Gone for 2 weeks

So time has come for the official family holiday. This time it will lead us to Berlin, Baltic Sea and Hamburg.
Hope there will be at least a few days of sunshine :)

This means the next 14 days will have no updates whatsoever.

ComicRack v0.9.8 released

This should be the one fixing most of the issues i built into the 0.9.7 release.

• NEW: Optional minimizing to system tray
  

• CHANGE: Changed the shared image transfer to a zip based data protocol (some speedup on slow networks)
  

• BUG: Fixed scan on startup option
• BUG: Fixed multithreading scanning & update bugs
• BUG: Fixed update of small preview when shown
• BUG: Fixed shell icons retrieval in Folder View
• BUG: Fixed some multithreading and priority issues on single processor machines
• BUG: Fixed server not reacting to client broadcasts

Bug slipped in

I just found a drawing bug that slipped into 0.9.7 that can crash ComicRack.
I also finally had time to examine the startup scanning/update bug.

Both fixes will be in 0.9.8 due out in a few days.

ComicRack v0.9.7 released

0.9.7 is here :)
A quick rundown of the changes:

• NEW: Match All/Any for smart lists
• NEW: Added password to sharing
• NEW: ComicRack can now open comics even if they have the wrong extension (cbr/cbz comes to mind)
• NEW: Drawing horizontal bookmarks in detail mode
• NEW: Additional view modes and information for the pages browser
• NEW: It is now possible to tag page images based on content (Cover, Letters, Story etc.)
  

• CHANGE: Reduced the scrolling speed of the mouse wheel
  

• BUG: Forgot to add matchers for the alternate properties
• BUG: Fixed Program/Document icons for XP
• BUG: Fixed some drawing glitches in the user interface

So now you can password protect your comic shares (keeping those "exotic" comics for yourself :))
Also this is the first release that has some support for per page information. For now this is limited to type tags. But I will extend this in the future...
The promised firewall setup stuff got stripped because of time constraints. It would have only worked with the windows "firewall" anyway.

hf

New release will be out on Tuesday

Some of the features will include password protection for sharing, an Apply All/Any for Smartlists and the ability to tag individual pages (like ads, cover, story etc).

Oh and if you like ComicRack, you can visit the forum and fill it with a little life :)
It would also be nice if some people would spread the word a little. As I really don't have the time and will to spend my time advertising, maybe some of you can.

Firewall and sharing

If you use Windows Firewall, you may need to add ComicRack to the exception list or the sharing will not work.
I will add this option to the setup in the next version.

ComicRack v0.9.6 released

This version adds network sharing (see last post) in the local network.
Also it adds properties for Alternate Series or Storyline to the meta information. This can be used to define and mark crossover storylines.

Short list of the main changes of Build 0.9.6:

• NEW: Sharing of Comic Library in the local network
• NEW: Alternate Series, Alternate Number, Alternate Count meta data for comics
  

• CHANGES: Grouping and sorting now tries to work with more tolerance (ignoring articles, typos, spaces etc)
• CHANGES: Finer granularity in date groupings
• CHANGES: Some labels in the GUI
  

• BUG: Cursor also hidden in non fullscreen
• BUG: Dismissing the page context menu does not open the GUI anymore (fix of bug reintroduced in 0.9.5)
• BUG: All open windows from the file browser showed the same content
• BUG: Duplicate Title in comic info drawing (Tile Mode, Comics Dialog)

hf

Network sharing

0.9.6 comes along nicely.

It will include sharing of the Comics Library in the local network. This is something I really planned for a long time. And now, finally, all the parts came together.

If you know ITunes, you know the feature. You can open ITunes on a different computer on your LAN and browse the Library on your main computer. You have the same playlists, songs etc.

The same is now possible with ComicRack. So for example you can open ComicRack on a wifi connected Laptop/Notebook/Tablet and read the comics there without having to copy the files. Reading statistics like opened/open count/last page read or database information like rating/time added and so on are all available.

This whole sharing is zero config like apples bonjour technology. So you don't have to "connect" to a library on a different computer. It will simply be there. ComicRack searches the local LAN for shared Libraries and displays them.

The new release with this nice feature nobody will be using except me and my Tablet PC will be ready at the end of the week :)