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Topics - s.newave [ switch to compact view ]

Pages: [1]
1
Find And Run Robot / 2010 Farr Wishlist
« on: January 07, 2010, 08:34 PM »
Well, with the new decade comes a new opportunity to begin again the quest for new features in my favorite windows app :P. So with out further ado here are my most desired features for Farr:

1. Gridmode - the now infamous gridmode is, along with the next request, the feature i would most like to see in Farr. Basically the ability for a plugin to specify the number of columns it can output as well as their values is something i see almost every existing plugin being able to take advantage of. I would also love to upgrade GooglePlus to use such a feature and can only imagine what future plugins might look like. A nice addition would also be some basic html formatting support.

2. Hotkey Upgrade - while i suggested a number of hotkey improvements in this thread, the most critical/powerful single feature would be to add support for a <currentselection> keyword. With such a keyword you would be able to setup all kinds of cool keywords to do things like email a file, zip a file, view a url in farr, etc.. and with all the plugins and aliases available to farr this could be one awesome little addition.

3. Option to remove the current directory as the first result in folder browsing mode. Most times i find it distracting and would love to be able to remove it.

thx as always for such a great app :Thmbsup:


2
Find And Run Robot / FARR Wishlist
« on: March 08, 2009, 12:28 PM »
Mouser,

Its great to see you adding new functionality to FARR and i thought now would be as good a time as any to reiterate my farr wishlist  ;D

1. Gridmode (the one and only as pleaded for by developers here and here)
2. Extended Hotkey Support and functionality discussed here
3. Expanded flexibility for plugin writers to specify how and in what format results are displayed. For example letting the plugin determine what display style, report columns are displayed etc. Also largely tied to gridmode
4. Expanded Alias and search History as hotly debated here

As always thx again for an amazing and indispensable piece of free software!!!!

3
Find And Run Robot / Ubiquity
« on: August 27, 2008, 02:20 PM »
Just came across this today and have got to say that it looks pretty impressive. It does a lot of things farr does and a lot of things i wish farr did and being a mozilla product its browser integration is amazing.

I think once Mouser adds the new grid mode, hopefully with image and multiline support :D, farr will be able to do this and a lot more. Its still in early beta stage but nevertheless i think there are a lot of things we could uh.. get ideas from  8)

http://labs.mozilla....ntroducing-ubiquity/

4
Find And Run Robot / Search and Alias history
« on: August 10, 2008, 01:15 PM »
I keep thinking about this and how great it would be to have this functionality. This is probably the only feature i miss in FARR that i used extensively in other launchers. I know this has been discussed many times but I was thinking about a way to expand upon the current search history and came up with the following:

-make the history larger and persistent among restarts (perhaps create a new history.ini file with a different section for each history group)
-be able to specify different history groups in the results window of each alias similar to how the /ICON keyword works. See image below.

history.jpg

The nice thing about a system like this is that it would enable you to create different search histories for different aliases but also be able use a shared history for multiple aliases by using the same /HISTORY name in each alias.

-save the history string in a way that lets you know which alias launched it so that you can display the search term without the alias name and be able to search for history entries for a specific alias. Currently when you type ahistory it includes the alias name in the saved strings such as "igo donationcoder.com" where igo is the name of the alias.

-finally and most importantly, imo :D, would be to add an option in FARR's settings to "Include history entries in search results". So when using any alias that had a /HISTORY keyword you would include any relevant history results when using that alias using FARR's ranking system based on the search criteria. A nice option might be to use a standard FARR history icon which would allow users to quickly determine which are history results.



5
Find And Run Robot / Hotkeys & FarrQuickView
« on: July 23, 2008, 08:20 PM »
I think it would be extremely powerful to add functionality to the hotkey system that supported special keywords or variables in the "Text for search box field". For example you could add a variable/keyword for the currently selected item. This way you could bind a hotkey to perform a certain action on the selected result by using the that item as an argument in combination with any of the many aliases or plugins already available.

Possible workflows could be things like searching for a specific file and then hitting a hotkey to email that file, zip it, delete, rename it, etc.. Or say you are browsing URL's you could hit a hotkey to show that file in FARR's internal browser. You could also add different variables for things like the clipboard contents or currently selected text. With these variables you could do things like highlight a word in your browser or editor and hit a hotkey and have FARR popup with the definition/synonym of that word using a plugin.

Off the top of my head some keywords could be:

<selection> - currently selected item in FARR or the first result
<next> - item after the the currently selected item
<prev> - item before the the currently selected item
<clipboard> - would substitute for clipboard contents
<enter> - trigger/launch result or action
<cursor> - where to place the cursor. could be useful when needing some user input
<delete> - keywords could be added/shared that perform a specific action by using 3rd party tool

The text could look something like:

email <selection><enter> (where email is an alias)
igo <selection><enter>
igo <next><enter>
define <clipboard><enter>
<selection><rename> - where rename could be an action keyword

I would also imagine that you would need to add an option to specify the scope of the hotkey i.e. global or local. Local hotkeys would only work within FARR whereas global ones would work from anywhere. This could also be expanded to work with plugins similar to how a plugin alias file works. Plugins could then specify hotkeys in a hotkey file that only works within their plugins and have certain plugin specific functions. Keywords/variables could be created for certain actions that could be shared like aliases.

Another really cool features would be a toggle switch (i.e igo <selection><enter> +toggle) or option. This would allow you to toggle between states. So say the currently selected item in FARR's result list is a bookmark, you hit a hotkey and it opens the url up in the internal browser. You hit the same hotkey and it returns you to the result list. You could then also use hotkeys like <next> and <prev> to move through results while in the html view. So in the example above say you have 9 urls listed in the result window. You hit a hotkey and the first one opens up in FARR. You hit another hotkey to move to the next url or another to move back to the prev one.

This all leads up to another feature request of course :D

FarrQuickView: which would allow you to quickly view the selected result in FARR, similar to total commander for example. I would say this is almost possible now with the new html mode. You could pretty much view any file type using it similar to how you can open up most file types within internet explorer (txt, pdf, mp3, html, xml, etc..). This is also an example of where the toggle switch could be used. This way if you're searching through files etc and want to quickly view the contents you could hit the quick view hotkey, view the file, use another hotkey to move to the next or prev file from the result list and then finally hit the quick view hotkey again to go back to your results list. Functionality could be added to better handle specific file types if needed although the html mode is pretty powerful to begin with. Lastly, for this feature it would be great to display a header or footer with some meta data about the selected item (i.e. size, date created, path, type, etc..) perhaps even file type specific info.

6
GooglePlus
This plugin allows you to choose from five different Google search types including Web, Local, Video, Images, and Books and will display search results in real time based on your search criteria. You can also choose to display extended information specific to each search type for each result.

gp1.jpg

gp2.jpg

gp3.jpg

gp4.jpg

Version 1.1 - March 20, 2009
  • Added Google News search
  • Added Google Blog search
  • Added ability to use custom icons for each website that will show up in search results as shown in the 2nd image above. See Tips below on how to add your own custom icons
  • Added a google search entry for each search type at the end of the search results
  • Added options to specify whether or not to launch search results within FARR for each search type
  • Fixed bug which would cause results not to show up
  • Cleaned up description of search results
  • Added some google search aliases for popular sites like amazon, imdb, wikipedia, metacritic, and donationcoder forums.

Usage
gp   - This will present you with the 7 different search types (Web, Local, Video, News, Images, Blogs, Books). Select one of the search types by typing in its name to filter the search or using the arrow keys to select and then press tab to activate that search. Tip: Typing "gp" followed by two spaces will recall the last search you executed since launching FARR.

gpw    - Alias for web search. The same as typing gp +web
gpl    - Alias for local search. The same as typing gp +local
gplw    - Google Local search alias for work. Edit the googleplus.alias file to change the zip code to your work zip code.
gplh    - Google Local search alias for home. Edit the googleplus.alias file to change the zip code to your home zip code.
gpv    - Alias for video search. The same as typing gp +video
gpn    - Alias for news search. The same as typing gp +news
gpi    - Alias for image search. The same as typing gp +images
gpg    - Alias for blog search. The same as typing gp +blog
gpb    - Alias for book search. The same as typing gp +book
gph    - Alias for GooglePlus search history. This will show you a list of all your previous searches since launching FARR.

Options
Show Description:  Selecting this option will display extended information in ( ) next to the name of each result specific to the search type you choose:
  • Web: Extended description of website
  • Video: The date the video was added, video duration, and an extended description
  • News: The publisher, date the article was added and an extended description
  • Local: The address and telephone # if provided for the search result
  • Images: The image's dimensions followed by an extended description
  • Blog: The date the post was added and an extended description
  • Book: The book's ISBN number followed by the books authors, year published, and page count.

Launch result in FARR: Select whether to launch the selected url in FARR's internal browser for each search type

Tips
- To add your own custom icon for a web site simply add the icon to the GooglePlus icons directory using the name of the website as the filename. For example you would name the file wikipedia.ico and donationcoder.ico for the sites www.wikipedia.org and www.donationcoder.com.
- You can also use Google search operators to alter the search results. Try adding site:donationcoder.com anywhere in your web search to limit results to donationcoder.com. Other useful operators include intitle and inurl. More operators can be found here. There are also many other search type specific operators that can be used.
- For the Local search try using the zipcode for the area you are searching in. Try something like "pizza 10021" for a list of pizza restaurants in the 10021 zip code or "atm 10021".
- For the Video search try using the duration:long operator to search for videos that are at least 20mins long.

Readme
http://sine.dcmembers.com/googleplus/

Download (extract to folder called GooglePlus in plugins dir)
http://sine.dcmember...eplus/GooglePlus.zip


Big thanks to ecaradec for creating the Javascript SDK and of course to Mouser who created this awesome piece of software!!!

7
Find And Run Robot / Evolution of the launcher?
« on: May 23, 2008, 12:04 PM »
Mouser, not sure how powerful the upcoming html viewer mode will be but i just came across a promising launcher called Skylight which has a really cool youtube search:

http://www.candylabs...ht-screenshot-10.jpg

Even though it come off as a bit flashy it does have a certain wow factor and being able to do this with a combination of the html mode and some type of web page scraper would be amazing!!! As mentioned before you could use it for things like movie reviews, wiki searches, rss feeds, weather reports and on and on....

I think this is the logical next step for a launcher type application such as FARR which I have come to think of as more of an interface into my pc or a first point of entry rather than just a launcher. Being able to access quick info such as this without having to launch another application and literally at your fingertips whenever you need it would be an evolutionary feature.

8
Find And Run Robot / Launch "ALL" items shortcut not working
« on: May 17, 2008, 04:05 PM »
I am trying to use the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Enter as mentioned in the help file to launch ALL search results however it doesnt seem to be working.

Also would be a nice option to be able to use the shift key to select multiple search results and hit enter to launch them similar to standard windows functionality.

9
Find And Run Robot / Report Columns Feature Request
« on: May 17, 2008, 12:26 PM »
Would it be possible to add another set of "Report Columns" options in the display tab for the large icon slide display style. This way you would have a "Report Columns" for each display style and could specify different columns to use for each style. To be more accurate it would probably be a "Report Columns" for the small icon report and "Report Rows" for the large icon slide style. I think this would work well especially with the functionality to automatically switch display styles. I find myself using the large icons for regular app launching etc where i wouldnt normally need to view a lot of the other columns however when it automatically switches to the small icon report for dir results as well as a lot of the plugin results i would like to see the other columns.

Likewise it would be great if in the Fonts tab you could have the option to set the font/size for the other rows besides the "Name" row when using the large icon style. Being able to change the fonts would imo be very helpful in making the "Name" row more prominent and distinguishable from any other rows the user has specified.

10
Find And Run Robot / Some Thoughts & Ideas
« on: May 15, 2008, 05:27 PM »
It seems that i keep coming back to FARR no matter what other software i try :-* However whenever i do there are some thoughts/ideas that i always have and would love to see implemented. Some probably more amcbitious than others.

1. Seeing as there are now a lot of awesome plugins for FARR it would be great if the plugin could specify the number of columns it returns/displays and their values. For example in the Process Kill plugin you could have columns for process name, memory, cpu usage etc. Likewise an itunes plugin could display track length, artist, album etc. Even more impressive would be an picture alias/plugin that allowed you to view thumbnails of your pics as well as size and dimensions. Implementing something like this i think would catapult FARR into an amazing tool.

2. Another feature that i sorely miss when using farr is some type of history that can be used on aliases as well as shared by several different aliases. For example if i have a keyword for Fandango and i search for "Iron Man" than wanted to check out some reviews on metacritic or imdb etc i would appear in the list. Another case for a history on a single alias could be a food menu site where you consistently search the same  restaurants to get their number/menus etc. Lastly a great example for this would be a website alias where you could start typing in the name of the site you want to visit and it would pop up in the results.

3. With regards to the interface i think one nice option would be to add an icon to the left of the query box right above the search results which would reflect the icon from the first search result. Taking that one step further you could also display the name from the first result as well in a different color/font perhaps. I think this allows you visually to identify the result you are looking for quicker. I see this as a middle ground between using the small icon report, which i use as i prefer having more results with a larger query font, and the large icon slide.

4. A consistent approach to handling aliases and plugins regarding how you use and execute them. For example some plugins require you to enter a space, some a period, others a double &&. Hitting enter/tab would be one intuitive solution.

5. Regarding the interface implementation of the point above it would be great to be able to display which alias/plugin is currently being used or active in a more intuitive/attractive manner. For example lets say you are using the delicious plugin. Once you enter dlc the search results show tags and posts. When you select tags and hit tab the query box changes to dlc +tags and displays all the given tags it finds. Lets say you choose the software tag and enter farr now the query box shows dlc +posts :software farr. I think one idea could be to show some type of breadcrumb structure either on the status bar or preferably in a new area right above the query box and subsequently clearing the query box after a new crumb is added. A standard key such as esc could be used to go back a step and tab/enter could be used to move forward. So for the delicious plugin instead of having "dlc +posts :software farr" you would display something like dlc > posts > software above the query box and only farr in the query box. Another visual cue to inform you of which plugin/alias you were using would be to keep the same icon to he left of the query box as mentioned above.


Wow that turned out be a long post. Probably should have split it up in to different topics.  :D

11
FARR Plugins and Aliases / Quick plugin question
« on: May 12, 2008, 10:37 PM »
Im really loving the Locate plugin which i have setup to activate by simply typing "l <search term>". What im wondering is how i can create another command such as "ld" that would act as if i had typed "l -ld" to search only for dirs. This way if i wanted to search for files i would type "l <file search>" and would type "ld <folder search>" if looking for a dir. Is there a way to do this without duplicating the plugin and renaming it which seems a bit ugly  :tellme:

12
Find And Run Robot / Interesting alternative
« on: December 08, 2007, 01:24 PM »
I just found another interesting alternative to FARR, DASH, etc called DOMerger. Not sure where the names comes from and the default skin is pretty bad imo but i feel that it does have some interesting possibilities/promise. Definitely the most QS'esque app ive seen.

Check it out:

http://www.odierno.c...mercury/Default.aspx

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