Author Topic: Url Pack 1.7.0.0 (Read 39448 times)

MilesAhead · « **on:** December 03, 2011, 01:46 AM »

Url Pack 1.0 is yet another tray hotkey. Most browsers now have the built in facility to drag the icon on the left end of the Address Bar to the desktop, creating a url shortcut. I designed Url Pack to take advantage of this.

You may download the program from this page:

http://www.favessoft.com/hotkeys.html

I usually start my browsers with a blank page. But I thought it may be useful to have an easy means of launching a group of Urls in one shot. This hotkey app pops up a Gui with 4 buttons.

Gather Urls Button moves any Url shortcuts from the Desktop to the URLS folder that's created in the folder where UrlPack.exe lives. Duplicates are silently overwritten.

Open Urls Button launches all the Urls in said folder.

The other 2 buttons are for setting the delays.
Long delay to give the browser time to load up off the disk.
Short delay is the delay between subsequent Url launches.

By fiddling with the delays you should be able to get the default browser to come up and load tabs for each shortcut.

Utterly useless for those who load a bunch of tabs on startup. But for people like me who usually fire up an empty page, this makes it simpler to create a working set of sites.

Also the Tray Menu has a command to open the URLS folder.
The default hotkey is Alt-F10 but it's adjustable via .ini file.

Note that the delay buttons will not close after the entry is made. No sense making you hit the hotkey again to set both delays. The Gather and Open Buttons show disabled if there are no shortcuts for them to work on. They check for shortcuts on every pop up. But if you leave the window open and make shortcuts on the desktop, the buttons won't know it until the Gui closes and pops up again.

Once you're set up it's a matter of hit the hotkey, Press the Open Urls Button.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #1 on:** December 03, 2011, 03:06 AM »

Url Pack 1.1.0.0 Gui button fixes.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #2 on:** December 03, 2011, 03:31 PM »

Url Pack 1.2.0.0 If Gui gets under other application windows, now hitting the hotkey again will bring it to the top. Added DefaultBrowser option to ini file. See Readme Tip section for usage. Added Edit IniFile command to Tray Menu.

Edit IniFile adds comments to the start of the ini file with info on hotkey modifiers. But the main convenience is being able to edit while UrlPack.exe is running. The script reloads to refresh settings from the ini file when the edit is complete.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #3 on:** December 03, 2011, 06:41 PM »

Url Pack 1.2.2.0 Minor fixes. Mostly the delay input boxes. Making them modal. Also they keep opening until dismissed or a valid value is entered.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #4 on:** December 03, 2011, 11:16 PM »

Url Pack 1.3.0.0 There may still be a bug or 2 but this is getting less clunky now. Removed ini file DefaultBrowser option. The program only has one hotkey. It can be set via command line or ini file.

There are 2 modes.

1) You hit the hotkey and a supported browser is not the active window:
The Gui comes up like before.

2) You hit the hotkey with a supported browser as the active window:
It gets the path of the browser's exe and uses it to open the Url Pack
if it's the default browser or not. No need to change settings to use
the pack with any browser.

Looks like the major functions are in place. Now just hunting down minor bugs.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #5 on:** December 04, 2011, 06:52 PM »

Url Pack 1.3.0.3 Some minor fixes. Now pressing Esc key closes the Gui.

Rewrote the Readme.txt file.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #6 on:** December 06, 2011, 05:53 PM »

Url Pack 1.3.0.4 Added MaxThon 3 to supported browser list.

Curt · « **Reply #7 on:** December 07, 2011, 07:39 AM »

will it work if the desktop is set to not display any icons?

MilesAhead · « **Reply #8 on:** December 07, 2011, 02:38 PM »

will it work if the desktop is set to not display any icons?
-Curt (December 07, 2011, 07:39 AM)

I would expect the .url files would still be detected and moved. If it doesn't work let me know. I'll have to come up with a capture from the address bar to make url shortcuts directly in the URLS folder.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #9 on:** December 07, 2011, 03:45 PM »

Url Pack 1.3.0.6

v. 1.3.0.6 Fixed url file parsing to accommodate IE format.

v. 1.3.0.5 Added MaxThon 2 browser support.

Note: In IE 8 the "drag addresbar to desktop" technique does not work. But you can do the same thing using File Menu, Send => Shortcut to Desktop.

MaxThon may have something similar.

I installed MaxThon 2 and 3 just to get the window class names and try out some basic functions. But, to be honest, these browsers are in such an unusable state after install that I really don't want to configure each one. I don't like to run Browsers that use IE engine since I got burned by a BHO some years ago.

The main issue now with IE is there seems to be a bug with settings to open new urls in tabs. It just doesn't work. At least it doesn't work right on IE 8.

I tried opening the pack with MaxThon 2, then MaxThom 3 the active window. New tabs were opened as expected.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #10 on:** April 11, 2012, 06:12 PM »

Url Pack 1.3.1.0 Added command to open Gui from Tray Menu. Added Gui Button to open url folder. Added icons to Tray Menu.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #11 on:** April 12, 2012, 02:23 PM »

Url Pack 1.3.2.0 Fixed bug where F1 would open About Box if Gui was open, even if the Gui did not have the keyboard focus.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #12 on:** April 12, 2012, 02:51 PM »

This is pretty cute. I missed the point back in Dec when you were doing the early dev. Today I caught on to the fact that I always open the same 10 sites twice a day.

But here's a fun tip. It triggers off a "default browser" (which is fine!). So if you open a "Non-Default" browser for specialty tasks like DC with 8 tabs open for the threads, 2 wiki entries, hulu, IMDB, and some misc page, open a "non-default" browser to hold all that. For example, I use Cometbird which is a Firefox spinoff as my "workhorse browser" because somehow it doesn't need to do 30 seconds of garbage collection every time it closes.

Then I/you can run URL Pack to load your 10 workhorse sites in the second "default" browser (here, Firefox standard). In the Windows task bar at the bottom you can visually see which is which, rather than having 30 tabs all smashed off the screen with that little arrow.

Feature Request: I have it set to 15 sec for the starter load, and 5 sec thereafter (because my connection is slow.) Can we get a feature so that once you minimize whatever browser it's working on, it loads them all minimized to the task bar? For example, after it first pulls the "default browser" sure it pops up, but then if I minimize it, can I let it work for 2 minutes in the background?

Cheers,

Tao

MilesAhead · « **Reply #13 on:** April 12, 2012, 03:50 PM »

I'm not quite sure what you mean by working in the background. But the way I intended it was, to use a browser other than default, open the browser. Click it with the mouse to make it the active window. Then when you hit the hotkey, the pack is loaded using that browser. In fact the list of "Supported Browsers" is only to limit when the hotkey fires. It should work with any browser that opens a url from the command line in a new tab. You would just need to comment out the BrowserGroup stuff and recompile.

As far the the initial and following delays, use the Long Delay and Short Delay Buttons in the Gui. The settings you request are within the valid range already.

To change the hotkey just make a shortcut that specifies a different hotkey on the command line. For example if you want WinKey-b as the hotkey, specify #b after the exe name on the target line of the shortcut. Another example, to use hotkey control-k specify ^k on the command line. If the hotkey does not register correctly it should spit out an error message. Esp. with AHK apps though, many hotkeys are not "global." They are only in effect when certain windows are active. Therefore setting the hotkey may seem to work ok, then you open some other app and it steals the hotkey. Trial and error seems the only real way to go.

If you make is something unusual then you may be able to dispense with the BrowserGroup and use with nearly any browser.

If you do compile it yourself make sure to use AutoHotkey_L Unicode version of AHK_L. Here's a list of hotkey codes:

http://l.autohotkey.net/docs/Hotkeys.htm

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #14 on:** April 12, 2012, 05:38 PM »

Some great notes there but not what I hoped for.

When I launch it, my "secondary neo default" browser keeps trying to become an active window. So suppose I was reading DC. I'd launch the pack, and I'd hope to minimize it to keep reading DC. Instead, it keeps grabbing active window status. So I'm stuck staring kinda into blank space for 1-2 minutes while it all loads. Is it possible for those tabs to load but not to trigger active window status?

MilesAhead · « **Reply #15 on:** April 12, 2012, 05:47 PM »

I don't think I could do it since every time the browser launches from the command line it's going to see if it already has a copy open. If so, it restores the window. Stuff would be jumping up and down. Sounds like you would be better served by a tab control addon. I don't really use them. So I don't know if there's a way to keep the browser minimized until everything loads. All my hotkey does is find out which exe file owns the active window, and launches it with a url in a loop, processing all the url shortcuts in the folder. AddOns can do more since they have hooks running inside the browser and are written for particular browsers.

The other thing that might work would be browser dependent. If it has command line switches to open multiple urls, open them in new tabs, with app minimized etc..

The real purpose of this utility is not to be a tab manager. But to open a browser to a blank page, speeding up the load, then opening a group of urls so that you don't totally sacrifice starting with a working set of pages. More sophisticated than that and it would have to be an AddOn or Plugin.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #16 on:** April 12, 2012, 06:33 PM »

I do have an idea that may work in the scenario you outlined. I just tried it. I have a tray hotkey called TopmostToggle. Basically you make a window active, then hit the hotkey. It toggles the topmost or "stay on top" attribute of the window.

Just now I brought up chromium to this forum. I set chromium to stay on top with TopmostToggle. Then I brought up Firefox. I clicked FF to make it active(it stayed behind chromium even though it had the keyboard focus) and hit the UrlPack hotkey. It opened the urls in tabs while staying behind chromium. Just hit the TopmostToggle hotkey again on chromium, in this example, to turn off the stay on top behavior. When you click the TopmostToggle hotkey on a window, a tooltip shows the new status of the Topmost attribute.

There's a small write-up of TopmostToggle on Gizmo's site:
http://www.techsuppo...ting-top-windows.htm

It's the first entry in the "Others" section. I think it was mentioned on a few other sites. The verdict seemed to be "worked on more kinds of windows than any other" along with "has the fewest features." They kind of go hand in hand. It works on nearly everything because it's simple.

Search Topmost Toggle on the page below to download:

http://www.favessoft.com/hotkeys.html

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #17 on:** April 12, 2012, 10:09 PM »

I was just testing this out, and it's close!

MilesAhead · « **Reply #18 on:** April 13, 2012, 02:13 AM »

I was just testing this out, and it's close!

-TaoPhoenix (April 12, 2012, 10:09 PM)

Another wrinkle might be to have Selector running in the tray. One of the main reasons I wrote it was displaying the current browser page in a different browser without having to install Launchy type plugins in each browser. It has a ListBox where you can add shortcuts or paths of exe files. In this case for the browser transfer assume there's another browser already in the ListBox. You click in the current browser address bar to highlight the url, hit the hotkey for Selector, then double click the browser in the ListBox. The new browser opens to that page. In this scenario, then you could just hit the UrlPack hotkey on the new browser to add a bunch of tabs. It may seem less lame than just clicking the browser icon to open the secondary browser.

I like to combine general purpose small hotkey programs to accomplish various things rather than design a vertical utility with a ton of features. Just seems easier to debug and maintain. Plus small things are easier to think of and knock off. I'm doing this for fun after all.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #19 on:** April 13, 2012, 04:19 AM »

Heh! I like playing "Combo" with utilities as much as the next guy, but I do like a little vertical integration into utilities so that something grows into something awesome to behold. I do get that doing it vertically leads to a bit more linking, but it's a tricky call of churning user energy to remember fancy combos vs programmer energy. Quick guess is this begins to creep out of my range for remembering all the pieces. The alternative I've been using is I just have a semi-private "jump page" with all my favorite sites linked, which open in new tabs, so I just bang clicks down the page and out pop my pages in tabs.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #20 on:** April 13, 2012, 01:07 PM »

I don't think I understood what was bothering you at first. I'm thinking if you are typing in an editor applet in the browser, then you run UrlPack on another browser, even though the first browser is on top, the keyboard focus shifts to the other one. I can see the annoyance factor while trying to type.

If I still have it wrong please let me know. But in the meantime I'm going to play around with some code and see if there's a way I can launch the program(the second browser) with a No Activate flag.

If I find anything promising I'll post.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #21 on:** April 13, 2012, 01:56 PM »

I don't think I understood what was bothering you at first. I'm thinking if you are typing in an editor applet in the browser, then you run UrlPack on another browser, even though the first browser is on top, the keyboard focus shifts to the other one. I can see the annoyance factor while trying to type.

If I still have it wrong please let me know. But in the meantime I'm going to play around with some code and see if there's a way I can launch the program(the second browser) with a No Activate flag.

If I find anything promising I'll post.
-MilesAhead (April 13, 2012, 01:07 PM)

Yes, this is pretty much the problem. If you're doing stuff (editor applet - is that what they call these forum boxes?) and you run URL pack, it yanks you away multiple times. If you can get it to NotActivate, a trick that's fun with other apps is to slam them behind a second section of Transdesk, like throwing them in their own locked room. (I have to do it with Stickies because I have over 75 open which is an eye-explosion, but I want that program to make my 5 new stickies for that day. )

Same kind of thing with URLpack - Switch in Transdesk, launch it, then switch back to DC etc, and some 2 minutes later it will all be there loaded on that second desktop instance.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #22 on:** April 13, 2012, 02:07 PM »

I tried opening with ShowNoActivate but that didn't work so well. What I'm trying now is open then put the window on the bottom. But on my system it loads the pages so fast I can't tell. It seems like it may avoid stealing the keyboard focus except for a short flicker. I've attached a zip with just UrlPack.exe. If the experiment works maybe I'll have another hotkey to set the browser to the bottom on each loop, and keep the default behavior for the default hotkey.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #23 on:** April 13, 2012, 02:39 PM »

Hmm, I did find a bug where the Short Delay was ignored if you hit the hotkey on an active browser window. So that's one thing anyway.

I'm still experimenting, but it doesn't look so good so far.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #24 on:** April 13, 2012, 02:56 PM »

Url Pack 1.3.3.0 Fixed a bug where the short delay was ignored when invoking the hotkey on an active browser window. Expanded valid delay ranges.

( @TaoPhoenix please download latest from my page as that has the short delay bug fix. )