HIDX is an indexing and search utility for websurfers and webmasters who have created or saved more html documents and small graphic images on their local PC than they can easily manage.
The output from HIDX is a set of browsable html documents with links to all of the documents and images matching the search criteria in a given directory, or directory tree.
HIDX was designed to perform a number of functions:
Registration during the prepublication period costs only $29.95 (US currency) and may be done by email.
The DOS program REGISTER.EXE will guide you through a simple form to capture your credit card information. The captured information will be encrypted into a short ascii file that can be inserted into an email message for transmission to us. If you are ready to register HIDX, read the
Other files included in this package are:
If you have placed the files in a different directory, you may want to create a directory named HIDX on your c: drive now, and copy the HIDX files to that directory in order to run the demo programs in this documentation.
Your browser must be configured to assign HIDX.EXE as a Helper Application, or Viewer Application for files ending in the extension .HIX or .hix.
All browsers should have this capability. Look at the other applications that are already assigned to get a feel for how your browser wants the configuration entered. Most browsers are not case sensitive, but Spry is. Most browsers do not require the dot with the extension, but Spry does. If your browser is case sensitive, you should be able to list both hix and HIX. Usually, this is done by separating them with a comma and with no spaces on the line.
In the worst case, you may have to edit the ini file associated with your browser. In that case, take care not to accidentally make any other changes, and always make a backup first so you can revert to the original.
NOTE. Some browsers may require you to exit and restart in order to reconfigure the program with the new helper application.
Please send us the steps you use for your favorite browser so that we can add it to this documentation.
> HIDX
HIDX will read the default parameters from the HIDX.INI file. You will be prompted for any changes before the program runs.
> HIDX filename.HIXHIDX will read the parameters from the file in the argument. HIX files are created whenever the "Update" option is selected. The HIX file encapsulates all of the settings selected when the program was first run so that you can run the same search or index again and again.
If you wish to run an existing HIX file, such as DEMO.HIX, enter the
complete path to the file as an argument,
Select OK with your mouse, or press Enter.
You can also create an icon for HIDX on your Windows desk top. See your Windows manual.
For Netscape users, select Open File from the File menu, or use the ctl-O shortcut key. Many browsers use Open Local File as the command. The shortcut key will differ.
You can browse to the HIX file, or type it into the filename entry box. Your browser will copy the HIX file to a temporary directory and run the HIDX program as a Helper Application or a Viewer Application.
When the HIDX program pops up in a DOS window, you will have the opportunity to change the parameters. This means that you can use any HIX file to run HIDX. Once HIDX is running, you can create any new index, or perform any new search.
If you are viewing an HIDX output document, and if you selected the option to create an "Update" Link in the document, you can select that link to pop up HIDX at any time. You can then elect to re-index the document, or use a new set of parameters to create a new document.
HIDX presents you with a form consisting of various parameters to supply before it begins an index.
Change parameters? Y or N
Select N and press the Enter key to accept the parameters displayed on the
screen. The program will begin executing immediately.
Select Y, or use the arrow or tab keys to move to the other
parameters in order to change them.
The default is Y when no HIX file is supplied, and N when
an HIX file is present. When updating a document directly from the WWW
browser, you may press Enter to re-index immediately unless
you wish to change some of the parameters..
Root directory: c:\hidx\
HIDX will begin to index from this directory.
Index subdirectories? Y or N
If Y is selected, HIDX will search all of the subdirectories
below the root directory for files to index. If N is selected,
only the root directory will be searched.
Filename mask: *.htm
HIDX will only index or search files that match the supplied mask.
The operation of the filename mask is described in detail in your
DOS or Windows manual. Common choices are *.HTM, *.GIF, *.JPG, *.TXT,
and *.*
Text search mask: atwork.gif
HIDX will only list files containing the given text string. In this
example, all files which contain links to the gif file will be shown.
This is very handy when you change a document or image and want to
find the references to it. Currently, wild cards and other expressions
are not allowed.
You can enter html tags as a text mask. This will bring up all documents that use a certain tag. This is useful for finding working examples. Your browser disk cache probably contains examples of everything.
Case sensitive? N
This parameter determines whether the search should be case sensitive
or not. Selecting N will find <FORM, <form, and
<Form with
a text search mask of <form. If Y is selected, the match
must be exact.
Include "Update" Link? Y
The user has the option of embedding a link in the output document which
will run the HIDX program to update the document itself. Your browser
must be configured to recognize the hix or HIX filename extension, and
run the HIDX program as helper or viewer application for this link to
work. Selecting the link, which appears at the top of each page,
causes HIDX to run the same search or index again. If any files have
been added or changed since the original run, they will be added to
the document.
After HIDX has been run, it will be necessary to reload the document you are viewing in order to see the changes. Unless you have turned off disk cacheing in your browser, it will be necessary to reload all documents that you have viewed in the current session. Perhaps future versions of the browsers will be able to check the time and date of the files before showing the cached version.
In order to remind you of this important step, HIDX puts up a red warning message at the end of each run.
HIDX will pause before executing to allow you to change any of the parameters. As it is possible to change all of the parameters, you can select "Update" from any document to create a completely new index. You will then have to load the output file with the "Load Local File" command in your browser. (ctl-O in Netscape).
Title: Index of Local Files
The title you enter here will be shown at the top of each page in
the output, and will be made the <TITLE> of the document.
Output File: c:\hidx\0index.htm
This allows you to specify the output document filename. If you
are indexing entire directories or directory trees, it is convenient
to place the index in the root directory. If you use a name
beginning with a zero, the index will appear at the beginning of
the directory when you browse to it with the File:Open Local File
menu item in your browser.
If you name your directory indexes consistently, you can create an index to all of the indexes on your drive by specifying c:\ as the root directory for the search, Y to search subdirectories, and 0index.htm for the filename mask.
Maximum Links per Page: 100
This parameter specifies how many files will be indexed in each
page of output. If you are indexing html files, 100 seems to be
a convenient number to create manageable output files. If you are
indexing large image files, you may want to reduce this to 10 or
15 images.
When multiple pages are created, a link to the next page is placed at the bottom of each page and a link to the previous page is placed at the top of each page.
The first page is created with the filename specified as the Output File. Subsequent filenames are constructed by adding a sequence number beginning with 01 to the filename. Up to 999 pages may be constructed in one search. For example, with the base file name 0index.htm, page 2 will be in 0index01.htm, page 3 will be in 0index02.htm, and page 500 will be in 0inde499.htm. In practice, it is not necessary to know these filenames as navigation is usually done by selecting the next page and previous page links. The current version of the program does not delete the extra pages if the index becomes shorter, so you may need to do some housekeeping from time to time.
Maximum Image Size (bytes,width,height): 2500,640,250
This parameter specifies the largest image to display as an
embedded image in the output document. The appropriate
value for your application will vary according to the types
of images that appear in your document. In general, a value of
2500 to 10000 will cause icon images to appear and leave
full size graphics as links. This parameter is ignored for
text files.
You may also specify a maximum display size so that large images are thumbnailed to fit the page neatly. If an image file is smaller than the maximum byte size, but is wide or high, it will be scaled to fit in the box defined by the maximum width and height you have specified. The appropriate width and height will depend on the size of your monitor and the typical window size you use with your browser. Scaling is done by the browser with the HEIGHT= and WIDTH= parameters. Not all browsers support these functions.
Save as Global Default? N
You may save a set of parameters as the new default values that
HIDX will use when no HIX file is specified. These are stored in
the file HIDX.INI in the same directory as HIDX.EXE. You can
have multiple copies of HIDX.EXE with different HIDX.INI files
if you want to. Remember to also put a copy of HIDX.PIF in the
directory with the EXE and INI files, or to copy HIDX.PIF to
your c:\windows directory.
ESC will abort the operation of HIDX.
UP and DOWN arrows move the cursor from entry to entry.
TAB and shift-TAB also move the cursor from entry to
entry.
Left and right arrows move within the entry.
Home and End move within the entry.
Ins toggles between insert and overstrike mode.
DEL deletes the character under the cursor.
Back arrow deletes the character to the left of the cursor.
Ctl-Y clears the entry window completely.
Enter accepts the entry and moves to the next one.
While HIDX is running, the status is displayed in a DOS window. The status display shows the current file being written along with the parameters being used for the search. Also shown are the number of pages of output produced, the number of files that match the file mask, and the number of files that contain text that matches the text mask.
As the program executes, the files found are scrolled in the display window. The filename and <TITLE> are shown. This allows you to view the progress of the program.
From time to time, HIDX will appear to stop working. In some cases, the disk light will be flashing, but depending upon your disk cache, it may not be. This is normal. HIDX is searching directories which contain files that do not match the filename mask.
If you wish to abandon the search or index creation, you can press ESC at any time. HIDX will quit immediately. The output files will contain all of the information saved up to that point, and the last page will indicate that the program was aborted by the user.
When the program has completed its indexing, it will display a red message window reminding you to reload the output document in your browser to see the new data. Press any key to close the HIDX window, or return to the DOS prompt.
GIF89a 40 x 40
Many of the features of HIDX output can be seen in this example.
root=c:\hidx\ subdirectory=N file_mask=*.htm text_mask= case_sensitive= update_flag=Y title=Quick Demo Index outfile=c:\hidx\demo.htm max_links=100 max_graph=2500
If you have configured your browser to recognize the HIX extension, you can select RUN DEMO to run HIDX and create an index of the c:\HIDX directory.
HIDX will pause for you to check the parameters. With the cursor on the Change parameters? N entry, press Enter.
The output appears in c:\HIDX\DEMO.HTM. Try selecting the Update Now link on that page. Use the BACK command or arrow on your browser to return to this page.
If you are using a different browser, this demo will not work.
The HIX script, CACHE.HIX will create an index of all the *.MOZ documents in the directory c:\NETSCAPE\CACHE.
On this system there are 2000 documents occupying 10 megabytes and it takes almost 4 minutes to build a 20 page index.
Use the Back command or arrow, or the Go menu to return here.
As you browse the documents, you will find that some links are operational, and others are broken. In general, if absolute references are made, the links will work, so the "What's New" and "Search" pages you looked at will work fine. On the other hand, relative references refer to files that don't exist on your hard drive. Even if they do exist, they will have a different name, and so will not be directly accessible. You can search for text within them using HIDX if you are sure you looked at a document.
Broken GIFs in the index file. With Netscape 1.2b1, and possibly with other versions, there is a bug which shows up in some cases when a large number of small gifs are shown on a single page. You can choose smaller pages (a lower number of maximum links per page), or you can "fix" the broken images by viewing any one of them (Right mouse button: View Image followed by BACK). When you return, the broken images will all be fixed. I assume this will be fixed in the near future.
If you know the title of a document, you can quickly find it by text searching the index files created in the demo example above.
The demo HIX script file assumes that you have run the previous demo and that the files 0index.htm ... 0index??.htm exist. It will search the indexes for a given text string. In this case, the word "Welcome". You can examine the parameters before running the HIDX program. At present, only registered users can use the text search function.
The output from this demo is saved in c:\HIDX\SEARCH.HTM.
Before asking a question, check our WWW site to see if it has been asked by someone else.
HIDX is provided "as is" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
Jennings Communications does not warrant that the program or its functions will meet your requirements or that the operation of the program will be error free. The entire risk as to the use, quality and performance of the program is with you.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: In no event will Jennings Communications or its agents be liable for any damages whatsoever, including loss of data, lost profits, or other pecuniary loss arising out of the use of or inability to use this product, even if Jennings Communications has been advised of the possibility of such damage.
