The New & Improved Creators window is now available, as well as the Advanced Search window!

GENERAL UPDATES

• Added ADVANCED SEARCH window for looking up multiple characters, locations, or creators simultaneously. This will allow users to find all stories where, for instance, Iron Man, Captain America and Thor appear together. Or you can now search out stories by creative teams, like Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Very powerful searching tool!
• Added capability for users to name report files for custom searches.
• Revised Creators form with more filter options, creator stats, etc.
• Fixed code to load last filters on startup, still more testing to be done.
• Added Search menu to Navigator, Issues, Characters, and Locations for easier access to advanced searching options

EDITOR UPDATES

• Fixed issue with flag icon no going away after a cover scan was uploaded.
• Fixed issue with Titles and creators with apostrophes in their names breaking the SQL statements.
• Fixed issue with Titles not loading Issue lists correctly
• Added counter to the quick locator form
• Fixed error where Indexer listing on Titles form wasn’t populating
• Added code for Cancel/Delete menu options on Issues window.
• Fixed issue with code for adding a title from the Issues form if title did not already exist.
• Fixed issue on Editor Control Panel where lists counters were not resetting if there were 0 records available.

Lots of new functionality in this one! By default it shows any story the creator has worked on, but you can filter the result list down to show stories for each creative role (Writer, Artist, Cover Artist). You can also filter it by specific title the creator has worked on and/or by the year of publication.

I’ve also added the option to search for creative teams, so you will be able to find all the issues done by Chris Claremont and John Byrne together, for instance.

Planning for an end of the month update release!

Release mainly to fix some minor issues that cropped up since the last major update and to implement a few new features that were already in the pipeline

GENERAL UPDATES

• Fixed code that wasn’t refreshing the Issues list on the Navigator when link was clicked
• Moved Search button to bottom of Navigator buttons
• Added “Search by Date” Right-Click option to Issues. Right-Click on the Title, Issue & Date label at the top of the form and you can now quickly load the Search window to find a specific date.
• Fixed code that wasn’t loading form headers correctly

EDITOR UPDATES

• Right-Click option on Issues window to mark title indexing COMPLETE if you’ve indexed all the issues for a title. This will save having to open the Titles window and manually change the Indexing Status there.
• Quick Locator – Revised Image Preview code to handle locations
• Added “Create Task” Right-Click option to Issues, Characters and Locations forms to assist in creating tasks for specific items. It will open the Taskmaster and fill in some of the info for the Task title, though it can be edited to suit.
• Added “Search Classifications” Right-click option to Locations (already available on the Characters window, just forgot it on Locations).
• Fixed issue with Navigator not processing saved username info correctly.

One year ago today, I released the public beta of the Comic Book Index. To celebrate, I’m releasing a new revision with many updates.

And we also just hit the 8,000th indexed story on March 31st!

Comic Book Index Version 0.8.143.650 – Release Notes

GENERAL UPDATES

• Revised Titles form; now includes Filter options
• Added Filter options to Characters and Locations
• Navigator now has a Search button on the left. Moved Database Refresh to a link at the bottom of the issues list.
• Double-Clicking on a character or location from the Issues form now loads only that item into the Characters or Locations window
• Changed the default image if there isn’t an image to load
• Removed Filter button from Characters and Locations windows; redundant with inclusion of Filter options
• Added Classifications for Locations and Items
• Fixed error that caused Search form to error out if no records existed
• Search Classifications revised to include Locations & Items classifications
• Search Classifications now updates as classes are added to or deleted from the search list; removed search button
• Revised filtering code to allow for better recalling of previous filters.
• Fixed coding error that wasn’t allowing reports to be printed and saved properly. Now creates a folder in users My Documents for “Comic Book Index Reports” and sub-folders for Issues, Characters, Locations, and Searches.

EDITOR SIDE UPDATES

• When editing a record, a prompt will now remind editor to add a note regarding their edit of the particular record.
• If you attempt to save an edited record but do not include a note, a prompt will remind you to add details of your edit.
• Navigator now displays the number of open tasks you have and the number of issues added or edited. These update automatically whenever you return to the Navigator.
• When you save an issue, program now checks to make sure there is an associated title, and prompts editor to add it if not.
• Added Classifications to Locations and Items
• Quick Lookup – Added a textbox to the form instead of using the Add Characters window
• Changed Add Classifications to include the new Locations/Items options
• Revised the form for adding characters to the Notes portion of Classifications. Added prefixes to help automate the process of adding character relationships.
• Fixed bug that was causing the Issues form to crash if you edited the cover date and tried to save.
• Titles window – If there is no text in the End Date box when saving, program now prompts for it.
• Fixed code that was causing information from Quick Lookup form to fill both Add Characters and Add Locations forms.
• Fixed bug that wasn’t allowing image renaming on characters or locations with an apostrophe in the name.

Most everything is on the Editor side this time out.

• Character Quick Locator now has an Image Preview option
• Quick Locator now automatically closes when you double-click on the character you want
• Characters window – Added Right-Click menu to Related Locations & Items (forgot to enable it last time)
• Characters & Locations windows – Added horizontal scrollbars to listboxes so you can see the entire text if it’s wider than the listbox.
• Issues window – Removed the Up/Down/Delete options from the Right-Click menu and made buttons for them on the form. That menu was just getting long and cumbersome.
• Issues window – If a story arc doesn’t have a part number, the part number labels don’t display. This just makes the form look cleaner instead of having a label showing that is essentially useless.
• Issues window – Fixed a bug that wasn’t allowing Editors to delete all creators from a listbox. When you saved, it wasn’t processing the “clear list” command properly and they would show back up again.
• Issues window – Fixed bug that wasn’t saving the “Add New Cover Scan” request if you weren’t actually editing the issue at the time.
• Titles window – Fixed a code bug that wasn’t displaying the list of Indexers correctly.
• Search Classifications window – Added Right-Click “Preview Image” option to the result list.
• Search Classifications window – Search results are now sorted alphabetically
• Add Characters window – If you enter a team, and there are members indicated on the Characters form, the message box asking if you want to add the members is now easier to read as it displays each member on a separate line.
• Story Arcs window – fixed bug that wasn’t displaying information properly. There’s still some work to do on this, but I’m going to be redesigning the form soon and I’ll tackle it then.
• Control Panel – Fixed bug that wasn’t refreshing the task and title lists when the form first opened.

I was going to hold off until I’d completed some other larger revisions, but there’s some new functionality available that I just couldn’t wait to share!

• On the Characters and Locations windows, there’s a new filter option to drill down to a specific title. For instance, if you’re on Iron Man (Anthony Stark), he’s currently at nearly 1200 appearances, which can be a lot of info to sort through. You can now specify his appearances in a specific title (say Avengers v1). I also changed the filter by year option to a checkbox, so it can be used in conjunction with the filter by title option, to filter the appearance list down to Iron Man’s appearances in Avengers v1 in 1965 (which is 6 appearances, btw).
• Fixed a coding issue that was prompting users to add issues to a title if none had been indexed yet. Problem was, this popped up even if you weren’t logged in as an editor, so you wouldn’t be able to add any issues.
• There is now an option on the Issues window to allow you to view the title info for whatever title you’re currently viewing. Just Right-Click in the issue list and choose “View Title Info”
• Resized the Locations window to be the same size as the Characters window. Just part of my attempt at uniformity.