DVDAttache 2.3

http://www.dvdattache.com


Feel free to report all problems and suggestions to support@dvdattache.com. If you have a blocking issue put URGENT in the subject line.


Please make backups of your data folder regularly.

CHANGE HISTORY

CHANGES FOR 2.3.5

  • Fixed Quick Add bug that "forgot" checked titles across different tabs.
  • Fixed Quick Add bug that caused most image downloads to be skipped.

    CHANGES FOR 2.3.4

  • Add via Amazon now captures Amazon's product description since we don't have access to the IMDB plot description anymore.
  • Fixed IMDB Add where the director and studio was sometimes captured incorrectly.
  • Fixed 2 more scenarios where the DVD images could not be retrieved from IMDB. Folks, please bear with me on IMDB support because it's a mess. There are so many different ways they render pages and I have to take them all into account and try to handle appropriately. To make matters worse, Amazon (which owns IMDB) is keen to stop people from scraping their pages by constantly tweaking them.
  • Implemented some automated test conditions to help me catch Amazon and IMDB parsing bugs from happening in the future before I do an update (currently only for US domain but others will follow).
  • Amazon search now returns 4 pages of matches rather than 3.
  • Changed XML Export to use ISO-8859-1 encoding.
  • Quick Add database updated, now with over 3,200 titles.

    CHANGES FOR 2.3.3

  • The Mac version has a new icon, thanks to Ash Asher. I appreciate all the other submissions but I finally had to just decide. And while they all were variations of the same theme (an attache case) this one was smooth and scaled very nicely so I went with it. Maybe I'll rotate every few releases to give the others credit.
  • The error some people get after doing an update to a title has been fixed. Actually, the problem has been there all along but I added the error message in the last release to try and find a pattern. Thanks to the users who emailed me their observations. Oh, and your data was never in danger...it wasn't that kind of bug.

    CHANGES FOR 2.3.2

  • A change to the IMDB pages required a significant update of IMDB functionality. After IMDB was changed you would not get the small and large images if you performed an IMDB Add. You will now, but only after major changes to get around their new method of hiding Amazon page links were implemented.
  • Fixed Browser View bug that caused the last page to be skipped when printing from the All tab.
  • Updated the FAQ to include information now regarding Amazon and IMDB changes and how that affects DVDAttache and your choices for adding.

    CHANGES FOR 2.3.1

  • Since Amazon has made significant changes to their DVD product pages DVDAttache tries to compensate for these changes now. What Amazon has done is eliminate the Edition Details (listing of the extra content on the DVDs), the IMDB link (where the plot description comes from), the anamorphic/THX indicators, etc. I'm still convinced this is unintentional since they did this once before and it lasted for less than a week before corrected. However, until it is corrected DVDAttache now will detect these changes and compensate as best it can.
  • Both the amazon.co.uk and amazon.de sites have updated and improved their DVD product pages and DVDAttache has been updated to capture this information accordingly.

    CHANGES FOR 2.3.0

  • Added the File/Info dialog to show statistics of your collection. A full download is required to activate this feature.
  • Added the Disc Details tab as a convenient place to list individual discs in a set and the contents of each. Good for listing episodes per disc for TV series.
  • Added a new view option -- Summary mode. You can choose to see the Details as they are today (looking a bit like a data entry form) or select Summary to see a large image and lesser of the technical gibberish. It is view-only -- no editing allowed.
  • Removed OK button click after Amazon add operations.

    CHANGES FOR 2.2.3

  • Fixed the Location filter bug.
  • Fixed the Location alpha listing column that was not showing any values.
  • Fixed filtering in reports.

    CHANGES FOR 2.2.2

  • Corrects a problem where titles added via Amazon Add have an MPAA Rating of "crap". This was an inside joke among testers and accidentally not removed. Sorry for any inconvenience.

    CHANGES FOR 2.2.1

  • Amazon Update now preserves your user rating and loaned-out info.
  • Replaced the gawdy yellow rating stars with simple grey ones -- courtesy of Apple ;-)
  • Added Set Borrowed and Set Returned to Edit menu as convenience for those with 1-button mice.
  • Fixed bug that caused changes to the custom genre list to not be reflected in the combo boxes until the next app restart.
  • The Guide report now uses standard 8.5x11 Letter settings rather than A4.
  • Added the Condensed Landscape report, for a paper-saving list of your titles. It prints in 2 columns in landscape mode, and lists the location, title, and MPAA rating.
  • The "loaned out" status icon in the alpha list has been replaced by an orange bullet/orb instead of that out-of-place "out" graphic.

    CHANGES FOR 2.2.0

  • New custom genres added were not showing up until the next restart. Fixed.
  • When removing a title the large version of the cover image was not being deleted. Fixed.
  • More tweaking to make the app better for dialup users.
  • Fixed bug that prevented the "on loan" reminder from listing multiple titles.
  • Made the first column in the Alpha List table user-definable (see Preferences/General).
  • Display of Disc Count as well as Title Count. Note that the disc count is accurate only if the Number of Discs field for each title is correct.
  • Fixed the Auto-Updater bug for Windows.
  • Fixed "my rating" filter bug.
  • DVD "cost" now defaults to the Amazon list price, but may be overwritten with another value.
  • Fixed IMDB "Add to Collection" bug that, for some titles, causes the application to freeze while parsing the data.
  • Quick Add moved from Tools to Edit menu.
  • Quick Add alphabetical tabs have been split up further due to the volume of titles.
  • The Quick Add list is downloaded from the dvdattache.com server now when you select Tools/Quick Add. This allows the list to be updated more frequently rather than during software updates. If the list takes more than 5 seconds to download from the server it will default to the local copy which isn't as up to date.
  • Quick Add downloads are now compressed for even faster performance.
  • The View menu contains items to hide/show the Categorized and Plot/Cast panels to conserve screen space, or provide more screen space for the Alpha title listing and/or title details, respectively.
  • Added new tags for report processing: cost, smallimg_path, largeimg_path.
  • Add new report called DVD Collection Inventory. This is a simple and compact report to list all of your titles and the cost/list price for each (assuming that information is known). This is good for giving an electronic or printed copy to your insurance agent for your home inventory file.

    CHANGES FOR 2.1.2

  • Speedup and major stability improvements to data file management.
  • Removed HTML from Plot description in Browser view, Web Builder, and on reports.
  • Fixed bug that caused an update to Cost to not be saved in certain cases.
  • Fixed bug that caused a change to the MPAA rating to never be saved.

    CHANGES FOR 2.1.1

  • Fixed bug that prevented the thumbnail image for the first selected title to be displayed.
  • New Preferences/Network option for dialup users so you won't have timeouts adding using Amazon Add. Defaults to off, so if you use broadband/dsl you are already set.
  • Added a Cost field to DVD details to track what you paid for a title. A new or modified report with cost added will follow shortly.
  • Updated Quick Add list.

    CHANGES FOR 2.1

  • Fixed editing bug in Cast List.
  • Added DVD count back into new UI, under Alpha List.
  • Removed Amazon.jp from Preferences, since it is not supported y et.
  • Improved database compaction performance a bit.

    KNOWN PROBLEMS

  • Mac Print to PDF skews the images badly. Apple has posted a message in their developer forum that Java printing support isn't 100% working yet.

    INSTALLING

    Mac OS X:
    Drag the DVDAttache application to any folder you like.

    Windows:
    Drag the DVDAttache folder to wherever you want the application to reside. The application is launched by DVDAttache.exe and it must NOT be moved. You are free to create shortcuts to it but if the main .exe is moved the application will not run.

    RUNNING

    Mac OS X:
    Just double-click the DVDAttache icon to start the app. If you are behind a network firewall with a proxy you need to select Preferences from the Edit menu, then select the Network tab.

    Windows:
    Just double-click the DVDAttache icon to start the app. If you are behind a network firewall with a proxy you need to select Preferences from the Edit menu, then select the Network tab.

    Unix/Linux/Solaris:
    The *nix distribution is a self-executing JAR file. If your desktop environment supports it you can double-click the JAR to run it. Otherwise open a terminal window and type: 

    java -jar DVDAttache.jar

    TIPS

  • To quickly get started with your collection select Tools/Quick Add and check the list of popular titles you want to add to your database. For titles not in the list use Amazon Search and click Add. For all other titles use Edit/Manual Add.
  • To see a larger version of the cover image click on the thumbnail on the right.
  • To see a larger version of the Amazon Search thumbnail images double-click the item.
  • If you are behind a network firewall with a proxy you need to select Preferences from the Edit menu, then select the Network tab and specify the correct settings.
  • Many tables and lists in the application support right-click line item menus (popups).