I'm desperate to get out of CollectorZ.com's database, and DVDProfiler looks like the best alternative to me. But I'm unable to get my data into DVDProfiler.

After a bunch of searching, I was able to locate this post by mediadogg. He describes a process for using the BulkEdit plugin to load a CollectorZ XML export. However, this process doesn't do anything when I attempt it.

BulkEdit is able to load the data into its window (more or less -- some rows are blank, and the "Purchase Place" column is repeated three times). However, I can't find any way to get the plug-in to put that data into the DVDProfiler database. Clicking File->Save Validated Changes respondes with "Completed 100%" after less than a second, but nothing has actually happened: exiting back to the main program still shows nothing in my Collection List.

My priority, of course, is to preserve the list of discs. I've got a complete set of cover images, and it would be nice if that could be preserved, but I'm guessing that will be impossible. I absolutely don't care about "Purchase Place" and that kind of stuff (even though mediadogg's process says that I must click that column for some reason).

Help would be greatly appreciated.

They say when you upgrade from windows xp to say  Windows Seven you should do a clean install for the program to work its magic .. I'd say what you should do,  is every day download- say 25 titles via upc and The Invelos data base .. This will give you the actual content via that code per title.. because bottom line even if you did did all this bulk edit transferring data you may run the risk of not getting it done perfectly the first time ( the windows xp // windows 7 scenario) .. 


i.e. you would still want to do a proper title  'refresh' after wards ...

So ,  say you have three thousand titles ( i'm guessing)  that would 120 trips to 'the store' ....
or 4 times a day for a month ....  It will be done in no time ...   

You'll also may have to buy the licence up front as I'm sure the data base only allows you 50 uploads ..

you also say that you have  'a complete set of cover images' , Maybe you can save  those seperatley and if there are .jpg art you could cut and paste those in later ...

and as you say = " I'm desperate to get out of CollectorZ.com's database, and DVDProfiler looks like the best alternative to me. But I'm unable to get my data into DVDProfiler."  ..

...spend the 30 bucks and don't buy the next two dvd  titles, you can get at another time , and use that money for  what you and all of us have said over the Years "This is the Best DVD catalog program out there bar none"  ...

and a premature  " Welcome Aboard !!   

I am in the process of updating BulkEdit as we speak. If you have a current CZ file, I'll take a look to see what has changed.

Ok, I just downloaded BulkEdit 2.22 from my website to make sure I was using what you can get. Installed and ran against the CZ test files I have from months ago. Worked like a charm. So something must have changed.
 
Also, I noticed that my instructions you referenced are obsolete. BulkEdit has improved to take adbantage of new DVD Profiler 3.6 plugin toolkit provied by Invelos.

I will update those instructions in that post, but here they are for your convenience:

(1) Prepare the CollectorZ XML export. Nothing special here. For the best migration, just make sure that the UPCs and ratings are correct. Also, BulkEdit preserves boxsets, so you should double check to see that they are set up the way you want them in CollectorZ, or you can set them up later after you migrate.

(2) Open a new database in Profiler. If you know all the Retailers you need, then you can define them ahead of time, but new ones should be defined automatically by DVD Profiler when the profile is created.

(3) Select BulkEdit from the Tools menu. Profile ID is always visible. You can check any other fields you want - but it slows things down.

(4) Select File-> Load XML and Validate. Pick your file and click OK. If all goes well, you will create profiles at the rate of about 1 - 1.5 / second.

(5) When the import has finished, you will see the list of UPCs in the BulkEdit screen and also they will have been flagged in the new database. In BulkEdit, click File > Refresh Flagged, and you will get the Invelos menu for refreshing (you can also do this by exiting from BulkEdit and doing the refresh at any later time, directly in DVD Profiler). If you get an error, click "continue" after making a note of the UPC. This usually means that the "locaility" is incorrect. Use DVD Profiler to "update locality" and refresh the profiles as needed.

(6) In the event that you get errors due to the absence of the movie in the Invelos database, then you may chose to submit the profile, following the Contribution Rules. And there are some cases where the movie may be available, but catalogued using a DiscID instead of UPC. If you hit any cases like this, we can point you the relevant posts for proceduers to deal with this easily.

so, after beautifying the XML I had another look at it.

Besides the purchase price there doesn't seem to be any personal info, is that really all you want to transfer to DVD Profiler? If so, that should be possible without a problem.
What about <id>, <index>, <seenit>, <viewingdate>?

As for the covers: the paths and filenames are there, so it would be manageable for me to build a Batch-file that will copy them.

cya, Mithi

Quoting mediadogg:

Quote:
Ok, I just downloaded BulkEdit 2.22 from my website to make sure I was using what you can get. Installed and ran against the CZ test files I have from months ago. Worked like a charm. So something must have changed.

I'm still using CZ 5.6, I won't upgrade to 6, so I doubt it's a problem with the CZ version's output.

Quote:
If you know all the Retailers you need, then you can define them ahead of time, but new ones should be defined automatically by DVD Profiler when the profile is created.

What if I absolutely don't care about Retailer (or price)? Must I import that (especially considering that I don't have any defined)?

I got your PM, but can't respond because of the forum's rules (I'd have to be a registered owner, and I'm not going to fork out the money until I can prove that I can load my data). Can you contact me by email at chris (at) thewuestefelds.com?

Quoting Mithi:

Quote:
so, after beautifying the XML I had another look at it.

Besides the purchase price there doesn't seem to be any personal info, is that really all you want to transfer to DVD Profiler? If so, that should be possible without a problem.
What about <id>, <index>, <seenit>, <viewingdate>?

As for the covers: the paths and filenames are there, so it would be manageable for me to build a Batch-file that will copy them.

cya, Mithi

I don't think this is true anymore. The orginal reason was that the plugin API would cause DVD Profiler to crash if an unknown retailer was entered, and there was no way for a plugin to prevent it. Ken fixed this in a later release of the API, so it is no longer an issue. Retailer was never required, and still isn't. Now it doesn't even have eto be pre-defined. I haven't seen the Purchase Place column repeated bug yet - there should Purchase Place, Purchase Price and Purchase Price Currency. I will be on the lookout for that bug. But as Mithi said, if there is no personal data, all you need is a list of the UPCs. There is no advantage to using BulkEdit unless your UPCs are from different locailties. BulkEdit has a way of automatically setting the localities that gets it right most of the time (again one of those things where Mithi and others helped me figure out how to do it).

As far as cover images, you don't need them either. They will be downloaded from Invelos.

Quoting CWuestefeld:

Quote:

I can't fathom why anyone would want to track the name of the store at which they bought each disc. I can see why someone might be curious about the total money they spent on the collection, but not I; why should it be required? .

I would use that information ( which store) to remind me years later whether it was A Costco, Walmart, or eBay ...  I find it highly recommended and use it quite often when I compare prices or have an issue with a double dip ...