This stack is a simple database for storing URLs. It has a couple of features that make it very usable: 1) There’s an Index card that displays a list of the URLs in the stack. The list can be sorted by name or date. This makes it easy to view the contents of the stack and directly access any of the cards; 2) The user can create categories to organize the URLs into manageable groups. The stack makes it easy to copy a URL to the Clipboard to paste into a browser; this is done by simply clicking on a name in the list. The stack can export the URLs to an HTML file, which can then be opened in a browser. Adding a new URL to the stack is easy: copy a URL, from anywhere, and click on the New button. The URL will be automatically pasted into the URL field (for this to work, the URL must contain the string “http”).
The stack consists of one index card and numerous URL cards. Here's what the index card looks like:
The two popup menus on top determine what gets displayed in the list field. The Category popup menu on the left selects the category to display (Apple is currently selected). It can also be used to create a new category, or edit an existing category, or delete a category. The right popup menu selects the sort order, either by name or date.
To copy a URL to the Clipboard, click on its name in the list.
On the right side are four buttons. The New button creates a new URL card, ready for data to be entered. The Open button opens a URL card; first select the name by clicking on it (which also copies its URL), then click the Open button. To delete a URL card, click on the name to select it, then click the Delete button. To delete all URL cards in a category, select the category from the popup menu (if needed), then click the Delete button while holding down the option key. The Quit button quits HyperCard.
Here's what the Category popup menu looks like:
The top two categories—Show All and Uncategorized—are fixed items. Show All lists all the URLs in the stack; Uncategorized lists all the URLs in the stack which have not been categorized. The next three items are also fixed items and are for customizing the categories. The items below are custom categories, which are changeable (I've created four categories in the example).
The arrow keys on the keyboard can be used to navigate to the next or previous URL card. If the selected category on the Index card is Show All, then the arrow keys navigate between cards regardless of category. If the selected category is not Show All, then the arrow keys navigate between cards in the selected category. When either end of the stack is reached, the arrow key beeps.
Searching is just the basic HyperCard search: Select “Find...” from the Go menu. Enter a search string and press Return (not the Enter key). HyperCard will find the first occurrence of that string. Press Return again to find the next occurrence, and so on.
Here’s what the URL card looks like:
The top field contains the name of the URL. This is the name that will appear on the list in the index card. The second field contains the URL address. This is the data that gets copied to the Clipboard when the URL name is clicked in the index card. The third field is used for keeping notes. The popup menu at the bottom is for selecting the category for the URL. The menu can also be used to create a new category, edit an existing category, or delete a category. The Delete button on the left deletes the URL card. The Done button closes the URL card (pressing the Enter key does the same thing).
To print a report listing the URLs, select “Print Report...” from the File menu. The report will list the URLs for the category selected on the Index card. If the category is Show All, the report will list all the URLs by categories. The content of the Notes field is not included in the report.
To export the data to a tab-delimited text file or to an HTML file, select “Print Report...” while holding down the Option key. From the dialog box, select either a text or HTML file. The exported file will list the URLs for the selected category (as on the index card). If the category is Show All, then all the URLs are listed; and in the case of an HTML file, URLs are listed by categories. To use the HTML file, just drag and drop the file onto a browser; or, from within a browser, select Open File... from the File menu. The content of the Notes field is not included in the exported text file but is included in the HTML file. (Note that straight quotes, instead of curly quotes, should be used for proper display in HTML documents.)
Acknowledgements: The dialog boxes for the stack were made using the ShowDialog XCMD, created by Jay Hodgdon who died from AIDS in January 1991. Thanks to HyperSTUff for the Clipboard externals, VarToClip and ClipToVar.
