Cream of the Crop 20/Cream of the Crop 20 (Terry Blount) (1996).iso/comm/arf22.zip/README

Text File | 1996-07-08 | 9KB | 211 lines

                             ARF
      A World Wide Web database searcher and retrieval agent

                       Copyright 1996
                            by
                  Bitsafe Computer Services
                  425 S. Bird St. #110
                  Sun Prairie, WI 53590
                  Email: [e-mail]

                       All right reserved


What is Arf?

    Arf is a client program for web databases such as Alta Vista,
    Lycos, and Deja News.

    You type in a search term and tell Arf which database to contact.
    Arf contacts that database and tells it to do a search. The
    database sends back a list of web pages (or Usenet posts in
    the case of Deja News). Arf goes out on the Internet, gets
    those web pages, and copies them to your hard disk.

What are the benefits of Arf?

    Use your favorite browser to do a preliminary web search.
    Then once you've narrowed down what your search term should
    be, fire up Arf.

    Get every page. Arf doesn't forget a single one.
    Save time. Arf searches faster than any human.
    Save money. Connect time is reduced to a minimum.

    Start up several copies of Arf to search more than one
    database at a time - while you do other work. When Arf
    is done, disconnect from the Internet and view your
    results offline - with no network lag.

    Arf is great for writers and other researchers.

Installing Arf

    1) Put cswsock.vbx in your \windows\system directory.

    2) Put arf.exe & Readme in whatever directory you want.

    You are now probably done, but check out the next few
    steps.

    3) Arf needs three additional files to run, cmdialog.vbx,
    commdlg.dll, and vbrun300.dll. If cmdialog.vbx and
    commdlg.dll are not already present in \windows\system,
    then put the supplied copies there.

    4) Vbrun300.dll is not included in Arf's zip file because
    of its size and because you probably already have a copy.
    If you don't, it is available from the Arf site at
    www.execpc.com/~bitsafe/arf and from Simtel.net and many
    on-line services and BBSs. Just put a copy of it in
    \windows\system, if necessary.


    5) If you want, you can set an icon to point to Arf by doing:
        "File->New->Program item" in Windows 3.1
        or
        "New->Shortcut" in Windows 95 & NT

    6) Arf uses a configuration file to save your favorite settings
    (see below). By default this file will be named c:\config.arf.
    You can change this, if you want, by inserting a line like:

        set ARFCONFIG=c:\my_dir\my_config_file

    in your autoexec.bat file, but this isn't required.

Using Arf

    First make sure you are connected to the Internet.

    Type a search term in the text box labeled "For:" (try
    the word "bitsafe"). Then choose your database in the
    box just above it (or leave it at Alta Vista). Then press
    the "Start" button. The Start button will change into a
    Stop button, and you should start to see informational
    messages appearing in the "Messages" box near the bottom
    of Arf.

    When Arf has finished, take a look in the directory
    "c:\arfout". You should see several files named:
    page1.htm, page2.htm, etc. These are the html pages that
    Arf fetched from the Internet. You can look at these using
    any editor or by using a web browser such as Netscape or
    Explorer.

    You will also find two other files in c:\arfout:
    "fetched.htm" and "badlinks.htm". Fetched.htm is an html
    file that Arf created. It has html links in it that point
    to the "page.htm" files. Try looking at it with your
    browser and clicking on the links. You can view all the
    web pages that Arf fetched very easily. At the bottom of
    each fetched page is a link labeled "original page". If
    you click on the link and are still connected to the
    Internet, you can view the original page complete with
    graphics (Arf does not copy graphics).

    The file badlinks.htm contains links to web pages that
    Arf was unable to fetch (probably because the page has
    moved or the web server for that page was down). You
    can try viewing those pages at some other time.

    If you now do another search with Arf, you will find
    that Arf places more web page files in c:\arfout
    without deleting or overwriting the web pages produced
    by your first search. In addition, Arf adds new links
    in the fetched.htm file without destroying the old
    links.

    If you want Arf to put its results in some other
    directory, then change the text box labeled "Directory:".
    If you want to change the names of the pages that Arf
    fetches, change the text box labeled "Prefix:".

    The "Max Links" box on Arf limits how many pages Arf can
    look for on each search. The free version of Arf is
    limited to just ten links. The registered version can do
    10,000 links.

    When Arf is doing a search, it has to wait for the
    database it is searching to respond with data. You can
    tell Arf how long to wait before breaking contact and
    maybe trying again. You do this by setting the Database
    Timeout text box to the number of seconds you want it
    to wait. Similarly, you control how long Arf will wait
    for a web server to deliver a web page by setting the
    Pages Timeout text box.

    You can have Arf not fetch some of the pages it encounters
    by setting the "Skip links" text boxes. For example, to
    have Arf skip the first ten pages set the "From:" box to
    1 and set the "To:" box to 10.

    As Arf operates, it tells you how things are going in the
    "Statistics" text boxes. The "Links followed:" box tells
    you how many database links Arf has followed. The
    "Pages fetched:" box indicates how many of those links
    Arf was able to follow and successfully retrieve a web
    page.

    Arf has another way to tell you what is doing. Just above the
    Start button is a green square. When Arf is talking to a
    database, this square becomes red. When Arf is busy fetching
    a web page this square becomes blue. When the square is blue,
    you can use your mouse to press on it. This causes Arf to
    quit trying to fetch that page and go on to the next one.
    This is referred to as skipping a page. If Arf has managed
    to transfer part of a page, it will not delete what it has
    managed to get. You can, of course, press the Stop button
    at any time to have Arf terminate a search completely.

    One quick note and then we'll move on to some of the more
    advanced facilities in Arf: When you type a search term in
    the "For:" text box, you have to use the syntax of the
    database you are going to connect to. You can find out what
    these syntax rules are by using a browser to contact the
    database.

Advanced usage

    Arf has the ability to start your favorite browser when you
    press the "Browser" button, but first you have to tell Arf
    where your browser is. Press the menu "File->Select browser".
    This creates a popup box which you use to find your browser.
    When you have located it, press the "Ok" button. Now, do a
    search. When the search is done, press the "Browser" button
    and your web browser will start up. If your browser is the
    one from Netscape, your browser will try to load fetched.htm
    automatically!

    Another thing you can do is to change Arf's appearance to suit
    your own taste in colors. Use the "Color" menu to set the
    colors of Arf's text boxes, the colors of the frames that the
    text boxes are in, and the overall background color of Arf.

    After you have told Arf about the location of your browser
    and set a few colors, be sure to save your settings by using
    the "File->Save configuration" menu. Arf will save your
    settings in the file "c:\config.arf" and use those settings
    the next time you use the program. If you'd rather have Arf
    put this information in another file, then ed