Technical Summary on Invalidating Cover Titles and Issues


Invalidating Cover Titles
Occasionally, cover titles will make it into the library by mistake (meaning that it already exists in the library or (less frequently) is not, by CCL's definition, a cover title at all).

In the future, a Merge Tool will be used to remove and correct these mistakes. However, in the absence of this tool, a standard process has been developed to mark these titles as invalid to both inform users and to assist the future Merge Tool.

Currently, in the web-based library, there is special formatting in place for cover titles to help users find valid titles from invalidated titles.

The following titles are presented as examples...

Invalid title:
http://www.comiccollectorlive.com/LiveData/CoverTitle.aspx?id=2b08abe7-6511-4914-a30f-6fca8c2454ad

Valid title:
http://www.comiccollectorlive.com/LiveData/CoverTitle.aspx?id=9bb9e810-1711-416e-b435-50f3afc07dda

Specifically, the Invalid, please use Blood and Glory link is created on each page view because the caption for the title has been set to [use:9bb9e810-1711-416e-b435-50f3afc07dda].

In this instance, 9bb9e810-1711-416e-b435-50f3afc07dda is the title id of the "valid" title and can be found in the URL for the "valid" title ... http://www.comiccollectorlive.com/LiveData/CoverTitle.aspx?id=9bb9e810-1711-416e-b435-50f3afc07dda .


There are also further recommendations for invalidating titles that, from a technical standpoint, may help the future Merge Tool do its job.

If the invalid has a coresponding valid title, set the caption to [use:{id of valid title}] (as above).

If you're marking a title invalid you should put ' (Invalid)' at the end of the title. It should not be '(Invalid, use such and such)' or anything other than, at most, adding ' (Invalid)' to the end of the title.

The description/caption should be handled differently depending on the type of invalid. If you want the title referred to a different title, you'll need the '[use:cover title id]' format. If the invalid title should not point to another title, put '[invalid]' in the description/caption.

Other information to describe the invalidation should be removed from the title and the caption/description. It may be moved to the bio if desired.

Even in the bio, completely remove verbage such as "this will be removed" and focus on citing correct indicia, presenting the common confusion that causes the problem or other such helpful text (if it seems necessary). Also, the bio for invalid titles should NOT include the bio for the valid items being pointed to.


Invalidating Issues

Issues may also make it into the library by mistake. They may be added to the wrong title or not qualify as a valid issue or variant.

For issues, there is a similar special formatting mechanism in place to help users find valid issues from invalidated ones.


The following issues are presented as examples...


Invalid issue:
http://www.comiccollectorlive.com/LiveData/Issue.aspx?id=3d5c4ddf-bcd2-478c-8d65-ff81ffcff22c

Valid issue:
http://www.comiccollectorlive.com/LiveData/Issue.aspx?id=abde90a6-8fa8-4f0c-8e65-3d57997d1bf7

The Invalid, please use Blood and Glory 1-A comes from setting the issue's caption to [use:abde90a6-8fa8-4f0c-8e65-3d57997d1bf7].

In this instance, abde90a6-8fa8-4f0c-8e65-3d57997d1bf7 is the issue id of the "valid" issue and can be found in the URL for the "valid" issue ... http://www.comiccollectorlive.com/LiveData/Issue.aspx?id=abde90a6-8fa8-4f0c-8e65-3d57997d1bf7 .


There are also further recommendations for invalidating issues that, from a technical standpoint, may help the future Merge Tool do its job.

If the invalid has a coresponding valid issue, set the caption to [use:{id of valid issue}] (as above).

The variant should be set to 'Z-INVALID'. Or, if there are multiple invalids for a particular issue number, the variant of each should start with 'Z-INVALID' and be followed with numbers enough to differentiate the invalids.

List item links (credits, publishers, characters, etc.) should be removed.

Sale date, if any, should be blanked.

Item Bio text should only contain information relevant to the specifics of invaliating the issue.

Do not blank the cover price or cover date.

MrM, in the guidelines for invalidating issues, you say:

Do not blank the cover price or cover date.

However, the example listed does have them blanked.

We should put in a correction to one or the other to make them consistent.

True - but there may not have been a cover price or date in that issue to begin with.

Fixed.

Maybe, but I was just pointing out the example didn't match the guidelines. I'm just trying to avoid confusion down the line.

It looks good now, MrM!

Oh, man. I love this new [use:ID] feature! Nice work, Mr. Miracle!

This should be a sticky.

I agree. I'll see what I can do.

It's done.

How about invalidating a story arc that has no issues attached to it?

Can we just make it xxx - (Invalid)?
I've never seen this here so that's why I'm asking.

Yeah, that would seem no different than a publisher or creator that has no issues attached to it.

The example in the first post connects to a nice HTML link in blue using the code listed with the use=[xxxxxx].

I've been trying to get that to work on this one, what is it missing? http://www.comiccollectorlive.com/LiveData/CoverTitle_Edit.aspx?id=cdd65f67-fe36-4259-97c6-b4c91be0eba2

Remove the "Invalid, please use " you put in. That's auto-generated by the coding. Only thing you need is [use:4ef99956-c76c-4d13-a902-f3dca9e9b95e]

I would suggest removing the quotes in this part of the explainations:

Specifically, the "Invalid, please use Blood and Glory" link is created on each page view because the caption for the title has been set to "[use:9bb9e810-1711-416e-b435-50f3afc07dda]".


I was trying to invalidate my first items tonight, and I typed it in exactly as it's up there (with the "[use:xxx]" and until I figured out to remove the quotes, it wouldn't work. Just a thought, to save hair-pulling by future newbies. :)

How does it look now?

Much better. :)