New FS-Plugin : Versions

[fabiochelly]

New languages in Versions plugin:

• Italian language
• Slovak language
• Polish language

[Hakarien]

To Fabio Chelly

Great tool, thank you

The length of this thread just shows that you really hit a demanding market with Version.


A few suggestions thought:

Since the Ext Tab is used for the result and it's usually 3-4 letters , please change UNCHANGED or UNKNOWN
They are too similar and not easy to differentiate on a 4 letters column.

Would you consider changing the list format and using a format like <topic> Opera <\topic> <website>http:\\blah blah <\website> ,etc...
So anybody with a "XML mind" could display, use or whatever the results of the search

TIA

[djk]

Bug:
When you are adding a new search using "Add search" and put in the "Name of the list..." any number - it's ignored.
E.g. 1 - I want to create a new list with the name: "123" - it ingnores the number and I get: ".list".
E.g. 2 - I have a list with the name "TC.list" - I want to add a new search and create the list "TC2.list" - after adding - it ignores "2" and instead of creating a new list it just adds the search to the "TC.list".

[robinsiebler]

I am trying to use Versions, but I can't figure out what I need to feed the program to get it to work properly. Below are the steps I took:

1. Name of list: software
2. Name of the search: ConTEXT
3. URL: http://www.fixedsys.com/context/
4. Search from this point (???): Latest version:
5. After this point: ???
6. And before this string: ???
7. Actual value: 0.97.2a

Completed command:
Context|http://www.fixedsys.com/context/|Latest version|||0.97.2a

Results: UNKNOWN

Can someone explain what I should be doing (and why)?

[djk]

Read the readme and look at the attached examples
To make the plugin working you must view the source of the page (HTML code).
Then you must find in the HTML code:

5. unique text "situated before the version number which will be a 'start point' to locate the version number (to prevent multiples occurences of the delimiters)"

6. "text situated just before the version number"

7. "text situated just after the version number"

In your example:

5 - it can be: Latest
(or something near it)

6 - it must be exactly: "#ff0000">

7. - it must be exactly: </font>

Look: this page is build with frames so you must type the address in 3rd point like this: http://www.fixedsys.com/context/main.html

So whole line is:

ConTEXT|http://www.fixedsys.com/context/main.html|Latest|"#ff0000">|</font>|0.9


I've especially changed the current version number into "0.9" to see how the plugin works if the version changes.

Have a fun!

[fabiochelly]

Thank you djk to explain to others

[djk]

Thank you djk to explain to others

You are welcome.
We all are here to help each other.

To be honest, I did just to save your time, to allow you work on a new version

[fabiochelly]

The next version will be out soon.

[robinsiebler]

I don't want to sound critical, but it seems to me that you are making the use of the tool more difficult by requiring users to put in HTML tags in the search. This should be optional and I should just be able to perform a text search to find what I want. If I perform a text search on the page, I can find 'Latest version:" without a problem. If I do a regular expression search of the HTML file, I can find the version number after "Latest version:" without having to supply any HTML tags or color codes.

A case in point:

If you go to http://www.acdsystems.com/English/Products/index.htm,
you will see ACDSee(TM), only TM is superscript. I have no clue what the HTML code is for this, so I can't get a query that will work.

[piranha]

Select IE -> View -> Source

And you'll see everything that you ever need.

[djk]

2robinsiebler

TM - & trade;
(Without the space beetween & and trade; but I've had to put the space here - otherwise it wouldn't be displayed as I wanted)
So you should write:
ACDsee& trade;
(again: without the space but with a semicolon at the end)

2piranha and all users of this plugin

Not always code shown by option "View source" form IE is the right code. Try to compare code viewed by IE, Opera and Netscape - it's different in many cases. In particluary the order of parameters of a HTML tags is... different I've found that in some cases I had to use code generated by other browser than IE.

[djk]

I don't want to sound critical, but it seems to me that you are making the use of the tool more difficult by requiring users to put in HTML tags in the search. This should be optional and I should just be able to perform a text search to find what I want.

Well, it was designed to work this way so... you can use it or not, but I hope you will.
It's really a good tool. It saves me lot of time every day. I use it not only to check new versions but also just to translate words, check the meanings of the words, check my biorytms , look for a telephone numbers, validate html pages,etc...
You must ask Fabio why does he make the plugin working this way

BTW: Fabio, how do you think, would it be really possible to look for the text on the page, not in the HTML code?
Look: the plugin downloads the desired page, cut the html tags to convert it to the normal text file and then do the same what now but inside the text file.
It would be easier to use by most people.

[robinsiebler]

If been plowing along, but since I have to view the source for each page and figure out *exactly* what it takes to get the proper result, it has been slow. Here is another example of a web page that I have not been able to figure out:

The page is http://www.tranglos.com/free/kookiejar.html and the query is

KookieJar|http://www.tranglos.com/free/kookiejar.html|<STRONG>Version:|<BR>|</STRONG>|6

However, everything is in a table at the top of the page, and the above query isn't working. I have no clue why.

[djk]

It works but... the proper address of that page is:
http://www.tranglos.com/free/kookiejar_toc.html

Just if the page is built with frames, every frame has its own address, when you click with the right button of mouse on the frame you can see the page's address in Properties.

[Hacker]

djk,
BTW: Fabio, how do you think, would it be really possible to look for the text on the page, not in the HTML code?
Look: the plugin downloads the desired page, cut the html tags to convert it to the normal text file and then do the same what now but inside the text file.

Lister's HTML output already does this... now only to get the output and search in it.


every frame has its own address

Frames do really rule...


Roman