest CB2020 program installer from your online account here: https://www.comicbase.com/mycb/Registrations.aspx Next, make sure in Sidekick's settings, that in the General Tab you have the desired database listed. If you don't see it, feel free to add it. Subtract any database from the list you don't use. Also, in the Schedule Tab, review what is set there. Ideally you want to schedule any of the options at a time when your computer is on and you're not using the main ComicBase software. Try to update after in Sidekick and see if that helps. If the problem persists, please email our team at support@comicbase.com