Feature Request v2 - time to get started

[mouser]

ok, i'm preparing to do some major work on Find&Run Robot, probably enough to push it to version 2.

and i'm trying to get my hands around all the requests and figure out what the scope of work to be done looks like.  expect this to take several weeks to a month since there is a lot to do.  but hopefully at the end f&r will blow away all of the competition. so i'm hoping you guys will work with me to make sure we find the best ideas that other tools have and do it bigger and better in F&R 2.

i think i have a pretty good handle on most of the feature requests; there are a couple though that i still don't know the best way to address,
that were raised in the first feature request thread.

so anyway, im trying to work out these ideas and sort out all the other suggestions.  i'd appreciate anyone who thinks they can recap their feature requests in a concise way to post it again to this thread, as clearly as you can.  once i sort out the scope of what i plan to add in version 2 i will go over it with you guys and make sure we are all agreed about the new system.

[rbeeger]

Hi!
I'd like Find & Run to search inside Firefox bookmarks.
The bookmarks in Firefox can be found in a file bookmarks.html. The format is rather simple. So you'd need to parse it for a search. You don't need to find the current profile. It would be totally OK to ask the user to select the bookmarks.html files he wants to be part of the search.

[rbeeger]

Hi!

I'd like to be able to search inside system settings and the network connections to find
* display properties
* computer management console
* the dial up to my dsl provider

[mouser]

you know, you've given me an interesting idea..
like perhaps a way to have something like a "hint" file, that told f&r that certain keywords should be associated with certain files in certain locations.  so that if you typed certain things it would show you them.  so if you typed display properties it would know to show you the display propties control panel items, etc.  the Group Alias stuff already does this to some extent, but it's a little more manual.. i'll think more about this.

[nontroppo]

Concise it is :

• Configurable URL Launcher: typing "wik bohemia" would launch the system default browser to do a wikipedia search on bohemia. This is available in Opera/Firefox etc and AppRocket. All you need is to insert the right value in the URL, config string would be like: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%s

[li]Super Context![/li]
[li]Autocomplete: AppRocket and QuickSilver autoselect the item that currently matches. It means <enter> immediately starts the item. FRR because it has a text entry field separate from the search list needs <enter> to be pressed twice! Of course you can use the number buttons but I would also like to simply use <enter> (it is a larger and easier key to hit). More importantly - QuickSilver and AppRocket don't "split" attention because of this. In FRR we type in one place - and the results appear in another - forcing us to scan away from the typing position. Whatever kind of autocomplete is used allows attention to stay focused on one spot! You can see the various types of UI choice QS designs here; note the integrated method of typing and the results.[/li]
[li]Modifiers: if I type "i octopus", the search will only search for image files, "m bartok" searches only music files. EDIT: I just found this: an idea about an alternative to multiple configuration files, and it is more or less what I was looking for! +1 to whichever particular method gets chosen.[/li]
[li]Thumbnail view for images.[/li]
[li]+1 to rbeeger's suggestions for control panel etc. access[/li]
[/list]

FRR has many things going for it, and it is, overall, clearly the best of its kind on windows. I'd love to see it move up to the next level!

Thanks again for an excellent little utility!

[Carol Haynes]

The configurable launcher works quite well from RoboForms new tool bar search function. You just set up the format of the search URL and then have a drop down list of configured URLs by just typing what you want to look for. It is also useful as it keeps a search histroy too - so you can easily look for items from different URLs by a single click.

This is certainly available in RoboForm Pro, but I have no easy way of checking the free version of RoboForm (it doesn't say this is restricted on the website). RoboForm is a brilliant password/identity manager and notes store and worth getting if you don't use it already. It also works well in Explorer, Firefox and Mozilla and other browsers too that I haven't tried like Opera.

See http://www.roboform.com/ for further details.

Here are the URLs I currently have set up in Roboform and they really speed up my shopping!

http://www.google.co...&oe=UTF-8&q=
http://www.google.co...&oe=UTF-8&q=
http://www.bbc.co.uk...p;go=homepage&q=
http://www.bbc.co.uk...p;go=homepage&q=
http://news.google.com/news?q=
http://search.yahoo....&ei=UTF-8&p=
http://news.search.y...news?ei=UTF-8&p=
http://search.msn.com/results.asp?q=
http://www.amazon.co...blended&keyword=
http://www.amazon.co...blended&keyword=
http://dogbert.abebo...amp;sortby=2&kn=
http://www.musicroom...ucts&searchtext=
http://www.play.com/...=9&searchstring=
http://www.playusa.c...ch&searchstring=
http://www.dvdpacifi...om/search.asp?title=
http://www.happyhunter.co.uk/
http://www.m-w.com/c...k=Dictionary&va=
http://www.altavista.com/web/results?q=
http://web.ask.com/web?q=
http://a9.com/
http://www.alltheweb...arch?cs=utf-8&q=
http://www.mamma.com...a?qtype=0&query=

[mouser]

great suggestions.
i think that my plan for f&r commands is going to do what nontroppo and carol says, let me expain.

you will be able to make a command in f&r that says:
Match on regular expression: "wik (.*)"
and then list the following as results:

http://www.google.co...&oe=UTF-8&q=$$1
http://www.google.co...&oe=UTF-8&q=$$1
http://www.bbc.co.uk...p;go=homepage&q=$$1
http://www.bbc.co.uk...p;go=homepage&q=$$1

so you see the idea is when user types: "wik donationcoder"
then they will see in results box the 4 possible searchs:
http://www.google.co...&q=donationcoder
http://www.google.co...&q=donationcoder
http://www.bbc.co.uk...&q=donationcoder
http://www.bbc.co.uk...&q=donationcoder

its exactly like group aliases.  in fact now that i think about it, i think we can merge the group alias list and command list into one thing, which makes like even easier, ill just let user specify an optional regular expression mask for group aliases.

now, as per an early suggestion by carol we can be nicer about presenting results, and let results list include a "nice" display item.
so for eexample you would configure in the goup alias like this:
googleuk $$1 | http://www.google.co...&q=donationcoder
google $$1 | http://www.google.co...&q=donationcoder
search all bbc | http://www.bbc.co.uk...&q=donationcoder
search bbc news | http://www.bbc.co.uk...&q=donationcoder

now if user types: "wik donationcoder"
they will see in results list:
1. googleuk donationcoder
2. google donationcoder
3. search all bbc
4. search bbc news

and then of course pushing the number button would open the browser and run the search.

what do you guys thing - it seems to perfectly fit with f&r approach and seems like it would really work well.

[kfitting]

I second this commotion!  Sounds extremely powerful... and confusing enough to warrent learning about.  A double benefit!

Kevin

[mouser]

more on nontroppo's suggestions:
what is super context?

re: modifiers - yep, this will be implemented soon.  good name for it, i will use that name.

control panel searching, i will try to do this.

i am also going to try to add fiefox bookmark searching in the upcoming days.

thumbnail view - i'm going to think this one over a bit.

autocomplete - as you say this is a bit different from the way f&r works, BUT
here's what i've been planning to do for a while.  if there is only 1 result in window, which can especialy happen if you use an alias to say this word means to launch this app/url, then hitting enter should be like what happens if you type '1'.  i think this would solve 90% of what you wanted.  what do you think?

[mouser]

anyone see any reason i shouldnt merge the ideas of "group alias" and "regular expression" commands?

[kfitting]

Did you look at the "Super Context" thread mouser?  The way I see it, super context is sort of like how XP puts common tasks for filetypes on the left side of their clunky explorer interface.  If I understand NonTroppo correctly, in FindRun you could do a search, then via some hotkey bring up a menu of common tasks (ie, I could bring up different image editors/viewers for jpg files).  Though I think NonTroppo has a bit more in mind.  As always, I could be wrong!  Basically, super context means that depending on the file you highlight, different actions are readily available.  It's an interesting idea, though trying to keep everything on the keyboard is getting interesting!

I don't see a problem with combining "group alias" and "regular expression" commands.  I think the most important part will be explaining how to use them so people see the power they can have.  It also might be wise to try to come up with some kind of GUI for their creation since non-Geeks aren't really all that fond of the command line (I'm a geek and am hardly fond of it myself!).  But other than that, I don't see any problems with it and I think it will greatly enhance the searching capabilities of FindRun.

Kevin

[mouser]

i missed that the first time, sorry - just read and commented.

hehe yeah it is getting interesting.

and yep. the help file is going to need some real additions.

[nontroppo]

Dear All,

Combining group aliases and RegEx commands is great. To be honest I would even rename "group aliases" to something more general as this will be a very powerful feature, which does not even need to be a group. For example amazon (.+) could have just one item within it to search only Amazon. If you make <enter> trigger immediately for only one item in a list then toying "amazon dreams <enter> means you don't need to even look at the list.

Can I ask that the RegEx works fully, so I can use something like:

g(oogle|) (.+)

So I can use EITHER "g" or "google" for my matching (realising I must use $2, unless your regex library is PCRE then I can use non-capturing terms.

re: modifiers - yep, this will be implemented soon. good name for it, i will use that name.

-mouser (August 29, 2005, 07:00 PM)

How do you intend for this to work? Where will it go in preferences? If you extend "group aliases" to serve a more general function I suspect there.

i am also going to try to add fiefox bookmark searching in the upcoming days.

-mouser (August 29, 2005, 07:00 PM)

Good, though I use Opera...  Still the more support for alternative browsers the better IMO.

autocomplete - as you say this is a bit different from the way f&r works, BUT here's what i've been planning to do for a while. if there is only 1 result in window, which can especialy happen if you use an alias to say this word means to launch this app/url, then hitting enter should be like what happens if you type '1'. i think this would solve 90% of what you wanted. what do you think?

-mouser (August 29, 2005, 07:00 PM)

That's a good start and I'd be happy to see it implemented. I would still push for a system whereby even with multiple results, the one with the highest mark gets the focus for <enter> functioning.

[mouser]

I would still push for a system whereby even with multiple results, the one with the highest mark gets the focus for <enter> functioning.

i will add an option for this - either to choose whether enter launches the first item or just tabs down into the results box.

yes it will be FULL regex support so you can do as you say.

modifers:
all search directories and pattern scoring will accept modifiers, so you can change the scores and directories to search if you specify certain modifiers.  so if you type "music dylan" then music might be a modifier that perfers audio file masks and music directories, etc.

[nontroppo]

ok, sounds great!

[Carol Haynes]

It would be usefull to go one stage further with the URL building for searching so that:

"wik NASA" Moon Landings would generate the url with "NASA+Moon+Landings" as the search string, otherwise they will be restricted to one word searches.

I suppose though I am being lazy - no real reason why I can't type the + signs 

[jdmarch]

Shortcut keys to add/edit/delete config entries - for a "keyboard demon" program, the apparent lack of such keys is ironic.

Beautiful program!

[mouser]

thanks for reminding me  - i keep meaning to add these - i'll add them for next version (ins, del, enter).

i have to admit, don't laugh, i never use shortcuts/hotkeys in programs