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w w . r o c k b a s e . c o . u k
Email Notification:
If we have your Email Address we will notify you whenever a new
version of the program is posted to this web site. If you wrote
your Email address on the registration card and returned it to
us you need do nothing, otherwise let us have your name and Email
address and we will add you to our mailing list.
Register here
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New to version
2: |
Loads
more data, (version one figures in brackets):
Version 2 contains data on 337,625 (220,000) album and singles
releases by 43,545 (39,749) artists on 11,179 (8,923) record labels.
There are 330,615 (317,127) musician credits and 542,132 (402,886)
tracks listed in RockBase Plus. |
Record
Collection Manager:
Version 2 allows the addition of new releases and titles
in the event that the artist does not feature at all in Terry's
data. Changes and notes are added to a new database on the hard
disk - corrections.dat is now redundant. If you were using this
feature in version 1.xx you will need to print out or export, then
clear the currently saved corrections using the relevant options
under the file menu before installing version 2. Send these corrections
to Cravenplan and we will use them in a future version of RockBase.
|
The
main release information entered can be searched along with the
supplied data. The track and musician data can be displayed by double
clicking on a release, it is not yet searched when using the search
for tracks or search for musicians options. |
The
ability to add notes to a release has been added - it is
now possible to define up to 5 custom notes fields in the database.
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The
customisable notes fields are supplied set to
1) "Owned" - fill with Y, N or Wanted for example then use
to search for all albums you want to buy.
2) "Amount Paid" - enter the amount you paid for an album
or single - can be used with the new sum function to determine the
current value of your collection.
3) "Date Purchased" - Enter the date you purchased an album
or single.
4) "Purchased From" - enter the dealer purchased from.
5) "Notes" - any other notes. Although the fields are set
this way by default they can be amended to provide any 5 fields
you want |
Where
no tracks or musicians are featured for a release the lower half
of the screen is now used to display extra releases. If no track
information is available for a release but musician information
is then the tracks window says "No Track List Found" - also similar
feature if tracks present without musician info. |
Removed
macros - very few users seemed to use them. Let me know if you did!
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Added
glossary to help, other improvements to help text, added option
for user to change registration details (address etc), stopped word
wrap on long titles etc, allowed deletion of items from amendments
file, increase year to 4 digits for year 2000 (display only 2 digits
on screen), instrument and country searches now work on name not
code, improved status bar messages, improved export option - now
creates one file, added heading to printouts, new optional print
preview. |
Our
Policy regarding bug fixes and new features is different to
many (if not most) software publishers. We believe in being honest!
Unfortunately it is difficult (if not impossible) to write software
containing no bugs. Many manufacturers would lead you to believe
that their software is bug free. This is almost certainly not true.
Much software - even from very well known companies is riddled with
bugs. We at Cravenplan believe you have the right to know what bugs
we have found and fixed as well as exactly what new features (however
small) each new version of the program contains. This policy could
lead to criticism from users who may think that because we list
every small fix we must have more bugs than others - let me know
your thoughts on the subject at: chris@rockbase.co.uk
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Version
2 (release history)
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V2.15
(27/07/99) Click here to download RockBase
Plus Version 2.15 (357Kb) |
Change
all titles for artist - When changing the name of the Artist
now allows change for all titles by that artist. |
Change
release title now changes it for all releases of that title.
Change
musician name prompts user to allow change of all entries for
that musician.
Auto
Update option added to preferences - automatically displays tracks
and musicians when cursor stops.
Auto
Upper Case option added to preferences (Updates first Character
of text as entered).
Dates
entered incorrectly now trapped and message returned.
Backup
option improved - now allowed from within tracks window.
Space
available and Space required displayed on backup screen.
Title
bar of window now shows "adding new title" (or release) when appropriate.
Export
data screen shows number of items not yet exported.
Fixed
bug which stopped printing of any album with over 100 tracks -
up to 250 tracks now allowed.
Fixed
bug which in some circumstances could prevent instrument search.
Changed
text colour to black to prevent status bar disappearing when windows
colour scheme changed.
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V2.14 (21/02/98)
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Quick
"Owned" function key and icon added - if you have a notes
field called "Owned" or "Have I Got It" you can press F5 to change
the field to "Y" to indicate that you own the release (if already
marked with a "Y" then the Y is replaced by a space.
Quick
access to the add tracks screen by using F8 or the add musicians
screen using F9 avoiding the need to go via the corrections screen.
Created
"Backup additions and corrections file" option - no excuses
for losing your data any more! You can back up to hard disk or
providing the file will fit on a floppy then you can backup to
floppy.
When
adding tracks to a release you can now use the "Duplicate Release
Title" button to copy the title for a release into the track
field - particularly useful when adding singles where track one
is almost always the same as the release title.
Increased
the number of releases that can be printed out at one time
from 1,500 to 15,000 to allow users with large collections to
print a complete list at once.
When adding a new release or a new title the window heading changes
to show which is being added.
Now
enters the users address information into the additions & corrections
file so that if you need to send it to me for any reason I now
know where to return it.
No
longer checks to see that the CD is in the drive if you have used
the serious user install to install the complete program to a
hard disk.
Improved
export routine to show how many releases have not yet been exported.
Also displays please wait message so that you know it's doing
something.
Improved
help screens.
Improved
start up procedure to check for links to temporary tables and
delete them if found. Where users had aborted the program it was
possible for these temporary tables to stop the ability to search
for tracks or musicians in previous versions.
Improved
adding of new releases to avoid the possibility that index numbers
could get re- used. In rare cases this could lead to the wrong
tracks being displayed when adding a new release. (Thanks to Michael
Coppin and Ken Pulley for pointing this out).
Changed
method for changing artist name to avoid possible duplicate entries.
(David Kemp suggestion).
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V2.13 (15/11/97)
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Fixed
a small bug which meant the number of items exported could be
mis-reported. Resets the hour glass cursor after doing a quick
print of selected data (thanks to Harry Hampson for spotting this).
Search slected data is no longer available before doing a search
of the full database (thanks to Kieth Mason).
Improved
printing so that tracks are now listed in the order you have specified
not the order that they were originally entered.
Custom
sort amended to stop users entering information in fields 1,2
& 4 but not 3 (courtesy of Glyn Forster).
Export
function improved so that when you add tracks to a release that
you have already exported the release will now be re-exported.
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V2.12 (12/04/97)
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Loads
of new features in this version.
We
have introduced a saved search feature which allows you
to recall the last 99 search parameters - just press the down
arrow when in any search dialogue screen to pick from the previous
entries.
Improved
handling of grid display after making amendments / additions
to data - grid is now displayed with new or amended entry highlighted
- used to redisplay the grid at the top of the list. ESC key no
longer moves to the top of the grid. Quick find function introduced
to allow fast access to a point in the displayed list - click
once on the column to search within (default is title column)
then press a letter e.g. "S" the grid will be re-displayed with
the first title starting with the letter "S" at the top of the
screen, press "S" again to see the next title starting with "S".
Improved
amend / add release screens, Notes, Musicians, Release and
Title buttons all now disabled after changing a release until
the save button has been pressed. When save button changes to
"Exit" ESC now also exits from this screen (it used to ask if
you wanted to delete the changes made). Widened the amend musician
entry screen so that there is no horizontal scroll bar needed
(this could cause the musician name to disappear off the screen
when amending an existing musician entry). Improved handling
of forms for amending an existing release - now locks file
before loading form, previously, users who entered data very quickly
could get the error "object variable not set"
New
start up menu screen with quick search facilities for new
users - can be switched off for more experienced users. Now automatically
checks and if necessary repairs the file rbadd.dat when starting
the program - this means that even where users have amended the
file and subsequently got the "duplicate key" error message this
file will now be correctly rebuilt. Improved treatment of "rockbase.mdb"
when loaded to hard disk - now sets and unsets read only flag
when required - allowing users own data to be connected more efficiently.
Re-written
export routine with new feature which shows export history
of how many entries exported on each date - double click on a
date to re-export the items for just that one date, useful
when diskettes have got lost in the post or your email did not
arrive properly.
Revised
the spelling of several instruments in the instrument table. Re-categorised
all EP's as Singles, some were originally set as albums (these
features only available on CD-ROM version)
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V2.11 (04/03/97)
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In
fixing the printing problem in version 2.10 we inadvertently introduced
a different printing problem - this has now been fixed in 2.11.
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V2.10 (21/02/97)
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Now
checks to see whether the links from Rockmain.mdb (the additions
/ corrections file) to the main database file are still valid
- if not allows the user to specify where to find the main database
file. This allows users who wish to move the data from CD to hard
disk after adding their own data or who wish to install a new
hard disk, (thus changing the letter for the CD Drive), to do
so. This could also help users trying to run RockBase under Windows
NT (so far not possible).
Printing
a report following a search for a string containing a single quote
(e.g. fred's mother) caused the program to error with the message
"error in formula" - now prints following these searches.
Also
stops access to search selected data immediately after starting
RockBase (which caused crash). Thanks to David Kemp for pointing
that one out.
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V2.09 (15/01/97)
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(Labelled
2.08b in the program title bar) - New track search now speeded
up again. Still searches your corrections and additions
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V2.08 (10/01/97)
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Tracks
you have added to existing releases or to new titles are now included
when searching for a track by name or when you double click on
a track on a displayed release. They are also included in searches
of selected data as well as cumulative searches and search all
tracks for an artist. They are not yet included in a "Show all
tracks" search on selected data. If you download this copy of
the program and find any inconsistencies with track data retrieved
then please let me know.
Other
fixes include stopping the message "1 parameters were expected
but only 0 were supplied" which could occur after displaying tracks
for a release by double clicking on release - then double clicking
on a track - then setting one line per title.
After
searching for a track then setting one line per release didn't
always redraw screen - does now Also made some small additions
to help file
Warning:
being a beta test of the track search facilities within data added
or corrected by the user means that the track searches now take
a lot longer than they did. Do not download this version of RockBase
if you do a lot of track searches. (or at least save version 2.07)
- a search for track starts with "Hello" took 0:27 on version
2.07 but a whopping 9:01 on version 2.08. We are looking into
ways of speeding this up considerably.
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V2.07 (24/12/96)
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Fixes
bug introduced in version 2.06 which resulted in problems when
double clicking on a track in the bottom half of the display window.
This action should result in all tracks of that name being displayed.
It does now!
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V2.06 (20/12/96)
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Shows
track numbers from database in track title display window - also
allows editing of existing track numbers in corrections screen
- also creates track numbers when adding new tracks (add them
in order please).
Improved
adding of notes; Enter key now keeps going beyond last field and
saves notes (avoids having to use mouse on exit button), let me
know if you like this.
Fixed
bug where after searching for all tracks for an artist then pressing
one line per title button, track title used to disappear - no
more! No longer writes artist id to corrections database for a
new artist. Improved country search drop down, now searches ahead
when key pressed.
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V2.05 (06/12/96)
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Improved
adding of notes - now remembers which release the cursor was on
before entering notes screen and returns to it after updating
notes. Doesn't yet work after adding a new release or title but
hopefully will soon.
Fixed
bug introduced in a recent version which caused duplicate key
error when entering notes on a second release - Thanks to Ken
Pulley for pointing out this bug and suggesting the improvements
above.
When
searching for an artist containing "&" e.g. Simon & Garfunkel,
no longer displays an "_" character in status line or report heading.
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V2.04 (27/11/96)
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Finally
found the cause of and fixed the bug which could cause error message
"object variable not set" after adding a track and musician to
new titles.
Also
a minor annoyance has been cured - when adding a new title or
release and tabbing through the fields, the country field is tabbed
past just like the others thus avoiding the need to use the mouse
to go to format field.
Corrected
Web address in help file and added notes about status bar.
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V2.03 (25/11/96)
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Added
Alt/I (Identical to), Alt/S (Starts with), Alt/C (Contains), Alt/B
(Comes Before), Alt/A (Comes After), Alt/= (equal to/not equal)
& Alt/N (Null toggle) to new search screen.
Can
now access notes directly from corrections screen again.
After
adding new release the notes were sometimes remembered from a
previously added release - No longer.
Added
Alt/D (Delete), Alt/C (Cancel) & Alt/E (Exit) to buttons on Notes
screen.
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V2.02 (15/11/96)
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Fixed
bug which caused error message "object variable not set" after
adding a track to the second new title added in a session. This
then caused an error "can't have duplicate key" after restarting
RockBase and attempting to add another track.
Fixed
bug when using cumulative search mode with entries from corrections
/ additions database which could give error message "Table main
already exists".
Fixed
bug which meant that stopped "Export Now" button working (displayed
after more than 100 new additions had been added to corrections
file).
Fixed
bug which sometimes meant musicians in lower right of screen were
not all displayed and were not sorted alphabetically.
Enter
key now moves to next field in Add Notes screen.
New
titles now given 5 numeric character key in place of 4 in rockmain.mdb
Added
Alt/T (New Title) and Alt/R (New Release) to corrections / additions
screen (F12).
Cursor
now changed to egg timer (or equivalent on your system) when search
started - sometimes used to stay as pointer.
Version
2.02 has a new bug which prevents the use of the Notes button
direct from the Additions / Corrections screen (if you use this
feature a lot then perhaps you would be better waiting for version
2.03) Notes can still be added via the F11 key or from the menu
- sorry for the inconvenience but this was only spotted in late
testing after the programmer had gone home for the weekend!
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V2.01 (07/11/96)
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New
improved search screen, also strips leading and trailing spaces
from text before searching.
Main
display now shows all four digits for year of release (so does
amendments screen). Amendments screen no longer deletes label,
catalogue number info etc. when adding new release (makes for
faster entering where info is unchanged between releases).
Print
preview screen now stays on top even when cursor is moved over
tool bar.
Bug
when trying to correct a musician name for a release now fixed
(used to give error message "0" then further message"can't have
null value in index") - No longer possible to add notes to a release
after searching for track title (used to crash). - When printing
details for a release with no tracks after printing details for
a release with tracks the same track information used to be printed
for both releases, not anymore!
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Version
1 (release history)
V1.07 (07/06/96)
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Search
for a Musician from full data had become very very slow after
previous changes. The method of searching has now been changed
to improve the speed again. The down side of this is that it is
no longer possible to save a Musician search as a Macro. If you
feel this a great hardship please let me know on 01747 858012
(Chris Stanbury).
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V1.06 (01/06/96)
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Added
the Search All Tracks for Artist and Search all Musicians for
Artist options to the Search Full Data menu.
Also
added Show all Tracks and Show All Musicians options to Search
Selected data menu. Added
Show One Line Per Musician and Show One Line Per Track options
to preferences screen.
Added
new reports to allow printing of the data including musician or
track. Added Print Reports Portrait or Print Reports Landscape
options to the preferences screen. Updated help file to incorporate
new features.
Printing
reports to anything other than the main tray of a laser printer
seems to be ignored, if this is causing you problems or if it
works on your printer please let me know on 01747 858012 (Ch ris
Stanbury).
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V1.05 (13/04/96)
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Added
the ability to sort by Musician Name, Instrument or Track if displayed
in top half of screen.
Added
Custom Sort option.
Improved
help file relating to sort option to incorporate new features.
Fixed
Export Data option bug when no tracks or no musicians present.
Fixed
bug when trying to minimise 2nd or subsequent window.
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V1.04 (31/03/96)
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Added
the ability to add completely new albums and singles. Sadly they
still don't appear in the results from searches, (were trying
to make it work). All amendments are saved to a data file (CORRECTN.DAT)
held in the main RockBase directory, the layout of this file has
changed slightly again. If you were already using this feature
in version 1.03 you will need to print out then clear the currently
saved corrections using the relevant options under the file menu.
Added
Export Data option to corrections menu to allow data to be saved
to file for later use in future versions of RockBase.
Added
Instrument name to display after musician searches. Added Musician
Name to display after Instrument searches.
Changed
method of determining unique title for "One line per title" option.
Now shows four albums called "Peter Gabriel" as it should - he
released four different albums with the same title. (Thanks to
Mr Brun of Switzerland for pointing that out).
Added
nicknames table to view menu, added country table to view menu.
Added rolling demo to help menu (if available on your hard disk).
Changed
Artist "Last Name" to "Last Name / Band Name" on search dialogue
box. Changed "Instrument" to "Instrument Code" on search dialogue
box. Fixed bug when trying to minimise a RockBase window.
Fixed
bug making selection of Macro file awkward.
Substantially
updated help file to reflect all changes so far.
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V1.03 (11/02/96)
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Added
the ability to add new tracks & musicians to an existing album
or single. All amendments are saved to a data file (CORRECTN.DAT)
held in the main RockBase directory, the layout of this file has
changed slightly. If you were already using this feature in version
1.02 you will need to print out then clear the currently saved
corrections using the relevant options under the file menu.
A
bug found when trying to search for a musician with a specified
instrument has now being fixed. This search used to give no finds.
It now works!!
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V1.02 (04/02/96)
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Added
the ability to amend an existing album, tracks & musicians. All
amendments are saved to a data file (CORRECTN.DAT) held in the
main RockBase directory. These amendments can then be printed
out, with all changes marked with an asterisk (*). After printing,
the user can clear the data file using the option from the File/Corrections
menu, this will rename the existing data file to CORRECTN.xxx,
where xxx is the next available number (i.e 001, 002 etc).
The
user now has the ability to turn off the Exit message box at the
end of the program, as it was felt that heavy users would find
it annoying. This can be found in the Preferences dialogue.
Typing
mistake in Help Contents now fixed.
Error
on printed corrections sheet now fixed
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V1.01 (12/09/95)
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Added
a few more short cut keys, e.g. Instrument search can now be accessed
by pressing Ctrl + I
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©
Cravenplan Computers Limited
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