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- -------------------------------------------------------------
- The ForeFront Group README for WebWhacker 2.0 Beta
- May 1996
- -------------------------------------------------------------
- (c) Copyright The ForeFront Group, 1996
-
- --------------------
- CONTENTS
- --------------------
-
- * New Features
- * Requirements
- * Proxy Setup
- * Netscape
- * Internet Explorer
- * AppBar and WebWhacker
- * Scheduling
- * Searching
- * Known Problems
- * FTP
- * Very Large Whacks
- * Quoted Search Strings
- * Interrupted Whacks
- * Additional Sites
- * Image Maps
-
-
- --------------------
- New Features
- --------------------
-
- WebWhacker 2.0 includes wizards, a new, interactive interface,
- categorization and scheduling. You can look whacked pages as either a
- sorted list or in hierarchical tree structure.
-
- This version lets you use WebWhacker as a proxy service to your browser.
- Once you have it set up as a proxy, using WebWhacker 2.0 makes viewing
- local and online web pages transparent. Since WebWhacker keeps a database
- of all your whacked pages it either loads the whacked page from its
- database or retrieves the page from the web automatically. The production
- version will also allow you to export the HTML and related files for a
- specified site.
-
- --------------------
- Requirements
- --------------------
-
- * Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.5.1. The WebWhacker AppBar uses the Shell APIs
- and currently requires Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0. However, you can run
- WebWhacker with NT 3.5.1 without the AppBar. (We have not tested WebWhacker
- AppBar with the 3.5.1 Shell Update Release.)
- * 4 MB RAM. Additional memory will make WebWhacker run faster.
- * 10 MB disk space or more. Since WebWhacker stores HTML files and images
- from the Web, the disk space required is determined by the number and size
- of the images and files you Whack.
- * Active connection to the Internet with a Winsock-compliant network product.
- * Any Web browser that supports the SpyGlass SDI standard (includes
- Netscape Navigator (TM) version 1.1b3 or later and Enhanced Mosaic 2.0) can
- be used to view local files from WebWhacker. These browsers also enable
- retrieval of current page information when "grabbing" URLs to Whack. Since
- WebWhacker makes independent network connections to desired pages (sites),
- a Web browser is not necessary for WebWhacker "whacking", but is only
- needed for viewing the resulting groups of local files.
-
- --------------------
- Proxy Setup
- --------------------
-
- Your web browser MUST be set up as a proxy to navigate local or whacked
- pages. You can manually change the behavior of your browser to use
- WebWhacker's proxy server or to directly use your network connection.
- WebWhacker's proxy currently listens to port 8080 at 127.0.0.1 (local
- host). This is a hardcoded value and will be user configurable by release.
-
- --------------------
- Netscape
- --------------------
-
- To configure Netscape for use with WebWhacker:
-
- 1. Go to Network Preference on the Options menu.
- 2. Choose the Proxies page.
- 3. Select the Manual Proxy Configuration radio button. Then select the
- View button.
- 4. Enter 127.0.0.1 into the "HTTP Proxy" edit box and 8080 into the "Port:"
- edit box. Click OK.
- 5. Click OK again. The change takes effect immediately.
-
- To switch back to your normal network usage:
-
- 1. Go to Network Preference on the Options menu.
- 2. Choose the Proxies page.
- 3. Select "No Proxies".
-
- --------------------
- Internet Explorer
- --------------------
-
- WebWhacker requires version 2.0 (or higher) of Internet Explorer.
- WebWhacker uses features not available in some earlier versions.
-
- To configure Internet Explorer for use with WebWhacker:
-
- 1. Open the Control Panel folder and open the Internet control panel.
- 2. Select the Advanced page.
- 3. Check "Use Proxy Server" and enter 127.0.0.1:8080 in the edit box titled
- "Proxy Server". Click OK.
- 4. Restart Internet Explorer for the change to take effect.
-
- To switch back to your normal network usage:
-
- 1. Open the Control Panel folder and open the Internet control panel.
- 2. Select the Advanced page.
- 3. Uncheck "Use Proxy Server".
-
- ---------------------
- AppBar and WebWhacker
- ---------------------
-
- The AppBar and WebWhacker are separate applications. Starting the AppBar
- starts WebWhacker and vice-versa. If you exit WebWhacker and select a
- button on the AppBar, WebWhacker is automatically restarted.
-
- The AppBar uses OLE Automation to "talk" to WebWhacker. If you select a
- button on the AppBar and WebWhacker does not respond, give WebWhacker a few
- moments and retry. WebWhacker may be busy.
-
- The AppBar uses the Shell APIs and currently requires Windows 95 or Windows
- NT 4.0.
-
- ---------------------
- Scheduling
- ---------------------
-
- You can establish a schedule for WebWhacker to whack or renew the sites in
- your list. The update frequency for each site is set as part of the
- Properties for the site. The scheduling of updates is set as part of
- software preferences. The preferences also lets you determine whether you
- want WebWhacker to either whack marked sites, renew scheduled sites or
- both.
-
- When you select Renewal from the File menu or toolbar, or when the
- scheduled update time arrives, all scheduled URLs are checked to determine
- if it is time to be updated and, is you specified, all marked URLs are
- whacked.
-
- To set the update frequency for a URL, select the URL. Select Properties
- from the URL menu, then select Update Frequency dialog. Set the interval
- you want WebWhacker to use to update the site: Never, Daily, Weekly,
- Monthly. You can also establish this frequency for each site when you use
- the Add or Grab functions.
-
- To specify the frequency you want WebWhacker to use to update the URLs,
- select Preferences from the Tools menu, then select the Scheduling dialog
- and select the appropriate frequency period.
-
- For example, if you set the update frequency to Daily, and the Preferences
- Frequency to Weekdays at 12:00, the URL is updated each weekday at 12:00.
- It is not updated on Saturdays and Sundays.
-
- If you set the URL Update Frequency to Weekly, and the Preferences
- Frequency to Weekdays at 12:00, WebWhacker checks that URL every weekday to
- determine if it is time to update, but only updates it one week after the
- last update.
-
- --------------------
- Searching
- --------------------
-
- The WebWhacker Search function supports Boolean expressions (AND, OR, NOT).
- If you wanted to search for all HTML documents that contained the words
- "ForeFront" and "great" use "forefront AND great". Text matches are not
- case sensitive.
-
- Syntax:
-
- * Logical and uses "AND" or "&"
- * Logical or uses "OR" or "|"
- * Logical not uses "NOT" or "!"
-
- The order of precedence is highest to lowest: NOT, AND, OR. You can change
- the precedence by grouping the expressions with parentheses.
-
- You can access the search function by selecting Search from the Tools menu
- or the Tools menu.
-
- --------------------
- Known Problems
- --------------------
-
- * FTP
-
- WebWhacker can not do FTP (File Transfer Protocol) on a Windows 95
- machine. If you want to whack files you need to run WebWhacker on a Windows
- NT machine.
-
- Because FTP supports only transfers files and does not download
- directories, an FTP path must end with a file name.
-
- For example ftp://somewhere.out.there/files/ will not work, but
- ftp://somewhere.out.there/files/file1.txt will.
-
- * Very large Whacks
-
- If a site is very large (35 M or more), we recommend that you do not whack
- the entire site. Instead you should whack several levels at a time. We
- are still investigating the reason for this limitation.
-
- * Quoted Search Strings
-
- If your query includes a quoted string as part of a multiple expression,
- the search query hangs.
-
- For example, ForeFront AND great will work but searching for "ForeFront
- Group" AND great will hang the query. If you want to search for a quoted
- string do not include it in a multiple expression.
-
- * Interrupted Whacks
-
- If you are using a modem and it drops the connection, the operating system
- may not be aware of the lost connection. In that case WebWhacker may also
- be unaware of the lost connection and may hang. You can use the End Task
- function (CTRL-ALT-DEL) to stop WebWhacker.
-
- * Additional Sites
-
- WebWhacker may occasionally whack a site that is not marked for whacking in
- your list. This happens under a few different circumstances and may not
- happen often.
-
- * Image Maps
-
- Client-side image maps may not always navigate correctly locally.
-
-
-
-
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