Fred Slota

Added question - If I'm remembering correctly, ComicBase didn't always have the Cover Artist field, so for a long time indicating the variant cover artist in the Notes field would have been unique and useful information, but once the Cover Artist field was introduced, retaining these notes is simply database bloat IMHO.

Still happening for me. Over two days. And yes, I'm getting an error message. Sorry if I wasn't clear, but it's the second paragraph from my original post. I've entered the issues in question manually on the PC, but I still need to merge that with the ones I entered in the app so I can adjust the totals.

My point being, if they (and, well, everyone) have the Cover Artist field, then they (everyone) have the information that different variations for a given item have different covers, and thus having generic statements of "Cover by xxx" or "Variant Cover by xxx" are a redundant repetition of data in the database.

Fir that matter, what happened to all those using ComicBase 2021 and earlier, since we moved those descriptions out of Notes and into Item Description, a field that the earlier databases don't have? What happens when updates in the Notes or Item Description are sent in from either version to end users using the other version.

Still having trouble checking for sales and purchases.

Do the Express users not have access to the Cover Artist field?

The database has a field for Cover Artist... Do we really need 10's of thousands of Item Descriptions of the form "cover by xxxxx"? I vote "no". The database separately identifies issue variants as 1, 1/A, 1/B... Do we really need 10's of thousands of Item Descriptions of the form "variant cover" if we already have different cover artists listed? I vote "maybe, but definitely no if we have a cover scans available. Descriptions with otherwise unencoded information, like "Retailer Excusive" or "1:10", or "Marvel Zombies cover" are useful and should be retained, I think.

I've used ComicBase Mobile to add issues to my collection, but ComicBase's "Check for New Sales and Purchases" has been failing for the last 12 hours, despite closing and reopening the program and resetting the PC. Is there an issue at the server end? Had trouble checking for new purchases. Check your internet connectivity and try again in a few minutes. Also be sure that both ComicBase and ComicBase Sidekick are added as allowed programs to any firewall software you're running. v22.0.0.1485

Content Update Top Gainers and Losers Owned, all 4 checkboxes, cover size 48, show 25 items Preview The first time I preview the report, the progress bar reaches 100% about half way through the process; there are many (25?) more issues mentioned as being accessed after the bar reaches 100%. Subsequent previews of the report (it's the only report I have looked at) preview way faster, with fewer items that I can see being processed.

Upgraded to Build 1485. Still no Item Description in any of the four places I mentioned above. Noticed an additional something; don't know if this was happening previously and I just didn't notice... So, focused on Comic Books, I opened the Advanced Find and looked for Item Description in the Fields drop down in the upper right of the dialog. Nope. Switched to Books and looked, switched to Magazines and looked, switched back to Comic Books and looked again. And when I looked through the Fields drop down in the upper right, there were now four full sets of field names. It appears that: 1) The system appears to be refilling the Fields drop-down box with all the fields appropriate for each Category, Comic Books, Books and Magazines, when switching between Categories in the dialog box without clearing the old fields. By starting in Comic Books and then switching to Books then Magazines then back to Comic Books, the drop down got loaded with the fields appropriate for Comic Books, Books, Magazines and then Comic Books again. 2) Since this Fields drop-down is being adjusted to be appropriate for each category, I presume it is supposed to be accessible in all three categories. For me, it is only visible when the Category of Comic Books is selected. It doesn't matter if I switch categories while in the dialog, or if I switch categories in the main window before launching the Advanced Find dialog; the Fields drop-down is only visible for Comic Books, not Books or Magazines.

Was about 80% humorous, 20% serious. Thank you.

Is this passively agreeing that ComicBase will accept this, or are you just teasing me with frustration and disappointment as I attempt to submit this modification in the notes field and wait to see it officially reflected? ?

You were assuming that they were originally identical titles. I was pondering if they were punctuated differently in a way that would end up clashing? Suppose a Publisher decided to introduce a pair of cliffhanger anthology series like DC Challenge, with two separate titles, say "And Now?" and "And Now!"? But I guess the answer is that ComicBase would append some parenthetical to at least one of the titles so they would be functionally separate, as in all those "(Series xxx)" addendums. Ah well.... Still leaves the skeleton program I listed above as functional, I think.

Actually, I believe you can. With the understanding that there should be one and only one title from a given publisher that would match. Wildcards. I.[Title] LIKE "Catwoman_ Lonely City" successfully found items with the Title "Catwoman: Lonely City". AND with Publisher and Bob (the Living Superman)'s your uncle. Incidentally, what would happen in ComicBase if there were two titles from the same publisher that both produced the same pictures folder? Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... MASS HYSTERIA?

Okay, so the entire process can't work backwards. But what about a process that uses my first post in this thread, and once we've determined that the title directory exists, then run through the jpgs to match to the database items in that title? Clear all database picture data. For Each (database Publisher) If (Publisher folder exists) For Each (database Title of Publisher) if (Title of Publisher folder exists) For each (jpg in Title of Publisher folder) If (database Item of Title of Publisher exists) update database from jpg info. Endif ; database Item of Title of Publisher Next ; jpg in Title of Publisher folder endif ; Title of Publisher folder Next ; database Title of Publisher endif ; Publisher folder Next ; database publisher Or possibly more efficient, use an internal flag on database items. Clear all flags at the start, set the flag for an item when it is updated from jpg info, and then at the end clear the database info for all items where the flag is still unset. This way, every database item's picture info is touched once and only once.

What about referring to them as being part of the DC Black Label, what is it, sub-imprint?

Any love for Center-Opening Double Gatefold? To my knowledge, and having just trawled lots of Item Descriptions, this appear to be a unique item

What does the program do to query if the issue number scan exists? Can that process return the picture dimensions? Can the Rebuild Pictures References process delete a thumbnail if it finds the current picture file has different dimensions than what is in the databsae? Of course, these will not work if the changed scan is the same size, but it would be better...

Thank you for the reply. I'm fairly certain there is something missing, as your description does not match the behavior that I have been witnessing for years using my two sets of scans. Up until this week, I have not been manually manipulating the thumbnails folder; I would simply switch my picture source and Rebuild the Picture References. If there was a title where all the items had official scans, but I personally own only a single issue and thus have a single scan, when I switched from official to personal and Rebuilt the Picture References, viewing this title there would be only a single thumbnail. Both sources would have folders for the Publisher and Title, the official with many pictures, mine with a single one. If the process you described above was truly the only thing happening, I would be seeing a fully populated set of thumbnails in this title when pointed at my scans and rebuilt. Somewhere there is a process that removes or suppresses thumbnails. Within the next day, I will run the process again taking notes on specific folder states and grid behaviors.

Should there be / Is there a designation for books of the size of recent DC Black Label books, such as Catwoman: Lonely City?

Does this cover fold like a standard gatefold along the right edge for the whole cover, or does it gatefold along the right edge for the right half of the cover only, or does it have a pair of flaps opening light left and right doors, or something else? If the third option, is this simply a Double Gatefold cover, or is there a better description?

A couple of suggestions on a theme. 1) Hard coded or programmable setting or pop-up offer to clear the thumbnail cache when changing the picture location directory. 2) Hard coded or programmable setting or pop-up offer to clear the thumbnail cache when rerunning the Rebuild Picture References process. Both of the above are processes where it is a reasonable assumption that picture information has changed, implying that thumbnails might no longer match. As an additional observation, when I switch from the official folder with 750k scans to my personal folder with 23k scans, and I start browsing through different titles, the system recognizes when items that used to have scans no longer do, and the thumbnail is removed. I'm not sure if this is done during the Rebuild or during the populating of the grid. If this check could be augmented to test the dimensions of the current picture against that currently in the database and force a thumbnail refresh when they don't match, this would get closer to hiding mismatches.

Okay, so the thumbnails are a red herring for what was happening with my "Find missing pictures" search.

Pushed a bunch of Corrected data based on consistency in Item Descriptions.

Currently, a the resultant grid from a Find is titled "Search Results". How about a reminder of what was searched? Especially for Advanced Find, you could easily copy the Find field from the search, as in Search Results: I.[Notes] LIKE "%potato%"