CLZ Database Question 0

[Cocomonkey]

Hi all,

I currently have all of my comics tracked in my own Excel sheet, mainly using comicspriceguide.com for specific title naming and variant numbering. I'm looking at getting CLZ (probably the desktop program and app) and copying my DB there, to have it be more accessible while at cons/stores.

I did the free trial period for each to try them out, but found that a huge chunk of what's listed in my Excel was coming out wrong going into CLZ...some instances could be fixed by pointing CLZ to the right book, but in a lot of instances, it wasn't even letting me do that, or search in any way for what it was supposed to be. (And it wasn't all variants...I couldn't get it to recognize my Saga of the Swamp Thing #37, and I have no idea why it wasn't registering that book right.) For 99% of the entries that it wasn't recognizing out of my Excel, I couldn't figure out any way to pinpoint it to the correct title/book/variant.

That brings me to my question...can someone point me to whatever CLZ uses as an underlying database? Like, whatever it checks to pull book info from to list it in their DB? I'm willing to put in the time in my Excel sheet to tweak the titles/numbering so that it flows better into CLZ (and then fix one-offs after that), but I don't know what it's pulling from to know what to renumber my variants as, for example, or to specify book titles that it wasn't recognizing.

Thanks in advance!

[JazzMan]

I use CLZ but don't know which DB they use, but if I were them I'd be using MySQL since it's open source.

[universal soldier]

On 1/31/2022 at 12:33 PM, Cocomonkey said:

Hi all,

I currently have all of my comics tracked in my own Excel sheet, mainly using comicspriceguide.com for specific title naming and variant numbering. I'm looking at getting CLZ (probably the desktop program and app) and copying my DB there, to have it be more accessible while at cons/stores.

I did the free trial period for each to try them out, but found that a huge chunk of what's listed in my Excel was coming out wrong going into CLZ...some instances could be fixed by pointing CLZ to the right book, but in a lot of instances, it wasn't even letting me do that, or search in any way for what it was supposed to be. (And it wasn't all variants...I couldn't get it to recognize my Saga of the Swamp Thing #37, and I have no idea why it wasn't registering that book right.) For 99% of the entries that it wasn't recognizing out of my Excel, I couldn't figure out any way to pinpoint it to the correct title/book/variant.

That brings me to my question...can someone point me to whatever CLZ uses as an underlying database? Like, whatever it checks to pull book info from to list it in their DB? I'm willing to put in the time in my Excel sheet to tweak the titles/numbering so that it flows better into CLZ (and then fix one-offs after that), but I don't know what it's pulling from to know what to renumber my variants as, for example, or to specify book titles that it wasn't recognizing.

Thanks in advance!

I'm in the same boat and actually opened a support ticket with them this past week. It didn't amount to anything but I'll pull the context of the emails once I can and post here. I ran a couple smaller tests and it seemed to be a mismatch in title that was the cause of a lot of issues and figuring out what the correct field mapping should be. 

[universal soldier]

The crux of the email was to see if they had any experience with importing from comics price guide but it seems they do not or I didn't ask the question well enough. I'm struggling with just one title but haven't looked at this in quite some time. I just exported to a CSV file and mapped fields but now I can't seem to link a title to my import. I did the Black Friday one year discount so I still have some time to see if I can figure this out. No clue on the underlying database either.

 

Quote

> I'm hoping that you all have dealt with this before and have some sort of guide or tutorial that explains where to map fields.

Not really. Most of the fields should be self explanatory.

 

[Eclipse]

I just started using it myself, i have about 10,000 books im starting to catalog for selling at some point, but do buyers go by these lists? By the time im done its gonna be 500 pages.

[Cocomonkey]

On 1/31/2022 at 2:00 PM, JazzMan said:

I use CLZ but don't know which DB they use, but if I were them I'd be using MySQL since it's open source.

Sorry, that wasn't what I meant. What I meant was, does anyone know where is CLZ getting its comic information from? Like, what comicspriceguide labels as the numbering for a particular variant isn't what CLZ is referring to it as, and I'm trying to figure out where CLZ is getting its series name/issue numbering information from so that I can match the data in my Excel up to it. My issue isn't field mapping, it's finding out what they call, like, the Wizard edition of X-Men 1/2, or the Dynamic Forces version of UXM 560, or the FCBD edition of Suicide Squad: King Shark, things like that, so that I can match everything up and import it in smoothly.

Does that make sense?

[PsylockeSmythe]

I can't say if this is correct, but I'm pretty sure CLZ's information is from information that everyone has entered and uploaded to CLZ Core.  So for example I go out and purchase a book and it doesn't pull it up with their search feature when I try to add it automatically, I then add it manually and have that information upload into their Core.  So if someone later tries to add the same book, it will prepopulate some of the information based on how I entered it, since their system pulling it  from the information that I uploaded.  

I've noticed this mostly happens with the name of the comic, if there are variants or multiple covers of comic book.  It all comes down to how someone entered the book into their system..  

I know that doesn't help you much, but after adding my collection of over 7,000 books into the program 10+ years ago so I could track better what I owned and needed, it has been my experience that you will need to do a lot of clean up.  It is the same way with their Books, Movie and Music programs.  I for example had 5 seasons of a TV show on DVD and the CLZ program had them broken up under 3 different names.  All due to how someone entered them when they were uploaded to their Core.

Psy

[Cocomonkey]

Sigh, that's kind of what I was hoping wouldn't be the case. Still, is there any way to view the CLZ Core? That would at least let me match what I have to what's in their system.

[PsylockeSmythe]

That I can't answer.  Here is a better description from their website:

Quote

 

Comic Collector is built around the our central online database: Core for Comics. It’s the central online database that is searched when you use the Add Automatically screen in Comic Collector, and the central online database that is used to display all kinds of shared information in your CLZ Cloud.

Our content managers work on Core for Comics every workday here to keep Core up to date with the latest comics and their cover artist, writer, etc.

Of course, it can and will happen that we’re missing some details for your comics here and there. It might also happen we don’t have your comic at all.
For this we created a Report / Submit to Core option in Comic Collector.

 

So you would need to talk with them about how they fields are mapped out.

Psy

[Mr. Zipper]

CLZ has an active FB group and the developers are very responsive. You may want to pose this question there.

It is an amazing app, by the way. 

[universal soldier]

On 2/2/2022 at 8:16 AM, Mr. Zipper said:

CLZ has an active FB group and the developers are very responsive. You may want to pose this question there.

It is an amazing app, by the way. 

That's a good suggestion. I'm going to post my import from CPG questions over there.