Requesting good alias files

[mouser]

As most of you know, FARR is going to be released for public testing very soon, and i would love to include some more alias files made by members.

The new alias file system in FARR makes it possible for users to create a standalone alias file for sharing, including special icons to associated with result entries.  I'd love to include some of these alias files created by you guys with the release.

The new alias system even lets us make a subdirectory with the alias files, icon files, and helper program, so it's perfect for making alias files that work with a little helper tool (like nircmd!).

[mouser]

I'd even like help just finding/collecting icons for adding to the core aliases.. so if you go to the farr v2 alias group tab and check out the core alias file, what i want is a dif icon for each of the results in each alias.  many of the alias results (for keyword search for example), are websites, and so we should use an icon for that website.

any volunteers?

[hamradio]

Just an update to let everyone know I stepped in and did the icons.

[mouser]

Hamradio did an amazing job with the icons, and it's surprising how dramatic the change is and how much funner it feels to use aliases with nice icons.  Thank you also goes to the person who insisted on adding customizable icons (i'll find the old post to give proper credit later).

I wanted to post the deadline for alias files.  FARR v2 will go public on July 21, 2007.
So any alias packs need to be posted a few days before then at the latest.

I will be making a special page for FARR v2 addons (plugins, skins, alias packs).

If anyone knows of useful commandline tools, they can make very good subjects of an alias pack.  As would any group of related internet searches.

[jgpaiva]

Here's an alias i made that allows you enter an url in farr without "www" or "http://", while not interfeering with a search by file and extension.

[nitrix-ud]

@jgpaiva

Very nice work ! it works like a charm



i just modified the results list to :

Code

Surf to $$2 | http://$$2
Firefox $$2 | C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe http://$$2
Opera $$2 | C:\Program Files\Opera\Opera.exe http://$$2

so that i can choose my browser

[steeladept]

If anyone knows of useful commandline tools, they can make very good subjects of an alias pack.  As would any group of related internet searches.

I don't know if this is already in there or not, but PSTools from Systernals (now part of Microsoft) is an extremely useful set of CLI tools.

[mouser]

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/PsTools.mspx

You know this brings up an idea for another plugin: one that will simply run a commandline tool and grab its output and show it in farr results memo mode.

FARR is set up to let you do this with a plugin quite easily and you could make a simple alias file whose results were calls to the dll, i can show you how if someone wants to write this plugin, which would be quite useful for a lot of stuff.

[nitrix-ud]

@mouser,

Nice idea, it reminds me of a nirsoft (nircmd creator) tool called GoogRankCmd which give you the google page rank of a site

with this plugin and this command-line utility, one could retrieve google page ranks ...

they also have a tool to retrieve Whois informations

nitrix, in love with farr 

[mouser]

How about someone making an alias file with programming-related internet searches?

[jgpaiva]

Guess what? A new alias pack!

This one uses AHK to do some window management.
Just type WindowManagement for the list of commands available.
Unfortunatelly, i suck at making icons, thus, if someone could make some, it'd be great

Here's the main menu:


[edit] forgot the alias file! [/edit]

[edit] looks like there's a problem with the "OnTop" command. Not sure how to solve it, though [/edit]

[edit] due to the problems with the OnTop part, i removed that feature and kept the rest of the aliases. when farr can pass window class+window title of last focused window as a variable, this feature can come back [/edit]

[edit] ok, now with 2 icons from the silk icon set [/edit]

[justice]

my nice nonconflicting alias file:

2 search aliases:

Code

Loc <query> to use locate32 to locate files
!<query> to do a google UK Feelling lucky now search (first hit) - with icon :D

Probably the fastest way to find what you want from farr!!

[mouser]

keep 'em coming!!
i'm going to make a web page (wiki?) soon with all download packs for farr2.

[jgpaiva]

Just informing that i edited my post above with the updated alias.

[jgpaiva]

And here's the final version (still without the OnTop entry).

This one has all the icons, which were made by our member Hamradio! Thanks a lot

[attachment 2 not found]

[jgpaiva]

And... Guess what?
Yep, one more alias pack.

This one includes:

• +zip action, to zip files
• +del action, which allows you to either recycle or delete files
• +edit action, to open files in notepad (you can also adapt this to your favourite editor)

Those are all actions, which means they have no predifined format.
There's also an "encrypt" alias, which follows the following format:

file encrypt password
Thus, the best way to use it is to find the file, press -tab-, type "encrypt" (although you can only type "enc"), press space, type password and -enter-.
The encrypted file will be self-extracting, encrypted with 7zip with the specified password and will be created in the same directory as the original file was.

This time there's no "main menu", because these are all actions and i didn't know how to do that menu. Any suggestions on how to do it are welcome.


PS: the zip action needs a better icon, i think..

[edit] added a version which confirms recycling of files (both confirm deletion of files) [/edit]

[mouser]

cool! 
thats wonderful jgpaiva!

[ak_]

I was wondering... Is there some kind of alias tutorial somewhere ? I have no idea where to start and how to do it.