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1997-12-29
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5KB
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142 lines
SnarfURL v0.95
by Bob Maple (bmaple@burner.com)
(c) 1997-1998 Bob Maple
The author of this program makes no warranties, either expressed or implied,
as to the results occuring from the use or mis-use of this program. Your
mileage may vary. Use at your own risk.
WHAT IS SNARFURL?
=================
SnarfURL is a little CNet-C door that will pull http: URLs out of messages
and instruct your web browser to go to that URL.
Why? Because you can't cut text off of the CNet screen using the clipboard
unless you're using some sort of clipboard hack like PowerSnap, which I hate
using. I was frustrated always having to scribble down URLs onto pieces of
paper, flip screens, and punch them in, only to find I wrote something down
wrong. Grrr!
At the moment, SnarfURL will only search through public messages and replies
in the message boards.
INSTALLING
==========
Installation is mostly easy. LaunchURL.rexx MUST be installed in REXX:
but SnarfURL can go to a path of your choice.
Note also that the command "rx" must be installed somewhere in the global
system path! SnarfURL calls LaunchURL.rexx by way of the "rx" shell
command, so AmigaDOS must be able to find it somewhere in your current
path. SYS:RexxC/ is where it normally lives, which should be in your
path (open a shell and type "path" to find out.)
*** NOTE *** There are TWO SnarfURL binaries included in the LHA!
SnarfURL_424h was compiled for v4.24h of CNet, which is
what I personally run, which is an older beta.
However, internal CNet data that SnarfURL depends on
slided around sometime after v4.24h (I don't know when,
really) so the plain SnarfURL was compiled with a newer SDK.
Choose appropriately! Your mileage may vary! If you are
running the latest version of CNet v4, then run the normal
SnarfURL binary.
To install SnarfURL into your BBSMENU for easy access, I suggest something
adding a command to the end of group 5, the "Respond or Pass?" section:
WWW `31 |#2src:CNet/SnarfURL/SnarfURL}
In this case, the command "WWW" would launch SnarfURL out of my build
directory, but only for people with access group 31. SnarfURL has no
access restrictions of it's own, so plan accordingly.. this isn't something
you want remote users to have access to anyway.
You would obviously alter the above line however you please, making sure
to specify the path for wherever _you_ happened to put SnarfURL.
USING
=====
If you made a BBSMENU entry similar to the one above, make sure you
use "Reload text/menu" from the CNet Control Panel pulldown menus, or
reboot your system. Then, fire up your browser, login to your BBS,
find a message which has a URL in it, and type "WWW" at the Respond/Pass
prompt after the message, and you're off!
CONFIGURING FOR YOUR BROWSER
============================
The file LaunchURL.rexx is designed to look for Voyager already running,
and if that fails, it will look for IBrowse already running, and if that
fails, it looks for AWeb. If it finds any of them, it gives that browser
the URL and all is happy.
The script does NOT launch the browser if it's not already running, since
installation paths are not standard, and how am I supposed to know which
one you want to use?!
Feel free to be devious and modify the script to do whatever you want
depending on your desires and configuration.
BUGS
====
Since we're dealing with pulling strings out of messages, SnarfURL
tries very hard to grab just the URL, but sometimes will grab extra junk
on the end depending on how the person typed up the message. At the moment
it's trained to stop at spaces and newlines, and snip off some stuff at the
ends, but I'm sure there's other ways people are pounding URLs into their
messages that will cause my program to guess wrong.
Let me know if you run into such "un-clean" URLs so I can hack SnarfURL to
recognize 'dirtier' messages. It's a difficult task, since URLs can contain
a variety of non-alphabetic characters, so arbitrary filtering can't be done.
SUPPORT
=======
Email bmaple@burner.com with problems or suggestions.
TO-DO
=====
o A list of found URLs that you can choose from, instead
of the current 'yes/no' method
o Search for ftp: and news: URLs
o Optional Add-to-bookmark instead of launching that URL
(You can do this with the ARexx script now, if you want!)
o Searching through email
HISTORY
=======
v0.95 29-Dec-97
---------------
o Initial release just to see what happens