I see that the third-party Poser Library software PzDB is currently in the ‘no longer sold’ category. The Payloadz payment system refuses. The software’s ‘ping’ server is still working though, the ‘ping’ being required on loading the software. My installed 1.3 version is thus still working. So there’s hope that the problem may just be with the payment processor.
The problem may be…
1) the Payloadz payment system is kaput for PzDB and other items too, for some reason;
2) that the hefty monthly PayLoadz seller’s account payment of $29 (!) has somehow ceased, and the maker of PzDb hasn’t yet noticed;
3) the maker has turned off purchases because his MS Access reseller licence (PzDB is build on MS Access) doesn’t support the latest Windows 11. However, that is unlikely, since I read that…
“MS Access database can be sold as a standalone [custom] application with a runtime edition of Access which is licence free, if you have Developers edition of the Access/Office”.
Which was what was happening with the back-end of PzDB. However it’s said that Microsoft does not love Access and that it becomes more and more difficult to run Access on newer versions of Windows. One user of the 60-day trial (still available) reports crashes with PzDB on Windows 10, but he also has the full MS Access installed, so there might be conflicts.
Anyway, just my guesses. Let’s hope it’s just a payment system problem and that sales processing can be easily switched to Gumroad instead.
On the other hand, if it is to become abandonware then I’d suggest that perhaps what’s needed first is a small crowdfunder to raise enough to unlock the ‘ping’ and make it free + charity-ware. Even as freeware for Windows 7 and 8, it might help raise some money for charity — perhaps especially if it ran a discreet banner ad and a link inside the UI.
What are the alternatives?
1) There’s the affordable P3DO Explorer, but I find that’s impossibly slow on searches (eight minutes for a simple search for the Pitterbill keyword). Results are then mediocre. I can’t see any way, in the utterly confusing and labyrinthine interface, to speed it up.
2) There’s the native Poser 11 Library interface, which is far better than it was. It’s now reasonably fast, but still very far from ideal in terms of the UI or triggering of indexing. The Search over in DAZ is not much better or faster on a large runtime. Poser 2012 uses may be able to bypass the loss of Flash and use Air instead. There was apparently a Service Release for 2012 Pro that added the ability to set “Library Launch Behaviour to External”, and then if Adobe Air was installed that would be used for the Library.
The main drawback for Poser 11 (and now Poser 12) is that the Library feature “Show Folder Thumbnails: When checked, a thumbnail of the first item in the selected folder will appear on the folder” has never worked. This often leaves you looking at a wall of grey identical folders in the search results.
In contrast PzDB just finds so much more stuff, and shows everything individually. For instance try a search for Aiko 3 in Poses. PzDB just finds more, presumably because of the character-based cross-referencing and clustering it does on initial indexing of the runtime. It can also show you just what you just installed. The difference is not because Poser’s indexing is set to Shallow or Full.
3) Everything is free and useful for quick searches, when set to Large Thumbnails / View By Path / Search for Picture. It’s lightning fast because it builds an index first, and as such it’s probably the best sort-of substitute for PzDB for casual Poser users, in combination with RSR to PNG and the native Poser Library. It can sort by Date Created in the latest 1.4 but this needs to be manually turned on. Yet Everything is still not ideal, because you then still need to open the likely folder in Windows Explorer, and find the non-picture Poser file that can be dragged and dropped to Poser. You thus need to know what you’re looking at and the difference between your .MT5s and your .PZ2s etc. Ideally the makers of Everything would add a half-dozen features geared for Poser and DAZ content discovery.
4) If you have it, then Semideu’s Shaderworks Library Manager 2.6 still works in Poser 11, including drag-and-drop from the search results. It’s abandonware from circa 2016 and Semideu (often mis-spelled as Semidue) has long departed the scene following the closure of the RDNA store. But it searches quickly and elegantly on a large runtime. A few seconds longer than PzDB perhaps, but quite bearable. Or, it does when it doesn’t crash. It’s very unstable on Poser 2014, and iffy on Poser 11. Good results though, once you puzzle it out in the very cryptic interface. It may need the free AVfix on some iterations of Poser 11.x. Library Manager itself doesn’t like to be run at startup of Poser 11, so you need to manually start it each session. It’s ‘all Python’, so can dock with the Poser 11 UI (also Python) and replace the Library. If docked you may also need to close it before closing Poser, and return to the normal Library. There’s no Python Tkinter being used in it, so I guess it should theoretically run on a Mac. The PDF manual is here, but the software is currently unavailable unless you can dig it out of an old backup drive or DVD-r. Useful to have as a backup for when (if) PzDB dies, and you find it’s stable for you.
5) There’s also the old Advanced Library for Poser standalone freeware, in version 1.9.2.x. Nice but it totally lacks drag-and-drop to the Poser stage (it used the old defunct PRPC method involving scripts and server .exes). It is however a quick finder tool, with full image thumbnails and easy filtering.
6) The best and most stable solution in the event of a PzDB failure might actually be the Adobe AIR Library that officially shipped with Poser Pro 2014. It can drag and drop to Poser 11 and 12, and can run as an external Library on a second monitor (though Poser 2014 does need to be running). It also knows about DAZ folders and can filter for just the Poser-friendly content there. Presentation is simple but effective. Search is fast, perhaps slightly faster than PzDB. Give it a try if you have 2014.