Author Topic: Any "search this folder only" engines? (Read 20,597 times)

Curt · « **on:** June 28, 2007, 02:37 PM »

I am sick and tired of search engines that will promise to index and search my entire PC but do not deliver the right search result. I have downloaded the big DC file, in order to search it, and I know without any doubt that I several times have been writing here at DC about Volumouse, so I was expecting my search engines to show me where I wrote the word "Volumouse". But No; they will only search the headlines / file names. What a sad surprise!

So my question is what search engine I should install in order to search the content of every file in any given folder (only). I don't want it to search the entire PC or hole directories, but the marked or opened folder only. I would very much like it to have a button in the Explorer toolbar or a line in the context menu, maybe saying "Search this folder (only)". Do you know of such a wonder program?

BigJim · « **Reply #1 on:** June 28, 2007, 03:15 PM »

An interesting and annoying problem to be sure! Especially as storage grows and grows. But I searched from the top level on the DC forum and only had three hits for Volumouse - none of which were from you. Could the problem be elsewhere/different than you suspect??

BTW: Volumouse rocks!!

I use it ALL the time - for screen brightness, too. I'd be interested in any comments/discussion/tweaks on it.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #2 on:** June 28, 2007, 03:20 PM »

Quote from: BigJim on June 28, 2007, 03:15 PM

But I searched from the top level on the DC forum and only had three hits for Volumouse - none of which were from you.

http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=7823.msg55233#msg55233

When i can't find something through DC search, i always use google, with a query like "site:donationcoder.com volumouse"

BigJim · « **Reply #3 on:** June 28, 2007, 03:53 PM »

Cool tip! Thanks.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #4 on:** June 28, 2007, 04:02 PM »

Don't forget that, because google has to index pages, you can't use the method i mentioned to search for recent topics, because they probably won't be in google's database.
What i don't know is how much time it takes for them to re-index donationcoder.com.

Curt · « **Reply #5 on:** June 28, 2007, 05:01 PM »

The "big DC file" I mentioned is Wordzilla's piece of art:

Quote from: Wordzilla on June 03, 2007, 02:17 PM

Updated: 3 June 2007.
Download: http://www.mrmouser.com/crawl/DCForumCrawl030617.rar
74.9MB RAR package containing 8,523 individual html files. (all useless Login.html files are removed, so what's left is pure meaningful content)

Quote from: jgpaiva on June 28, 2007, 03:20 PM

... use google, with a query like "site:donationcoder.com volumouse"

Thanks for giving the example of how to write such a query. I didn't know.

But still the Google result is not sufficient. Volumouse has been named at DC at least once more than Google displayed. Anyway: I suddenly remembered this little app from my younger days: Wilbur. So I searched for him and found that he has retired, but has been replaced by his kid sister: Wilma. I guess Wilbur was reluctant to let her go, because the average download speed for these 7MB was merely 25 KB/sec...

Wilma is now installed and is doing exactly what I asked for. She immediately indexed the one folder I asked her to, and will now search DC Forum only. And because I use UltraExplorer and Maxthon she is placed right where I want her: in the toolbar. Wonderful little piece, she is - and updated so often you wouldn't believe it. You should try her!

http://wilma.redtree.com/en/help/index.html

tomos · « **Reply #6 on:** June 29, 2007, 10:28 AM »

Quote from: Curt on June 28, 2007, 02:37 PM

I am sick and tired of search engines that will promise to index and search my entire PC but do not deliver the right search result...

Curt, how do you find Wilma

I mean do you have to keep it running (I guess yes?)
Does it use a lot of resources
Can you set it so it doesnt keep scanning/indexing designated folders? (Maybe to index once a day or just manually even?)

I dont have huge use for index/contents/search programme but thinking it would be nice all the same to have something lightweight that I could use - like yourself, for certain folders..

EDIT: I had that quote in on top & was meaning to ask you had you tried other (desktop) search programmes

Curt · « **Reply #7 on:** June 29, 2007, 02:44 PM »

I find Wilma to be extremely easy to live with

But of course; being newly in love I have not yet given her any real job to perform, have I. All I told her was to watch over this DC Forum folder - which is not being updated... meaning she has no indexing job to do again. Other than that she will index in the background and use very little CPU. But she will to my understadning only search from the top folder you appoint. So for two different folders to be indexed, it would take the hole directory to be added. But you better read http://wilma.redtree.com/en/help/index.html for yourself - I haven't really studied the subject. I only took what I needed: Wilma!

Edit: Yes, I have tried a lot of other search engines. But I tend to forget what I don't keep or don't like (I don't take notes). Meaning that I can really not answer any questions on many programs because I have forgotten by now WHY I didn't keep or liked them.

Edit2: I have not placed Wilma in Start; she will run only on requests... because of the very limited job I have given her to perform.

Armando · « **Reply #8 on:** June 30, 2007, 03:22 AM »

Curt, what search engines were you using before embracing Wilma ?

Darwin · « **Reply #9 on:** June 30, 2007, 05:23 AM »

Nice find Curt

I am pretty sure that you can set any of the big indexers - Google, Live Desktop, Yahoo/X1, Copernic, etc. to search and index one folder only, but with Wilma, why bother with the overhead?! I'm using Archivarius for my indexing needs and love it, but it is payware. I like Archivarius because it lets you set up different indexing jobs and run them, or not, at your discretion, so I have a dedicated index job that I run manually to catalogue the dc archive, along with others for e-mail, my documents, etc. Archivarius allows me to schedule and automate each one or to run them manually. The really cool thing is that I can search all of them at the same time or search them individually. Very powerful and very flexible.

Curt · « **Reply #10 on:** June 30, 2007, 09:13 AM »

Quote from: Armando on June 30, 2007, 03:22 AM

Curt, what search engines were you using before embracing Wilma ?

Quote from: Curt on June 29, 2007, 02:44 PM

Edit: Yes, I have tried a lot of other search engines. But I tend to forget what I don't keep or don't like (I don't take notes). Meaning that I can really not answer any questions on many programs because I have forgotten by now WHY I didn't keep or liked them.

Earlier I have given praise to Windows Desktop Search 3.0 which I came acrosss only a moth ago, but now have found to be disappointing on the files' content subject. This PC (XP Home SP2) is new to me and whatever search engine I have been trying it was on Windows 2000 or 9x, but I remember trying Copernic and X1 last year. But, as I wrote, I don't remember why I didn't keep any of them; they may have been excellent!

I apologize if my first post gave the impression that I could remember such details. And I really am an IT-analphabetic; meaning that these apps may have been offering a lot more that I ever figured out how to make them do!

I will not try the Google indexer. Is of course harmless today, but I expect a future version of Google to be an important and dangerous tool of tomorrows evil Big Brother. At first they will call it a safety instrument / anti-terroism, to make timid people accept it, but when someone will not adopt it they will add "if you don't join, you must be a terrorist ..".
Scary stuff, installing an indexer!

The $30 Archivarius 3000 sounds really great, Darwin!

Grorgy · « **Reply #11 on:** June 30, 2007, 09:27 AM »

Archivarius is $19 if you are a student and the licence does cover 2 computers, well a desk and a laptop anyway ahhh i love my student id card

lanux128 · « **Reply #12 on:** June 30, 2007, 09:48 AM »

Quote from: Curt on June 28, 2007, 05:01 PM

The "big DC file" I mentioned is Wordzilla's piece of art:
Quote from: Wordzilla on June 03, 2007, 02:17 PM
Updated: 3 June 2007.
Download: http://www.mrmouser.com/crawl/DCForumCrawl030617.rar
74.9MB RAR package containing 8,523 individual html files. (all useless Login.html files are removed, so what's left is pure meaningful content)

it was for these purposes that i use App's search plugin and also have Wordzilla's archive (check out my sig..)

Curt · « **Reply #13 on:** June 30, 2007, 11:17 AM »

Yes; I too have app's fine search plugin installed, but have realized that I almost never use Firefox when I visit DC (to me, Firefox is strictly for images, movies and music).

I am excited to see the upcoming result of Wordzilla's work on the hole search subject. I did feel a little silly downloading half a giga, just to be able to make a proper forum's search.

Edit: Yes, the download is 75 MB, but it is an effecient compressor!

[attachimg=#]

justice · « **Reply #14 on:** June 30, 2007, 12:06 PM »

I found it hard to come across a portrait of wilma

If you want to see how Wilma looks like (Genius name of a program by the way haha) wait no further:
[attachthumb=#]

I did notice by the way that Wilma can be a bit demanding when it's looking through my personal documents, but my friend ProcessExplorer came to the rescue and managed to tell her off.

Darwin · « **Reply #15 on:** June 30, 2007, 02:12 PM »

Quote from: Grorgy on June 30, 2007, 09:27 AM

Archivarius is $19 if you are a student and the licence does cover 2 computers, well a desk and a laptop anyway ahhh i love my student id card

Yes! This is how I got my copy, too. I've yet to load it on another machine (I have two others) but will do so when I get back to Canada.

Darwin · « **Reply #16 on:** June 30, 2007, 02:15 PM »

Thanks for the screencap of Wilma, justice

I spent a fair bit of time trying to find one on the website and was frustrated!

Curt · « **Reply #17 on:** July 01, 2007, 07:17 PM »

I only now realize that I forgot to tell that Wilma still is BETA - among other things there has not been written anything in the manual on how to update the program.

Quote from: justice on June 30, 2007, 12:06 PM

I found it hard to come across a portrait of wilma If you want to see how Wilma looks like (Genius name of a program by the way haha) wait no further:

You showed the wrong picture, didn't you, justice...
This is how Wilma is looking:

[attachimg=#]

Curt · « **Reply #18 on:** July 01, 2007, 09:02 PM »

A variation I haven't seen before: When I wrote the author of Wilma I received this auto-answer email to varify my address so he only then could receive my mail:

[attachimg=#]

About updating of Wilma:

Quote

(...) You can essentially just repeat the install procedure at: http://wilma.redtree.com/en/help/install.html either putting it into a new directory or replacing the old files.

All the user information is kept in other folders (varies by platform, but the ones listed under the uninstal instructions), so even if in another directory, Wilma should still find all your old indexes etc. (...)

lanux128 · « **Reply #19 on:** July 02, 2007, 01:53 AM »

when using Altap Salamander, i just press Alt+F7 to search in current folder..

[attach=#]

Nighted · « **Reply #20 on:** July 02, 2007, 03:09 AM »

Curt, what is that folder size screenshot from? It does not look familiar.

Curt · « **Reply #21 on:** July 02, 2007, 06:24 AM »

Quote from: Nighted on July 02, 2007, 03:09 AM

Curt, what is that folder size screenshot from? It does not look familiar.

CFi ShellToys, http://www.shelltoysxp.com/ ;

I have removed the program again, but only because it is $40 and I really can't afford it right now - it would replace a bunch of other programs.

Edit: it can do a lot more than this old image from the site is telling:

Curt · « **Reply #22 on:** July 17, 2007, 05:24 PM »

I forgot to tell that Wilma is a genuine multi platform program:

Quote

... Wilma was created not only to be more portable, but to live more comfortably in my much more networked environment. I originally implemented Wilma as a python based server accessed through a web browser, but ultimately found this lacked the snap I wanted. The current version makes use of the multiplatform capabilities of RealBasic to provide native desktop interfaces for Linux, Mac and Windows machines, while C++ is used for the core functionality ...

- this now includes the new Intel Mac.

BTW:

Quote from: Curt on June 28, 2007, 05:01 PM

... Wonderful little piece, she is - and updated so often you wouldn't believe it. ...
http://wilma.redtree.com/en/help/index.html

I wrote this last quoted post on June 28' -("today" is July 17). Within these 20 days Wilma has been updated 3 times!! I guess this guy is determined to make Wilma flawless, as he was with the older brother Wilbur back in the Win98 days!

http://wilma.redtree.com/en/help/index.html

mwb1100 · « **Reply #23 on:** July 17, 2007, 10:59 PM »

Just as another bit of info: XYplorer was able to do a case-insensitive search on that data for "Volmouse" in about 8 minutes on my machine (I got hits for 10 documents - is that the right answer?) . A case-sensitive search took about 3.5 minutes (but only found 6 documents). That's certainly not the instantaneous result that you'll get from an indexer, but if you're only doing occasional searches of content it might be acceptable (especially if you're running into trouble with you indexed searcher or don't trust it's results.)

Update: BareGrep, a free GUI-based Windows grep utility (http://www.baremetalsoft.com/baregrep/index.php), did the case-insensitive "Volumouse" search in less than 2 minutes.

For non-content searches (ie., searching on filename only), which is what I find myself usually doing, I use FindOnClick (http://www.2brightsparks.com/onclick/foc.html) which searches the whole drive in 6 seconds - without having to maintain an index (it uses the NTFS directory structure as it's index).