Using a Catalog Service
A catalog is a comic book information database. Comicster is installed with a default catalog called "Comicster Online.". The Comicster Online database is populated by Comicster's users over the last few years. Comicster Online allows users to upload information into the shared database, so that other users can download that information into their comic book collection. This saves quite a bit of time especially if you are entering an entire comic book series.
Choosing a Catalog
The default catalog is the Comicster Online catalog. This catalog contains information uploaded by Comicster users. In the previous version of Comicster (version 1), this was the only catalog available to end-users. This catalog allows you to download and upload (read and write access).
In the current version (version 4), developers can build Comicster Extensions that allow the use of other cataloging services. For example, Comicster also provides a downloadable extension for Comic Vine. Comic Vine has tens of thousands of titles, issues, characters, and creators created and maintained by Comic Vine staff and users. This extension is a read/download only extension and Comicster users cannot upload their data into Comic Vine's databases from within Comicster. You can join Comic Vine's web site and edit their wiki content using your browser.
To change your default catalog service, choose your catalog via the "Tools" menu and "Catalog" menu choice.
The below steps assume that you already understand how to add data to Comicster. If you haven't used Comicster before, you should read the "Starting Your Collection" knowledge base article first.
The below example uses the Comicster Online catalog service.
Downloading Data from the Catalog
For the most part, you only need to enter the Name values for each item. After adding the item, click the "Find in Catalog" button located in the upper right portion of the menu bar.
This will open up a new panel showing a textbox and search results. If you see the matching item in the search results, select the search result, then click the "Next" button. If you do not see the item, try changing your search criteria by changing the text in the textbox and clicking "Search" button to resubmit the search.
After clicking "Next", you'll see a preview of the data to be downloaded and linked to the item in your collection. If you accidentally selected the wrong item, click the "Search" button to return to the search results. If you have selected the correct item, click the "Download" button to copy the data into your collection.
Finally, click the "Close" button to close the panel.
Uploading Data to the Catalog
Some catalog extensions may not support upload capability from within Comicster. Please refer to the catalog extension's documentation for further information.
The Comicster Online catalog allows Comicster users to upload data to create or overwrite existing information so that other users can download it into their collection.
To upload data, you should first prepare your item by entering as much information as you know and reviewing the existing information by downloading it from Comicster. You should not upload any text that is copyrighted or taken from other web sites.
When your item is ready to upload into the Comicster Online catalog, click the "Find in Catalog" button and then click "Upload" button.