Steven L. Dasinger
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Posts posted by Steven L. Dasinger
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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.
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Well, #3 is a pre-lim cover even though it is not obviously marked. Look at the UPC and you see it is all 0's.
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The fact that #3 (which in my database has a width of 1578) tends to indicate the Rebuild Picture information did NOT update the values. That seems to be the main problem and one I can't help you with.
If you have the time or are interested, you can try this:
Use File->New Database... and create another database (just for testing). You don't have to copy anything over when asked.
Go to a Title without pictures. (Plunderer one Title back from Plunge works in my database).
Run Advanced Find:
I.[PictureWidth] IS NOT NULL AND I.Title = 'Plunderer'
This should return none of the Issues as the Picture information should not exist.
Drag/Drop any cover scan into this Title (with the name matching one of the issues without covers.
Run the Advance Find again.
What should happen is the one issue for the cover you added should be displayed.
At least that is what happened with my database.
If this works, that means there is something 'wrong' with you original database.
PS You delete the temporary database you created. It is located at:
C:\Users\<logon-id>\Documents\Human Computing\ComicBase Databases
And the Test Cover Scan you added to the 'Plunderer' Title.
PPS You can run the same test on your real database and see if it works as it should (the Issue is found after adding) or not.
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It was disappearing Item Description data.
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Hmm, not what I expected. That means there is 'something' in the picture width column.
It could be this information was set sometime in the past but now it isn't changing.
If you want to you could change it to:
I.[PictureWidth] Between 0 AND 500 AND I.Title = 'Plunge' AND I.[ItemNumber] = '1/A'
and altering the 0 and 500 until you get a range that displays the row. For example between 0 and 500
IF not found, change to 500 and 1000.
If found, change to 500 and 750, etc. until you get close to the value in the column. for that issue,
(it will probably be 505 since it is a pre-lim cover).
This is totally optional but it will let get you the value in the column.
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Just paste (one at at time), in the Items Where... box.
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By the way, in the Live-stream when I mentioned being careful because some Item Description data may be deleted, I will give you an example.
For Books, with CB 2021 (prior to Item Description being available), I put information that I called Catalog Number in Notes (I actually stated with Publisher #xxxx (i.e. Ace #F-305)). This was a number printed on the cover of books in the 60's-70's that helps identify various printings.
I moved this to Item Description since that is what it is doing (helping to identify the item) and changed it to a more generic 'Catalog Number: F-305) per discussion with Mark.
I submitted the corrections and the Editors accepted them.
However, since HC always runs a Rebuild List before pushing an Update, the process DELETED all of these corrections from Item Description and the information was lost (well, not completely as I had a backup).
To fix this, I change the information to 'Cover Catalog Number: F-305' and this time it did NOT delete it since 'Cover' was in the string. -
To take my guess and stretch it to complete speculation...
When you ran Rebuild List for Picture information, it might be trying to update the columns but can't (for some unknown reason) and times out. This is repeated for each cover scan in the Pictures folder. While the time-out my not be very long, multiply it by a LOT of cover scans and you get a very big number (days...).Just curious can you run these in Advanced Find?
I.[PictureWidth] IS NULL AND I.Title = 'Plunge'
I.[PictureWidth] > 0 AND I.Title = 'Plunge'I am most interested in which Find your problem cover (1-A.jpg) is in.
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You are going to have to contact support to see if they can figure out why it is doing what it is.
Here is what is happening (I think).
The way the Automatic download is supposed to work is it check the Picture column information in your database with the size of the cover scan at HC.
If the value is smaller, it automatically downloads the cover from HC (the pre-lim).
The Rebuild List Picture information is supposed to populate these columns but something is preventing this (hence the 2-3 day processing time).
Since that information is NOT getting updated, it always looks like the HC cover scan is 'larger' and it gets downloaded.
The question (that support will have to answer) is why the Picture column information is not getting updated.
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In Setup->Preferences, do you have 'Automatically download Larger pictures when viewing items' checked?
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Uh, that isn't quite what Pete said. In his example of a longer description, he included the Cover Artist name. (Without re-watching it, something like 'Blue foil cover by some-artist').
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If I had the ability to run the kind of search I inquired about above...
Can you explain in a sentence what you are looking to find?
FYI, you can't do a Where Item Description is Like Cover Artist and get anything unless the only thing in Item Description is just a Cover Artist name.
That would be looking for the entire contents of Item Description in Cover Artist which would contain things like 'by'.
Actually, LIKE won't really work. You need INSTR (or something similar) that will look for Cover Artist IN Item Description.
Another problem is that some Item Descriptions only have the Cover Artist's Last name.
I believe the Where clauses I supplied will find what you want. Unfortunately, it is also including other rows that shouldn't be there.
If not, I need a better description of what you are looking for.
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Yeah, I was thinking 4-6 myself (maybe a little more but not over a day). Not sure why it is taking so long.
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The short answer is No. You can't use a column name as part of a text string'.
The longer answer is there is a way that should work. Unfortunately it doesn't do exactly what it is supposed to and I can't figure out why without access to the real database with a full set of SQL statements.
It is getting 'false positives' where the Item Description doesn't have any (apparent) Cover Artists.
But this will get you a list to work with.
This will Find where Cover Artist name (exact and non-exact (i.e. Last name only)) is in Item Description:
INSTR(I.ItemDescription, (SELECT I.CoverArtist From ComicIssues I)) > 0 AND I.ItemDescription <> '' AND I.CoverArtist <> ''
This will Find where Cover Artist name is not an exact match (mostly Last name only) in Item Description (this should be a sub-set of the previous Find (only non-exact matches):
INSTR(I.ItemDescription, (SELECT I.CoverArtist From ComicIssues I)) > 0 AND INSTR(I.ItemDescription, I.CoverArtist) = 0 AND I.ItemDescription <> '' AND I.CoverArtist <> ''
It works by using a sub-select to get a list of Cover Artists:
(SELECT I.CoverArtist From ComicIssues I)It is using the result of the sub-select as part of the INSTR function.
The INSTR function syntax is INSTR(X,Y) and will looks for any occurrence of Y in X (which is backwards to me to you work with what is supplied). If it finds it, it will return a number (the starting location). If it does not find it, it returns a 0 (or 1 according to the manual but I get unusual results when I use 1).Theoretically, the sub-select generates a list of all Cover Artists then looks in Item Description to see if it can find any of them. If it does it returns a value greater 0.
(But I can't find 'San Diego', 'SDCC', 'Variant' and a whole host of other values in Cover Artist. And, since they aren't in Cover Artist, they shouldn't be in the sub-select for comparison to Item Description to return those rows without any Cover Artist. It doesn't make any sense and I can't query the actual database to see what is happening)
The second Find is like the first except for the addition of the INSTR comparison not return where exact Cover Artist matches ( = 0 ). This is a little bit of NOT logic. If it Finds an exact match it will return a value > 0 but with a comparison to = 0 they are not returned.
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Understood. I actually hope it can be fixed to do what you are doing as it does sound useful.
Just working with temporary results may present difficulties that normal displays don't. We shall see what HC can do.
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Alternately, don't drag/drop on the temporary results of a Find with mixed Titles. It wasn't really designed to do that.
Or process covers one at a time, re-selecting the correct Title before each one.
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Here is something you can try.
Run File-File Tools Rebuild Lists and select 'Pictures File List (slow)'.
Warning: This will take a very long time (a few hours).Alternately, if you want to test if this will work, you can try these steps.
Use File-File Tools Manage Pictures and Movies and change the 'location for Pictures and Movies' to some other location.
Download the preliminary cover for Plunge 1/A.
This should set up the same situation you have but with only 1 cover in the pictures folder.
Run through the same steps you did to replace the cover to prove this is still a problem.
If it is, then run the Rebuild Lists (having only 1 cover will let it complete quickly) and see if that fixed the problem.
If it did, switch the Location for Pictures and Movies back to the original location and run the Rebuild for 'Pictues File List'.
Check to see if this fixed the problem.If that wasn't the problem, what are you settings?
In Setup->Preferences, at the bottom, do you have 'Automatically download larger pictures when viewing items' checked? -
Here is what is happening.
When the result of a Find is displayed, if you select (highlight) the correct Title (it could be any issue in that Title and not necessarily the one that matches the Cover number you are moving), the Title at the top of the display changes to the Title of the selected issue.
At this point you can drag/drop to any place in the Grid. It does not have to be on the particular issue line that matches your cover or the line you high-lighted. Anywhere in the Grid works (as long as the correct Title is displayed at the top), placing the Cover and Thumbnail in the correct folders.
However, when the find Grid tries to display the Thumbnail in the Grid, it assigns it to the First issue that matches the cover number starting from the first line (which probably isn't the one it actually went to).This probably has to do with the Grid information being displayed from a Find is a Temporary construct and doesn't act as a normal display.
Not sure if HC can correct this so the Title the cover was actually placed in displays the Thumbnail and not the first matching issue number in the temporary display. I will let the programmers address that. -
Delete or Move 1-A.jpg and 1-HC.jpg
From: Pictures\M\Marvel\M\Marvel Masterworks- Spectacular Spider-Man
To: Pictures\M\Marvel\M\Marvel Masterworks- The Spectacular Spider-ManDelete or Move 1.jpg
From: Pictures\D\Disney\Mickey and Goofy Explore Energy
To: Pictures\D\Disney\Mickey Mouse and Goofy Explore EnergyDelete or Rename TPB.jpg to HC-2.jpg then Move
From: Pictures\C\Chronicle\Star Wars (Chronicle)
To: Pictures\C\Chronicle\Star Wars ChroniclesRename 7-A.jpg to 7.jpg
From: Pictures\B\Black Mask\Destiny, NYDelete 1-V32.jpg
From: Pictures\D\DC\S\Suicide Squad (4th Series)
(Duplicate of 1-V31.jpg) -
PS. If you want to track newsstand issues in your database, you can enter it but don't submit it.
Alternately, if you just want to record it, you could put the UPC in the Alt UPC box and submit that correction.
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Yes, I believe you are correct. The cover in CB and MyComicShop are both specifically listed as Direct Edition in the UPC box.
Around that time, the newsstand UPCs appears to be the shorter version where the last two numbers are the Month (and they were reused the next year for the same month.
You can see this format at Mile High Comics (but for #2 as there isn't a #1 newsstand listed there).
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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.
It isn't quite as simple as a substitution.
CB has Unicode characters. DOS doesn't.A CB Title like:
"Art of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, The: Watercolor Impressions"
Would have a DOS name of:
"Art of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, The- Watercolor Impressions "
Note the last 'a' in Nausicaa.If you do a Find in CB for Title Like (or Contains) 'Nausicaa', it won't find anything.
(There is some programming being done where you can type in 'Nausicaa' in the Find search box at the top of the CB window, it will find the Title. But no in a Find/Advanced Find window).A program can usually do anything (within limits).
One simple method to get what you are looking for is to just store the translated DOS name in a CB Table. Then it would an easy match from Windows File name to CB Title (at the expense of storing all that information).
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Incidentally, what would happen in ComicBase if there were two titles from the same publisher that both produced the same pictures folder?
Couldn't happen. In such a case one would be 1st series and the other 2nd Series (as an example).
If you are talking about the same Publisher, same Title, same Year, Month and Day (not very likely), they could randomly name one 1st and the other 2nd (or some other change so they don't have the same Publisher/Title name).
If you are referring to the DOS name on disk, the same applies. Something would be changed to make it unique.
Check for Sales and Purchases issue?
in Tech Support
Posted
The last update was on 26 Jan 2022. This information can be found on the ComicBase website on the top right corner in the ComicBase Info box.
Pete did mention that a few people were out sick. This may cause the Update to be delayed a bit.