Ñ This is a Beta of NetFinder, it is ongoing work and should not be used for everyday work unless you feel it is stable enough for your needs.
Ñ The release version of NetFinder is currently v2.0.4 and can be found at <http://www.ozemail.com.au/~pli/netfinder/>
Ñ This package is NOT to be distributed, only the release version above should be distributed on CD-ROM's etc.
This is a major feature release version of NetFinder. There is a bit for everyone. Some components are still incomplete, so they will be added in later betas.
Beta History
v2.1b4 [23th Feb 2000]
- improved upload mirror functionality.
- changed upload mirror bookmark file format from "temporary" format to "final" format. Old mirror bookmarks will not be recognized.
- added support for drag and drop from Finder or another NetFinder window into a mirror bookmark window to make creating new entries faster.
- added FTP upload to ICI script support. Also updated other modules to provide more functionality.
- updated ICI script doco to reflect the changes. Most available routines should be now mentioned, although some parts of the doco still need to be finished.
Known Limitations: From user feedback, mirror upload will be slightly modified in the future to handle a level issue. Currently if you want to sync <ftp://mysite.com//level1/level2> with "MacHD:level1:level2:",
you need to create a mirror item with <ftp://mysite.com//level1/> and "MacHD:level1:level2:"
This will be fixed before the final version (you will then need to revise your mirror lists when it is implemented).
v2.1b3 [14th Feb 2000]
- added "Mirror Placeholder" and readme into the Goodies folder. Forgot to include it in the last beta.
- improved filter functionality to support wildcards and regexp. Also fixed up selection of filtered items.
- fixed an optimization bug, causing URL's to be constructed badly and also causing some listing to not work.
- fixed a bug that would cause the app to crash when opening folders too quickly.
- fixed downloaded files not having their type/creator set properly. ie no longer left as a partials.
- fixed (hopefully) a bug that stops causing the launch of Netscape when setting prefs. Should also stop the -35 errors.
- fixed a http file download bug that would show itself in certain network setups.
- updated partial file progress icons to ones defined by Apple for OS 8.5 and higher. Requires a destop rebuild to see new icons.
- engine no longer pings when a session is busy doing something.
v2.1b2 [8th Feb 2000]
- added FTP Upload Mirroring functionality.
- fixed Keychain Manager support under OS 9. Pre-OS9 users can get Keychain Manager support by downloading the following from the Apple site and installing the Extensions. <ftp://ftp.apple.com/developer/Development_Kits/Security_SDK.sit.hqx>
- fixed a (possibly long standing bug) that would cause NF to crash on startup. The workaround is to trash your NetFinder Preferences folder.
- removed all "Appearance Emulation Code". So NetFinder now requires Appearance Manager. This only affects pre-OS 8.1 users. (This cut out more than 400k from the FAT application). For pre-OS 8.1 users, you can download the Appearance Manager components from Apple, decompress and drag the required files into your system folder. <ftp://ftp.apple.com/developer/Development_Kits/Appearance_SDK_1.0.4.sit.hqx>
- re-organized the NetFinder distribution to PPC and 68k. So people only get what they need and download times are reduced.
- re-organized some documentation.
v2.1b1 [1st Feb 2000]
- Added support for SSL (Secure Socket Layer) based FTP servers. Due to import/export laws etc, you will have to download the OpenSSLLib from the NetFinder web site to enable the feature. Once downloaded, simply place the file in the same location as the application or place it in the Extensions folder in your system folder. Although only a few FTP servers support this (AUTH command), security is becoming a more and more important issue, so we decided to be one of the first FTP clients (if not the first) to support such a feature. Once the OpenSSLLib file is in place, NetFinder will automatically try to establish a secure connection. Please note that once the secure connection is in place, file transfers will be noticably slower because all data is encrypted.
This feature is only available for PPC Macintoshes.
- Added support for file filtering in the display. Simply type in a few characters contained in the name of a file/folder, and the display list will shrink to only display the items that match your request. To type in your request, you first have to get a listing window up (it can be a FTP, HTTP or FILE protocol window). Click on the small twistdown triangle in the top left of the listing window, this will then show an editfield where you can then type in your request. Try something like ".hqx" without the quotes. To get the inverse, ie anything that does not contain say ".hqx", simply add a '!' character to the start of the string. That is "!.hqx".
- Added ICI Script support. ICI Script (pronounced icky) is a C-ish like scripting language that allows you to write scripts to extend the functionality of NetFinder to your liking. NetFinder currently exports the FTP engine functionality, TCP socket like functionality (which also supports the SSL stuff when available). Currently there are modules in the Modules folder that export numerous MacOS toolbox routines. These modules will be part of MacICI (or MICI for short) which I (Peter) am currently working on and will eventually finish. There are some sample scripts I have provided to illustrate how one can use the exported routines from NetFinder, some are text files, others are text but don't have a TEXT type ID, so you will have to use a text editor like BBEdit to view them.
This feature is only available for PPC Macintoshes.
- This release also has numerous internal components custom written to reduce the memory footprint of listing windows. The most obvious bugs and conflicts have been ironed out during this transition, but a few more may still need to be found and fixed.
