Messages

951

Find And Run Robot / Re: Tip: Htmlviewurl works for local files too! :)

« on: June 17, 2008, 07:50 PM »

great!  I look forward to testing this cool feature some more.

952

Find And Run Robot / Re: Tip: Htmlviewurl works for local files too! :)

« on: June 17, 2008, 05:30 PM »

Mouser, farr:// links presently only seem to work with showhtml, not showfile or igo. Correct?

I saved this test html code to the local file "x.html":

[Select]

<a href='farr://htmlviewurl exacttimenow.com'><img src='%FARRDIR%\AliasGroups\Installed\Core_Aliases\icons\farr\core-internet_www.ico'></a><br>click the image to Internal Surf to exacttimenow.com<br><br><a href='farr://restartsearch gowebpage'>use internal command to launch FARR webpage in external browser</a>

When running it via igo, it displays (except for the image) but the links give this error popup:
"current contents are not safe for local launching."

When running it via an alias that does showfile x.html, then then source of the .html is displayed in FARR as plaintext.

edit: fixed typo

953

Find And Run Robot / [bug] tooltip with file name blocks click

« on: June 17, 2008, 05:05 PM »

Here is a small bug: when browsing files and the filename is wider than the filename column, holding the mouse pointer over the filename opens a tooltip with the complete filename right above the original filename and extending outside the column and even outside the FARR window (see screencap). Great, but one problem: it is then not possible to click on the filename.
Suggested fix: allow clicks to pass through the tooltip if possible.

edit: changed "file path" in title to "file name"

954

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: GTDTiddlyWikiPlus for FARR (alias pack)

« on: June 15, 2008, 10:18 AM »

Some thoughts:

There's a very real risk that some users will also want more and more advanced browser related tools, plugins, aliases and add-ons (ad-blockers and so on). It could go downhill to bloat city from there...

I say stick to the core functionality of doing small tasks as quickly and as easily as possible. Primarily to ultraquickly find and operate on files, folders, programs, bookmarks, processes and system settings. Html View Mode adds the functionality of quickly displaying small webpages or local html documents. But that is in line with the core when used for small, clean pages displayed briefly (to check email, rss, tv-schedule, todo and so on). Not so for other heavy-duty, full screen and long time browsing tasks.

To get more specific, here are some possible features for Html View Mode:
1. adress field
2. toolbar buttons: back, forward, home...
3. various browser add-ons
4. full blown adblocker
5. greasemonkey/proxomitron style page manipulation tools
6. alias specific window position, size and focus options
7. tabbed browsing

I'm for 5 & 6 since they can enhance the core by simplifying pages before display and make interaction between Html View Mode and FARR easier through farr:// links.

I'm unsure if 1-4 and 7 would be needed for anything that a regular browser isn't already better suited for. Can you guys give some good examples for why they would be good in FARR? (I can see the point of a %lasturl% variable though)

Another thought: the Html View Mode risks shifting FARR from a very keyboard centric program (which is a great thing when it comes to speed) to something that may require both mouse and keyboard. Adding toolbars could increase that shift even more. The Html View Mode would "fit in" more with the rest of FARR if keyboard navigation for it could be enhanced somehow. For example, when navigating webpage elements with Tab/shift-tab can the selected element be more strongly marked visually through a larger and distinctly colored border? Can FARR take control of the up and down keys for the webpage so that page elements can be navigated that way too? Can FARR similarly control the number keys to click the 1st, 2nd and so on element the displayed html page?


So in summary, I hope that future Html View Mode enhancements are keyboard centric and stick to what I've called the core functionality. But of course in the end it is up to Mouser to set the course for FARR.

955

General Software Discussion / Re: Where to suggest / request Firefox Addons?

« on: June 15, 2008, 09:20 AM »

Hi Kaon, this may not do exactly what you ask for but it's maybe close enough? (if it works - I haven't tried it)
https://addons.mozil...S/firefox/addon/1765
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Muting_browser

956

Find And Run Robot / Re: Tip: Htmlviewurl works for local files too! :)

« on: June 14, 2008, 09:16 AM »

Here's an updated version of my test file "album.html" that now also can handle two search phrases (both must match) separated by a space:

Code: Javascript [Select]

1. <HTML>
2. <HEAD>
3. </HEAD>
4. <BODY>
5.  
6. <FORM NAME="a">
7. <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="b">
8. </FORM>
9.  
10. <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="javascript">
11.  
12. var loc = window.location
13. document.a.b.value = loc
14.  
15. var text = document.a.b.value
16.  
17. function delineate(str)
18. {
19. left = str.indexOf("?") + 1;
20. return(str.substring(left));
21. }
22. xx = delineate(text);
23. xx = xx.toLowerCase()
24.  
25. var ww = [];
26. var pos=xx.indexOf(" ")
27. if (pos>=0)
28.  var ww = xx.split(" ")
29. else
30. {      
31.  pos=xx.indexOf("%20")          //firefox compatibility mode, since javascript debugging is handy in FF
32.  if (pos>=0)
33.   var ww = xx.split("%20")
34. }
35.  
36. // document.write(xx+ "  " + ww[0] + "  " + ww[1] + "<br><br>");
37.  
38. function albummatch(zz)
39. {
40. var zz1 = zz.toLowerCase()
41. var pos=zz1.indexOf(xx)
42. if (pos>=0)
43.  document.write("<a href='" +zz+ "/test.m3u'><img BORDER=0 src='" +zz+ "/folder.jpg' width=200 height=200></a>")
44.  }
45.  
46. function albummatch2(zz)
47. {
48. var zz1 = zz.toLowerCase()
49. var pos=zz1.indexOf(ww[0])
50. var pos2=zz1.indexOf(ww[1])
51. if (pos>=0 && pos2>=0)
52.  document.write("<a href='" +zz+ "/test.m3u'><img BORDER=0 src='" +zz+ "/folder.jpg' width=200 height=200></a>")
53.  }
54.  
55. xarr = new Array("beatles - yellow submarine", "rolling stones - exile on main street", "beatles - abbey road")
56.  
57. if (ww[1])
58. for (var i = 0; i < xarr.length; i++) {
59. albummatch2(xarr[i])
60. }
61. else
62. for (var i = 0; i < xarr.length; i++) {
63. albummatch(xarr[i])
64. }
65.  
66.  
67. </script>

I tried it with a much larger number of folders and it works fine. Promising!

Mouser, is it possible to use a special farr:// link to silently do a command line action? When clicking a specific image I want to send it's related folder to an external audio player through such a link. If possible then that sidesteps the use of .m3u playlist files.

957

Find And Run Robot / Re: Tip: Htmlviewurl works for local files too! :)

« on: June 14, 2008, 04:33 AM »

I just tested and it indeed works!

I made an alias "alb" that passes the search string to a the file "album.html" as a parameter. So doing "alb beatl" passes "beatl". Album.html loops over a list of foldernames and displays an image if the foldername matches the passed string. Each displayed image links to a .m3u file that when run plays the tracks on the album.

So the plugin I requested here seems more and more doable: https://www.donation....msg116150#msg116150
A drawback with the current test is that you in advance must index the folders and make the .html. A script can do that if the folders are well structured but it is still not ideal. It's also not as easy select and run a displayed match as in FARR's default mode. It would definitely be better if FARR's default mode could show a list of linked images like that. I think such a feature could be useful for other stuff too, like displaying thumbnails when searching for images. Or searching anything else for which a thumbnail can be useful really.

Here's "album.html" (to be placed in helpers folder):

Code: Javascript [Select]

1. <HTML>
2. <HEAD>
3. </HEAD>
4. <BODY>
5.  
6. <FORM NAME="a">
7. <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="b">
8. </FORM>
9.  
10. <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="javascript">
11.  
12. var loc = window.location
13. document.a.b.value = loc
14.  
15. var text = document.a.b.value
16.  
17. function delineate(str)
18. {
19. left = str.indexOf("?") + 1;
20. return(str.substring(left));
21. }
22. xx = delineate(text);
23.  
24. document.write(xx+"<br><br>");
25.  
26. function albummatch(zz)
27. {
28. var pos=zz.indexOf(xx)
29. if (pos>=0)
30.  document.write("<a href='" +zz+ "/test.m3u'><img BORDER=0 src='" +zz+ "/folder.jpg' width=200 height=200></a><br>")
31. }
32.  
33. xarr = new Array("beatles - yellow submarine", "rolling stones - exile on main street", "beatles - abbey road")
34.  
35. for (var i = 0; i < xarr.length; i++) {
36. albummatch(xarr[i])
37. }
38. </script>

And the alias:

[Select]

1000>>>album>->test param pass to album search .html | htmlviewurl %FARRDIR%\Helpers\album.html?$$1>+>^alb (.*)$

It also needs some folders and files of course. edit: See the array "xarr" above for details.

958

Find And Run Robot / Re: Tip: Htmlviewurl works for local files too! :)

« on: June 13, 2008, 06:56 PM »

this gave me another thought..
perhaps one way we could give people to write a different kind of farr "plugin"
is to let an alias load an html/javascript page, and automatically set some javascript variables corresponding to the search string.

this is very similar to the dqsd idea but even simpler. FARR would simply load an html page and preset some variables so the javascript on the page could know what was typed into search string, and proceed to handle it the way it wants.

-mouser (June 13, 2008, 06:27 PM)

Isn't it possible to just make an alias that passes the search string as a parameter to the .html file? Without any plugin needed? (but maybe that was just what what you meant when you added quotes around the term plugin?)

959

Find And Run Robot / Re: Tip: Htmlviewurl works for local files too! :)

« on: June 13, 2008, 06:41 PM »

The basic tiddlywiki.com runs in FARR but I can't save:

Edit: but I get the same error in my regular browser so FARR isn't the problem. It's pretty obvious that I don't know much about tiddlywiki

960

Find And Run Robot / Re: Tip: Htmlviewurl works for local files too! :)

« on: June 13, 2008, 06:18 PM »

I just played some more with the new Html View Mode. I made a local .html file containing an ultracompact version of the Compact Calendar (  http://davidseah.com...age/compact-calendar ) and added some javascript to make it highlight the current date (= cell with light blue background in screencap) and scroll to the current week on launch. Needs some more work but so far it offers very quick date and week number lookup. Screencap (the red stuff in swedish are names of national holidays):


With the farr:// functionality I think dynamically adding tasks to such a html calendar (or any other local html for that matter...) could be possible roughly like this: For each table cell, add a farr:// link that runs some command with the cell id as a parameter. That command (tied to an autohotkey script or some plugin) edits the basic html file by changing the contents of the cell with the matching id and then refreshes the the displayed html. Not a real replacement for google calendar or other full features calendars of course, but it could still be useful for some things.

961

Find And Run Robot / Re: old IE of HTML view - solved

« on: June 13, 2008, 04:40 AM »

czechboy, my FARR doesn't lose focus like that.

962

Find And Run Robot / Re: Feature request: Quick stay on top button

« on: June 13, 2008, 04:35 AM »

Good idea this!

A related suggestion: some way to temporarily make it harder to close the FARR window. (like the "protect tab" feature in Firefox).

Background:
I have enabled "Close Window after launch by default" and very often close FARR with esc. With the Html View Mode I at least have started to use FARR in slightly new ways (and I suspect that I won't be the only one doing so). Previously, I never had it visible more than a few seconds - open, find, run, close. Now I've also started to use it to display html files, websites or things like that that I want visible slightly longer while doing things in another window. But then it is very easy to accidentally close FARR. So a protection option makes sense.

more brainstorming on this idea:

Some visual indicator when FARR is in a protected state would be good also.

ctrl + escape could enable protection
double-tapping escape (or clicking the upper right corner X) could break the protection and close FARR

963

Find And Run Robot / Re: Tip: Htmlviewurl works for local files too! :)

« on: June 12, 2008, 05:51 AM »

kartal and others, here is an example alias that uses farr:// links:

[Select]

1000>>>test>->test | showhtml <a href='farr://htmlviewurl exacttimenow.com'><img src='%FARRDIR%\AliasGroups\Installed\Core_Aliases\icons\farr\core-internet_www.ico'></a><br>click the image to Internal Surf to exacttimenow.com<br><br><a href='farr://restartsearch gowebpage'>use internal command to launch FARR webpage in external browser</a>>+>^test$

964

Find And Run Robot / Re: Alias icon not showing

« on: June 11, 2008, 02:51 PM »

I just tried creating some alias files with icons for the sites using Html View Mode listed in this thread. But when testing I can't get the icons to display.

example:

[Select]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Legacy" ?>
<!-- This file defines aliases for use by the Find and Run Robot program (https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/findrun/index.html). -->
<FarrAliasFile>
    <FileFormatVersion>1</FileFormatVersion>
    <AliasSetDescription>aliases using Html View Mode to display web content</AliasSetDescription>
    <AliasEntry>
        <AliasText>time</AliasText>
        <Score>1000</Score>
        <Regex>^time$</Regex>
        <Results>
            <Result>Internal Surf to exacttimenow | htmlviewurl http://exacttimenow.com/ /ICON=icons\exacttimenow.ico</Result>
        </Results>
    </AliasEntry>
</FarrAliasFile>

directory structure:
FindAndRunRobot\AliasGroups\MyCustom\HtmlViewMode\exacttimenow.alias
FindAndRunRobot\AliasGroups\MyCustom\HtmlViewMode\icons\exacttimenow.ico

When running the alias it looks like this:

edit: I just noticed that I have the same problem when doing a regular igo ____ . I don't pay much attention to the icons so I haven't thought about that before.

edit2: tried a clean reinstall of FARR. Didn't help.
BTW mouse, on second launch after reinstall FARR displays this traytip. The blue link is mistakenly placed behind the text, right?

965

Find And Run Robot / Re: Minimal web pages which fit into FARR HTML View

« on: June 10, 2008, 05:54 PM »

we need to make an alias pack, complete with icons, for all of these htmlview things.

-mouser (June 10, 2008, 10:39 AM)

I'll try to make some when I have more time. What is the latest guideline for the format? (I think I've asked that before but I didn't find that thread now. It would be good if that was made a sticky in the FARR forum part)

When an alias uses htmlview to display non-local pages then an option to use the related website's favicon would make sense (maybe FARR could download a copy of the favicon the very first time the alias runs?)

re: greasemonkey-ish functionality: maybe in the form of a regexp field in the alias setup window where we can specify what in the html to filter out (or alternatively "filter in") before it is displayed?

kartal: I can see the point of custom FARR window resizing and I bet mouser will implement some support for that. But I'm also unsure how useful the very large sizes would be. For large size pages a regular browser is better. FARR can really excel as a browser complement for small pages that load fast, have a specific focus and are used briefly but repeatedly. Like checking the time, the tv schedule, some RSS feed, a weather report, a todo list and so on. Its the same niche that I think projects like Prism have tried to fill.

Also, good idea with ip checking! Here is an even simpler page:

igo http://checkip.dyndns.org/
1000>>>ip>->Internal Surf to display WAN ip | htmlviewurl http://checkip.dyndns.org/>+>^ip$
display your WAN ip

966

Living Room / Dino Run - cool online retro style multiplayer game

« on: June 10, 2008, 04:51 PM »

You, a small dinosaur, run from left to right, passing various obstacles (inanimate and other) and trying to get to safety before you are buried by a wall of lava and smoke. Made in retro style big pixel graphics. And there is an online multiplayer mode!
http://www.pixeljam.com/dinorun/

967

Find And Run Robot / Re: feature request : shift+enter=internal html viewer

« on: June 10, 2008, 04:40 PM »

I think both the alt+enter suggestion and the lists suggestion are good. Can they coexist? If the list suggestion is implemented it would then be good if FARR could graphically mark all items that, when run, will use the internal browser. For example, they could get a special (light) background color.

968

Find And Run Robot / Re: Minimal web pages which fit into FARR HTML View

« on: June 10, 2008, 07:08 AM »

Good idea herojoker!  I was about to post a similar thread but now I'll stick to this.

Note that many webpages have special versions for mobile devices, made for a smaller screen and with less clutter. The ones I've tried work great in FARR.

To keep it functional, I'll stick to this four line format:

igo URL
(custom alias)
description of the page
(screencap)

...where line 2 and 4 is optional


igo http://exacttimenow.com/
1000>>>time>->time | htmlviewurl http://exacttimenow.com/ /ICON=icons\farr\core-internet_www.ico>+>^time$
large clock with exact time/date


igo m.rememberthemilk.com
online todo list, mobile version


igo http://www.google.co....net/boingboing/iBag
read any feed via google reader: http://www.google.co...m/view/feed/XXXXXXXX where XXXXXXXX is the feed URL.


update:
igo http://www.mailinato...sp?b=somerandomemail
1000>>>mailinator>->Internal Surf to Mailinator $$1 | htmlviewurl http://www.mailinato...dget/mailin8r.jsp?b=$$1>+>^(?:maili|mailin|mailina|mailinat|mailinato|mailinator) (.*)
check disposable email (note: to use mailinator with some privacy, pick a long, obscure adress and use its alternative inbox name when you sign up for forums etc)


igo http://embed.mibbit....nel=%23donationcoder
1000>>>irc>->Internal Surf to mibbit efnet #donationcoder | htmlviewurl http://embed.mibbit....nationcoder>+>^irc$
use #donationcoder IRC channel at efnet via the mibbit.com widget

969

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Post your FARR v2 Plugin Idea Requests Here - Plugin Writers Read In

« on: June 10, 2008, 06:35 AM »

I have a folder.jpg cover image file in almost all my mp3 music album folders.

Maybe a plugin can be made that utilizes the new HTML output mode to make searching for a mp3 album much cooler!

Example:

the user inputs "mp3 beatl".
FARR searches some folders for subfolders that
(1) contain the searchphrase "beatl" and
(2) contains a "folder.jpg" file
FARR displays the folder.jpg for the matches in HTML mode at some set size (200x200 for example), in this case some beatles albums.
When the users runs a match, the corresponding album is sent to the default mp3 player (either by running the related m3u file or sending all mp3 files in the folder to the player)

edit:
This plugin would involve these steps I think:

1. user inputs "pluginalias searchstring"
2. FARR feeds matching folder paths to plugin
3. plugin loops over each match:
if it contains folder.jpg, append that to a html with a link to .m3u
4. FARR displays the html in Html View Mode (showhtml HTMLCONTENT)

Does it seem possible to do based on the javascript plugin system? (if so then I'll give a shot at making a crude version of it myself)

970

Find And Run Robot / Re: Today is release day !!!

« on: June 09, 2008, 02:47 PM »

New FARR release - great great great Mouser! 

It will be really interesting to see what cool ways to use the html view mode that people will come up with.

edit: viewing HTML (webpages) in FARR is really addictive! After some quick testing it seems to me that many mobile phone formatted versions of webpages work especially well with a small FARR window. The pages load lightning fast and they often stick to the essential information (few ads, no large logos at the top of the page, no or little scrolling needed, and so on...)   

Some regular pages are also minimal enough to fit well into a small FARR window. For example, try: igo http://exacttimenow.com/
(as a custom alias: 1000>>>time>->time | htmlviewurl http://exacttimenow.com/ /ICON=icons\farr\core-internet_www.ico>+>^time$ )

971

General Software Discussion / Re: Whatever happened to... <INSERT DEADWARE HERE>

« on: June 06, 2008, 03:38 AM »

HKSFV
made by the now vanished big-o-software:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.big-o-software.com/
still available here:
http://www.download....2248_4-10157349.html
and still the best tool for very quick sfv/md5 creation/checking. But also still somewhat buggy.

972

General Software Discussion / Re: webcam as mouse?

« on: June 04, 2008, 04:32 PM »

Wow vitalyb! Cam-Trax looks amazing! I'm almost buying a webcam on the fly I hope it gets released really soon.

From their webpage blog ( http://www.camspace.com/blog/ ):

We have decided to release only free versions of the product. We will never charge users for the software.
We are currently getting ready to release a BETA version for Windows. We can’t talk about a specific time period, but soon. Very soon.
A version for Mac is on our to-do list. Linux is as well.
We are currently a small garage operation and are overwhelmed by the attention and excitement our video created. We promise to grow to the challenge as soon as possible and make good on our plans.

973

Find And Run Robot / Re: Instant infos via aliases?

« on: June 02, 2008, 07:36 AM »

I think it makes sense to start with a very basic textfile search capability first and then expand it if and when demand occurs.
Two rather non-complex systems could be:

1. comma separated data. Example:

tag1 data1 data2 data3
tag2 data4 data5 data6

2. blank line separated data. Example:

tag1
data1
data2
data3

tag2
data4
data5
data6


When the user inputs "info tag1" FARR would output "data1 data2 data3" (or "data1 \n data2 \n data3")

Mousers example ("info phone hospital") in comparison adds one level of complexity. But how often is that needed? I suspect that it for much lookup usage is enough to output all the info related to a "first level tag" i.e. "info hospital" would display adress, phone number, email etc in FARR. Two drawbacks with the more complex example is that the user must memorize all the second level categorizes and must create all his/her new data in a very well formed and consistent way. I definitely prefer something less complex and less (human) memory hungry.

974

Finished Programs / Re: tv_out: a shortcut for quickly turning extended desktop on/off

« on: May 29, 2008, 06:44 PM »

I've always kept the secondary monitor in the default position so I wasn't aware that tv_out was forcing it to be positioned to the right, but you're right, it does. It's by no means a planned feature. I'll check if there's some nice way to solve this by tweaking the AHK function I'm using.

975

Find And Run Robot / Re: LifeHacker launcher application voting and FARR Name

« on: May 21, 2008, 02:40 PM »

As for the name issue that vitalyb brought up, I think shortening is the way to go: FindRun. Easy to pronounce, easy to remember, and it doesn't lose much meaning from the current name, because I'm not really sure what functionality in FARR is supposed to be the "robot" part.

Another alternative would be some animal-ish name like Firefox, Thunderbird, RSSowl... The hard task is to find a nice, catchy sounding and vacant animal.