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Last post Author Topic: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this  (Read 18521 times)

questorfla

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Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this
« Reply #25 on: June 16, 2015, 12:33 AM »
I was just coming back to apologize.  I THOUGHT I did but I had not.
I had put it under Windows. I had even later that it needed to be in C:\Scripts and thought i copied it there (at least Paste.exe) but when I looked...Lo and behold Paste was not there.  By then I had concluded that everything should be in that folder anyway so I moved it all to c:\scripts and..
MEA CULPA mi Amigo!  Perfecto again!  it works as i would expect it to.  Point to the file you just downloaded, right click and choose your nifty add in and it DOES create a shortcut SO WELL that it it starts another download if not careful!
The "copy" in Maxthon is the "direct-link" to the actual download itself rather than just the main website (which is fine at least it gets me back to where it came from)

And all this other neat stuff you dredged up from God Knows where about Alternate Streams and such is exactly the kind of thing to drive someone NUTS over a rainy weekend.  I feel sure i will get my chance, :)

Needless to say:  My apologies. your stuff always works  :Thmbsup:  I just did not read closely enough the paths involved.

All but myself have hit the hay and I am about to as well but tomorrow i should have loads of fun with Alternate Streams of Reality or...
something similar.  Just the little i read by the references you sent was enough to give one pause to think what all else might be hidden between all those ones and zeros.






4wd

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Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this
« Reply #26 on: June 16, 2015, 12:57 AM »
There's an updated version of StrmExt available here: http://redwoodal.swe...rmExt_mod_1.0.0.5.7z

This version fixes a couple of bugs and lets you edit the ADS, (using RWStream.vbs - you need to hit Cancel when you finish adding stuff).  See my post here if you want to right-click add an ADS called URL.

Here if you want the PowerShell version.
« Last Edit: June 20, 2015, 09:14 PM by 4wd »

Shades

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Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this
« Reply #27 on: June 16, 2015, 08:39 AM »
Now let's hope that the link to the file you download still exists after say...six months? Or worse, the user/company moving domains? Or change the system behind their website (for example from Wordpress to Joomla)?

In my experience links do not always exist that long and you'll still end up with no info at all. As a serial downloader I have been burned enough by this. Nowadays I stopped with being a serial downloader and have used my system for years when I do need to download something. Granted, it isn't ideal either, but I have all the info (links, descriptions, screenshots, etc.) about the download, structured and searchable locally, but if I choose to in the cloud as well.

It all depends on what you want, I guess.

MilesAhead

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Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this
« Reply #28 on: June 16, 2015, 09:07 AM »
Sometimes when the sources dry up the only way I could find a download was to use the original download filename.  Like My Super Duper Utility version 5 might have a download name msdu5.zip.  Sometimes a google will pick up a copy sitting on a university server when nobody else is still hosting it.

questorfla

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Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this
« Reply #29 on: June 16, 2015, 06:24 PM »
Wow Talk about overload.  If i can't find the answer here somewhere then it does not exist!
Shades, i also saw your Zotero and after I actually got 4WD's Paste trick to work, i found out that what MAXTHON copies as the URL is a little TOO specific.
Not only that, but it also cannot always be modified to even get me back to the ballpark of where the file came from (like in cases where it came from zdnet or similar).
It is SO specific that i almost wonder what the point was in putting the option thee as what is gives is more like a Virtual-Link to the file itself.  It has no use other than as a direct reference to that one point and you are probably correct in that it wont be at that exact location maybe even as soon as the first version upgrade.
Still, that was WELL worth the "Ride" as i found all kinds of things that NOW i need to make those notes about why i found them and what is there and HOW to get back :)

The more i thought about the "Wiki" thing the better  it sounded but that went too far over my head to figure out.  I can see where ti would be extremely handy to anyone being able to hover over a filename on a site and see the "wiki" for that file would probably save me downloading a bunch of stuff that isn't even what it appears to be at first glance.  And since it would only appear as a pop-out display when hovering over the filename itself, it would not take up any room on the page hosting the file.  I just have to figure out how to edit that window that opens when you hover over a file and see if it can be made big enough to hold enough information to matter.  :)

This was a Fun Excursion and i more than appreciate all the input from everyone! 

Many Thanks to everyone  :Thmbsup: :D

4wd

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Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this
« Reply #30 on: June 17, 2015, 12:27 AM »
Sounds like a meeting of AA :)

"My name is 4wd and I am a download whore."

Well I used to be but I never bothered keeping info on links/pages where I got downloads, just looking at the file name as was downloaded is usually enough to tell me what the file/program was for or did.  The few times my memory failed me it was always a simple matter to look at the properties of either the installer or installed program to give me enough info to find it again.

I look at tackling a search engine as an exercise in lateral thinking rather than a chore ... I always find something interesting even if it's not what I was originally after.

TaoPhoenix

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Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this
« Reply #31 on: June 17, 2015, 12:40 AM »
I look at tackling a search engine as an exercise in lateral thinking rather than a chore ... I always find something interesting even if it's not what I was originally after.

Well, lately the engines are getting pretty bad about ignoring stuff in "advanced search". I used to get results by building clever queries purposely designed to only return like 5 results.

Now the engine goes "ho hum, include exact phrase? Nah. Let's just give you stuff. Filenames? Like 'StrmExt'? Nah, I'm sure you meant 'Storm Extension' so let's give you a lot of building contractor sites!"

>:(

4wd

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Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this
« Reply #32 on: June 17, 2015, 01:37 AM »
Let's just give you stuff. Filenames? Like 'StrmExt'?

They must like you, top result in Google, Yahoo, and StartPage was StrmExt.dll on x64 Windows for me, (not bad considering I'd never used Yahoo before).

Here's a Paste to ADS version in Powershell (needs v3+), requires no external programs and trims the URL to the last occurrence of '/':

Code: PowerShell [Select]
  1. #############################################################################
  2. ## Paste2ADS.ps1
  3. ##
  4. ## Uses: Get-Clipboard by Lee Holmes (http://www.leeholmes.com/guide)
  5. ##############################################################################
  6.  
  7. <#
  8.  
  9. .SYNOPSIS
  10.  
  11. Retrieve the text contents of the Windows Clipboard and write to file ADS
  12.  
  13. .EXAMPLE
  14.  
  15. PS >Paste2ADS.ps1 somefile.exe
  16.  
  17. #>
  18.  
  19. param (
  20.   [string]$file = $(throw "Paste2ADS.ps1 <file>")
  21. )
  22.  
  23.  
  24. function Get-Clipboard
  25. {
  26.   Set-StrictMode -Version Latest
  27.  
  28.   PowerShell -NoProfile -STA -Command{
  29.         Add-Type -Assembly PresentationCore
  30.         [Windows.Clipboard]::GetText()
  31.   }
  32. }
  33.  
  34. $clip = (Get-Clipboard)
  35.  
  36. $count = [regex]::matches($clip,"/").count
  37. if ($count -gt 2) {
  38.   $text = $clip.SubString(0, $clip.LastIndexOf("/") + 1)
  39. }
  40.  
  41. Set-Content -Path $file -Value $text -Stream 'URL'

It's assumed to live in C:\Scripts otherwise edit the Paste2ADSps_install.reg file to reflect wherever you've put it.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2015, 09:06 PM by 4wd »

TaoPhoenix

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Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this
« Reply #33 on: June 17, 2015, 08:48 AM »
Let's just give you stuff. Filenames? Like 'StrmExt'?

They must like you, top result in Google, Yahoo, and StartPage was StrmExt.dll on x64 Windows for me, (not bad considering I'd never used Yahoo before).

Bleh! Serves me right for "making up conceptual examples"! Just saying that I'm getting a lot of non-exact matches even on Advanced Searches.


questorfla

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Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this
« Reply #34 on: June 20, 2015, 07:20 PM »
"         The few times my memory failed me it was always a simple matter to look at the properties of either the installer or installed program to give me enough info to find it again. :tellme: :'( "

BUT  You are a YOUNG "Whipper-Snapper" 4WD  Look at me  That is a Real Pic!  (well... Not the sword part :)  ) :D

questorfla

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Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this
« Reply #35 on: July 13, 2015, 01:55 PM »
Still watching this thread and hoping someone has the perfect solution.  I found a way to display the data but not a way to get it there. 
The URL link can easily be stored in any one of the many Meta-data fields.  Then it is a simple matter to set Windows to display that field in the directory listing of the downloads folder. 
Editing Metadata seems to be a somewhat "limited" field as I have found very few editors (other than Windows itself, i can change the information in an existing meta data field like such as "subject" , put the URL in there and set the display to show "subject" for every file.  This would be an almost perfect solution to what I was trying to accomplish.
One of the problems remaining is how to get the contents of the Address bar into that field at the time of download.  Another is that I dont think it can be "active" such that it could be Clicked to return to the URL but maybe one of the metadata fields would even do that,  I have only had "subject" to work with so far.
Most of the editors are made for things like photography and music to get to those multitudes of other fields. 
If it is something i am going to have to do manually, i would prefer something as easy as right click, edit metadata field (?) where the ? is the field to be edited.
Sure is odd that so little use is made of these fields when they could provide so much information about a file that would remain hidden unless the user asked for it.

IainB

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Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this
« Reply #36 on: July 31, 2015, 05:51 AM »
I've been reading this discussion on and off for a while, and it puzzled me. I just now read through most of it again, and I'm still puzzled. It seems unnecessarily complicated and too much like hard work.
The requirement seems to be:
When a file is downloaded, how to attach:
  • (a) the source webpage URL - and/or the actual download URL - to the downloaded file (once it has been downloaded), together with
  • (b) any relevant notes/metadata that may be of use as a brief reminder in future as to what the possibly obscurely-named file was about in the first place.

This is arguably a common problem that we might all face at one time or another, and I have certainly found it to be a recurring problem in my experience, and it can be addressed by realising that it doesn't really need any more data capture than can be automatically captured by default at download time, and it is apparently not necessary to attach the URL metadata to the actual file.
For example, I started off with a sort of "lazy man's minimalist approach" with the following steps:
  • 1. Download tool: Always download files of any variety (and especially application installer files) using GetRight (invoked via the FlashGot extension in Firefox and as an Add-on in IE).   :Thmbsup:
  • 2. Destination: Ensure that the default download is in all cases set to the same "bucket" - a working directory (C:\...\Download) and this is not in a User subdirectory. If GetRight finds it's downloading a file of the same name as one that already exists in the Download directory, it increments the filename.
  • 3. Persistent log: Ensure that the GetRight settings are such that a single text file is used as an incremental log of each and every download - named C:\...\Download\Downloads.txt. At this point, any downloaded file can be identified by its filename and Modification date, which will correspond with the filename and download date in the log file. The log file will show the download URL for that file.
  • 4. Attach further metadata: If I wanted to attach some further information to any given downloaded file at this point, I could do it in the filename or the Comment field (Alt-Z in xplorer² to replace, append or remove text in the Comment field).
  • 5. Periodical housekeeping: as and when needed, move the files to appropriately structured libraries - e.g., document files to a document library (directory) and application installer files to an application archive directory and then into appropriate sub-folders representing application categories/types.
  • 6. Filename preservation and renaming: In the process of doing step 5, adopt consistent file-naming conventions. Apply precise naming to document files and rename any generic-named application installer files - e.g., (say) "setup.exe" or "setup.zip" - to specific names, but keep the original name as a suffix - e.g., (say) "CleverApp v2.5.2 - setup.exe", or "CleverApp v2.5.2 - setup.zip". Thus application installer files can always be traced by the two relevant keys (name and date) in the download log text file. I have recently adopted this sort of filename preservation for scanned PDF document files sent to me in email, so that they can be traced back to the originating email they were attached to.
  • 7. Replace downloads log: When C:\...\Download\Downloads.txt gets to about 2Mb, increment its name and create a new, empty file Downloads.txt. You could thus eventually accumulate incremental logs going back several years (if required), in the download directory.

Usually, I would not be too interested in subsequently tracking back any document files to the source, but application installer files were/are a different matter, so I am quite rigorous about the above steps.
My methods have changed somewhat since 2008 when I started to progressively learn how to use MS OneNote. I now maintain and update brief installation notes in MS OneNote for when I install applications/updates from downloaded application installer files, and - where space is not at a premium - those notes may even include a duplicate copy of the application installer files used, thus making for a self-contained set of notes and source files, in OneNote, on OneDrive, so that I could access those notes/files from any client PC. This gives ready access to acquired knowledge and a second backup contingency (I periodically back up all files to a separate primary backup device anyway).

Here's a screen clip of xplorer² showing some application installer files in my archives, displaying the extent of the metadata, most of which - and often already including data in the Comment field - is automatically captured at download time. The download URLs are stored in the readily accessible and backed up, separate C:\...\Download\Downloads.txt log file(s), with filename and date keys, if and when they are needed.

Archived file metadat fields 01b (1000W).png


By the way, I quite often find that I want to access a blog post, or download a file - e.g., an update of an application installer file, a Userscript, or a document file) from a website or webpage which is defunct or has gone 404 (no longer exists) since I last accessed it. At these times, I can invariably get ready access to this missing data using the button for the Open current page in Wayback Machine (a Firefox extension).   :Thmbsup:

questorfla

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Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this
« Reply #37 on: August 06, 2015, 04:01 PM »
to be honest i am now looking closely at what is provided by MS new EDGE browser.  I have to study the instructions more as i juts got Windows 10 loaded and still have several systems left to do.  But it seems to have a lot of what I wanted built it .. MAYBE