<<cool>> ADDED: Linking model ID images, rather than uploading them. As a way to reduce the size of your database, you can now LINK to a model release that is stored elsewhere on your computer instead of having YTracker upload and save the image within its database. This reduces a tremendous amount of space in the database making YTracker run faster and take up less room. When you create a new model record, or edit an existing one you now will see two buttons pertaining to the model ID. They are "LOAD ID" and "LINK ID". Choosing LOAD will cause YTracker to save the ID internally into the database. By choosing LINK, YTracker simply stores a path to where the actual image is located on your computer/network. If you have a linked ID, you will then see an icon of a 'network pipe' next to the ID button indicating this image is a linked image. If you do not see that icon, then the image is stored internally.

FIXED: Copy/Paste/Cut/Select All will now work in most all of the proper editable fields, except first and last name and dates (in order to prevent dis-allowed characters from accidentally being pasted in).

ADDED: Auto Save ON/OFF option -- under the FILE menu is now an option to turn OFF and ON the AutoSave function (ON by default)
What this does: Originally YTracker was programmed to save and compress the entire database each and every time a new record was created or an edit was done. As database file sizes grew and grew, this process would slow down the recovery time between each entry completed. With AutoSave turned OFF, no saving of the database will occur while you are entering or editing records. When you quit YTracker, the database will be saved, OR, you can manually invoke a SAVE command from the FILE menu by choosing SAVE. With AutoSave turned ON (default), each time you make any change to your database, the entire database will be saved. An icon in the upper right hand of the YTracker screen will indicate whether AutoSave is turned on or off. When the icon is grayed out, AutoSave is off.

MODIFIED: Backup database (FILE > BACKUP DATABASE) now creates a filename that is time stamped so it doesn't automatically overwrite the previous backup file. Also added a navigation dialog so you can backup to specific places on your computer/network.

Fixed: Dialog which asked to find a particular model release file.

Added: Ability to leave the production date field blank when entering a new content record.

Added: A new sort tab at the top..."Sort by Content Title". This lets you search for titles first and see who is linked to them.

Optimized: All model IDs when imported will be saved and compressed in size in a more optimized way in order to help reduce the overall size of the "2257db.cst" datafile. ID images will be saved as 8-bit images. In our experimenting, we noticed significant file size reduction this way combined with only minimal image degradation. For most clean IDs, all pertinent information should still be legible. Although the rule of "Garbage In/Garbage Out" always applies. In other words, please use good, clean scans of your model IDs to begin with.

Optimized: Database to more efficiently handle very large lists of aliases with very quick response time.

FIXED: the bug which generated the occasional error which said "exceeded number of licensed functions" has now been fixed.

FIXED: a bug in the "Recompile All URLs" function under the FILE menu which could cause a script error.

ADDED: The ability to add a URL or multiple URLs to multiple model names at once in the "Create Content Record" and "Edit Content Record" section. If you have a content set where many or all of the models all share many of the same URLs that they appear on, simply choose all of the models from the pull down menus when creating your Content Record, then press the "Add URLs to Models" button and a field will appear which can be filled in with all the of the URLs that need to be associated with the chosen models.

ADDED: Control shortcuts to menu items

FIXED: A problem viewing a model's information in the Alias tab when 2 or more models use the same alias.

<<cool>> ADDED: The option of linking to a model release record rather than uploading it into the datafile.
If you keep all the scans of your model releases on your hard drive or over a network in a logical place, you can drastically reduce the size of your datafile by linking to the release rather than having YTracker store it for you. You do this by going to the "Create Content Set" area or the "Edit Content Set" area and choosing to upload a release like usual. A new button called "Link To A Release" will appear next to "Upload Release" button. By choosing "Link To A Release" you will establish a path to where on your hard drive the release resides. It will still appear in the window as usual, it just won't be stored within the datafile and thereby keeping it's size reduced greatly. If you already have releases uploaded and wish to reduce the size of your datafile, simply go to "Edit Content Set" and then Edit each release and re-upload it, except use the "Link To A Release" button instead. When you save your changes, the stored graphic version of the release will be deleted and replaced with a pathname to where the release is on your hard drive. This will greatly reduce the size of your datafile making performance better and more reliable. It's your choice though which method you would prefer to use.

UPDATE IS ONLY AVAILABLE VIA THE INTERFACE WITHIN THE YTRACKER APPLICATION

Due to some user requests, this update adds and modifies the way information is displayed when using the PRINT feature for each tab.

This update now performs the "saving and compiling" function only when YTracker is quit. This should make the entering and editing of records much quicker.

The downside of this could be if your computer loses power during the process of editing or entering records, those most recent record entries would be lost.
You can perform the SAVE command anytime by choose FILE-->SAVE. This will lock all your changes into the database.

UPDATE IS ONLY AVAILABLE VIA THE INTERFACE WITHIN THE YTRACKER APPLICATION

This update reworks the way the database is saved while you work on entering records. For some, when their database becomes very large, the database can slow down the responsiveness of YTracker each time a new record is created or an edit is performed.

This update now performs the "saving and compiling" function only when YTracker is quit. This should make the entering and editing of records much quicker.

The downside of this could be if your computer loses power during the process of editing or entering records, those most recent record entries would be lost.
You can perform the SAVE command anytime by choose FILE-->SAVE. This will lock all your changes into the database.

UPDATE IS ONLY AVAILABLE VIA THE INTERFACE WITHIN THE YTRACKER APPLICATION

This a minor update which fixes a delay caused when uploading and saving a model release. Those with large databases may have experienced a delay when you upload and save a model release, but haven't saved the content record yet. We've optimized the code to help alleviate this problem.

UPDATE IS ONLY AVAILABLE VIA THE INTERFACE WITHIN THE YTRACKER APPLICATION

<< SIGNIFICANT UPDATE INFORMATION HERE >>
ADDED: Connectivity to YTracker's servers to automatically check for any updates and then directly download all updates as they occur.

From this version on, all updates to YTracker will be done via the YTracker program itself, rather than checking on the web page or waiting for an email to be notified. The old method has caused many people to be running out-of-date versions of YTracker because they either did not receive the udpate email, or they simply neglected to regularly check the web site.

Now, when YTracker starts, it will prompt you to automatically check for any updates if you are connected to the internet. If updates exist, you will be prompted to download the update right then.
IMPORTANT: ALL FUTURE UPDATES OF YTRACKER WILL BE DELIVERED VIA DIRECT DOWNLOAD FROM WITHIN YTRACKER. They will not be posted directly on the YTracker website as was the case before.

We feel that this will improve the ability of YTracker users to be notified quickly as to new updates resolving any legal changes, enhancements and/or bug fixes.

Thanks for all your support!

<< SIGNIFICANT UPDATE INFORMATION HERE >>
ADDED: Perhaps the most significant update in this version lies within the functions that used to parse out all the URLs in the database. This used to occur each time a record was edited or created and saved. For those with particularly large databases, this parsing could take many many minutes between each edit. This was not good.

Now, the algorithms have been all recompiled to not only run extremely faster, but all the parsing takes place later after you have completed all your edits and updates. When you choose to QUIT YTracker, you will receive a dialog prompting you to parse out all the URLs in your database and then quit. Normally this only takes literally a few seconds. In some cases when this took almost 10 minutes to complete, it now only takes about 20-30 seconds. This function can also be called directly from the FILE menu any time you wish:

File --> ReCompile All URLs

It is HIGHLY recommended that you let YTracker perform this function each time you quit after each session of updates/edits.

<< ADDITIONAL CHANGES >>
FIXED: Bug in some pull down menus which alphabetized the menu and sometimes included duplicate, lower case letters in the menu. This has been fixed.

ADDED: A new function has been added to address the need for some people to change the reference of their local files because they are using a portable hard drive. When you unplug the portable hard drive and plug it into another computer, it is not uncommon for the drive letter to be different. A new function has been added under the MANAGE CONTENT menu called "Alter Root Drive Reference". This will act as a Search/Replace function of all the drive letter references in your local files. When you move your portable hard drive to another machine, simply run this function again to change them again. The function only takes a few moments to run.

ADDED: A standard PRINT dialog box when the PRINT button is activated. You will now see the standard dialog which allows to print all pages or from page X to X, etc.

MODIFIED: All listings in the URL fields are now displayed in alphabetical order when they are called.

<< IMPORTANT >>: When version 1.5.5 starts up, you will receive a message that your database needs to be optimized. Click to OK that message and then WAIT until you receive a message that the process is completed. This may only take a quick moment or a few minutes depending on how big your database file is. Don't interrupt this process even though it may seem to not be doing anything...WAIT FOR THE MESSAGE THAT THE PROCESS HAS BEEN COMPLETED. You will only see this once. Afterwards, each time your start YTracker it will behave as normal.

ADDED: The ability to upload and store 2 model IDs per model. In some cases, some IDs have a front and a back side, now both sides can be uploaded and stored. Or if you just want to have two forms of ID. So far only the first ID has the associated ID information attached to it though.

ENHANCED: Now all the model pull down menus in the 'Create New Content Set' and 'Edit Content Record' have been redesigned to unfold based on alphabetical context. This helps bypass a problem with pull down menus only being able to contain a fixed amount of data. This way it's much easier to deal with large amounts of models in the database more efficiently.

ENHANCED: The database and code have been optimized to handle the way the 'Site URLs' and 'Top Level URLs' are populated. Now those menus should populate in a much quicker and snappier way.

MADE IMPROVEMENT: In the past, under some circumstances, users have reported that the buttons or fields might turn bizarre colors after about 10 or 15 minutes of use. We have found some of the reasons why this might happen and have seemed to correct most of them. The situation can still sometimes arise when in the 'Content Records' tab, but overall the issue is much better and soon will be 100% resolved. In the meantime, if you are still having trouble with that, please let us know, but there is a fix also you can do: simply right-mouse click on the "YTracker.exe" file and choose PROPERTIES, then click on the "Compatibility" tab and then click on the checkbox for "Run this program in compatibility mode for:". Then choose either "Windows95", "Windows 8/Windows Me" or "Windows NT". This seems to make the problem go away. The tabs and buttons will visually look a little different but their functionality will not be affected at all.

They are:
ID TYPE: (driver's license, passport, military ID, etc.)
ID Number: (the number of the ID)
State of Issue: (Indiana, Oregon, etc.)
Country of Issue: (USA, Canada, etc.)
Expiration Date: (10/20/2005, etc.)