The first feature is the inclusion of a Category or Genre. I grabbed the list of movie Genre's from IMDB so hopefully, that should make everyone happy. Also, I added a new feature where you can rate you movie collection. I use a simple 1 to 5 stars system and I display the category and ranking on the movie listing page:
While I was at it, I got rid of the old ugly icon for a new but only slightly less ugly icon. This one contains no borrowed image contact so no worries on licensing...
Unfortunately, the CSV File format had to change because of the new columns. There are now seven columns:
Title,Rating,Category,Status,Type,Rank,UPC
The nasty bug had to do with how android bubled up events. I attached an onKeyUp event to the ListActivity so I could handle people pressing the delete key; however, that event also got triggered when the focus was in the filter box. Hence, if you apply a filter and then delete the contents, you just deleted your filtered items (THANKS Miguel).
The simple bug was I spelled Blu-Ray wrong. The upgrade will change the spelling of all BlueRay and make it Blu-Ray.
Very cool app! I just scanned 40 or so DVDs in my collection over lunch and I'm loving it. Two quick things.. first, whenever I try to use a filter the app force quits. Second, would it be possible to also export to a CSV instead of just importing?
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work!
I just downloaded it for my G1, and really like the app. I have some things I'd really like it to do:
ReplyDelete1. As others have said, it's really important to be able to export to a .csv. I currently keep a spreadsheet of all of my Blu-Ray discs, and would love to be able to just scan them as they come in, instead of typing out all of the info.
2. As others have also said, there should be an option to auto-lookup when using the scan feature
3. The type of media (Blu-Ray) for me, should be sticky. I'm scanning in over 100 discs, and have to keep switching it from DVD to Blu-Ray every time.
4. Alphabetizing is broken. It should recognize the work "The" and alphabetize by the second word.
5. If it has trouble connecting to Amazon for some reason, it doesn't give an error. It just says it can't find the UPC code. It should give an error.
6. For contacts that do not have a name, it should not show a blank line as an option on the dropdown. I have hundreds of contacts that have e-mail addresses but no name. It should skip these contacts.
7. When you select a movie/game/book, there should be a menu option called "Loan", so that you can do it in that direction, instead of going into Loaned and selecting New, then the movie.
8. The default rating should be "no rating" as opposed to 1 star. I don't care to rate the movies, and it looks like I think they all suck.
Again, great app, and I look forward to the updates!
Can you please post explicit instructions on how to import movies from an Excel .csv file? I have tried every variation I can think of. Or could you just post an example excel .csv file that we can download and then past our info into. I have 700 movies and would love to not have to scan them all in. (i've even tried scanning a few in, then exporting so that I would have a .csv file in the format that the program would prefer, then carefully pasted my info into...to no avail.) what do I need to do, are there special instructions? for example, there can be no blank cells, etc.)
ReplyDeleteCouldn't figure out how to import a csv so I put in a couple of DVDs then exported that file. Added more to it and tried to import that csv. STILL NOTHING!!! Instructions would be nice!! If you figure that out, I'll be happy to upgrade. I really need a program like this!
ReplyDeleteany word on the import feature? i too have many dvds and don't want to type them in... tks/paul
ReplyDeleteHELP!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIS ANYONE LISTENING TO THESE ISSUES?
NEED documentation AND HELP IMPORTING FILES.
I figured out the export/import process... more to come.
ReplyDeleteExporting of the database is the ENTIRE database, in alphabetic order 1,2, a-z, etc regardless of the tab from which it resides. The nice thing about the exported database is that if you lose your database, or uninstall and reinstall the application, you can point to the export.csv file in /sdcard/my_collection/export.csv and import it - which becomes your new ENTIRE db.
ReplyDeleteMore to come on the import process. Paul
The author said,above... "Unfortunately, the CSV File format had to change because of the new columns. There are now seven columns:
ReplyDeleteTitle,Rating,Category,Status,Type,Rank,UPC"
What's not noted is that there are 2 other columns which need to be in the IMPORT record for the IMPORT to work: RECORD_TYPE (my name for it) and RELEASE_DATE (yyyy-mm-dd format).
So, the import record in the .csv file has the fields Title, Rating, Category, Status, RECORD_TYPE, Type, Rank, UPC, RELEASE_DATE.
The term RELEASE_DATE is the date the movie was released by the studio, or when the book was published, etc.
If you don't know the UPC code, or RELEASE_DATE, you need a blank field (e.g. "").
The term Status refers to New, Old, Loaned, etc; in my interpretation of all of this, I auto-filled the Status field with "New" since they're all New to my database.
The term RECORD_TYPE refers to BOOK, CD, GAME, MOVIE, and MUST contain one of the these data types, else the record will NOT import (since the program wouldn't know how to present it under a TAB.
The IMPORT record looks like this (e.g. movie)...
"movie title","PG-13","Sci-Fi","New","Movie","DVD",3," "," "
Title, Rating, Category, Status, RECORD_TYPE, Type, Rank (1-5), UPC (empty), RELEASE_DATE (empty).
If you have all of your .csv records in this format, it'll load just fine. Note in my example I left UPC and RELEASE_DATE blank - the columns must be there, and a blank entry works fine.
Apparently, the IMPORT.csv file, can be anywhere on the SDCARD; for simplicity I put mine in the my_collection directory, since that's where the program stores the export file and the database (you can also name the import file whatever you want, I just chose IMPORT.CSV).
Now, for the process... I have an HTC (Verizon) Eris, firmware 1.5, O/S 1.6. After launching the app, tap the MENU icon, tap the MORE icon, and tap the IMPORT icon. At this point, on my Eris, the system displays the /SDCARD directories. Using the trackball, I scrolled down to MY_COLLECTION and selected it (on mine by pressing the trackball). The system then displays the contents of that directory. Using the trackball, I selected the file I previously named as IMPORT.CSV... the program then gave me a notice box that the import was in progress. After it's done, it takes you back to the primary app screen.
AND THAT's IT! (yeah, sounds like a mess, but only took a little while - and certainly LESS time than re-entering all my data.
So, have fun... I now have my CD and MOVIE database with me all the time (handy when we're in a store and wife says: Do we own that movie?)...
Finally and MOST IMPORTANT, if what I've shared here doesn't work for you, please contact the app author - I'm just another app owner who figured this out for my database.
Paul