more detailed message for missing files/links

Author Message
Ranjid 03/29/2006 07:01 am
could it be possible to replace the missing file message with an more detailed message which tells you why the file wasn?t downloaded (for example: because of a keyword in filter list, or because of a download limit, or because the project was to early aborted, etc. ...)

then it would be easier to change something in case you want a project to download some files and don?t know why these files are not downloaded.
Oleg Chernavin 03/29/2006 07:01 am
Thank you for the suggestion. There are few problems:

1. The information on why some file is missing would take much space on the hard disk and it will definetely slow down the download process.
2. It might be confusing, if the missing file belongs to several Projects. Some of them might be aborted, other - have URL Filters or insufficient Level setting.

Best regards,
Oleg Chernavin
MetaProducts corp.
Uwe 03/29/2006 07:01 am
this sounds like an good idea!
perhaps an error code (explained in the help-file) would be enough?

the normal message is:

Error: Document Not Found
This page is not accessible offline. Possible reasons: either it was an invalid link on the server or Project settings do not allow the page to be downloaded.


this could be enhanced with:

Error: Document Not Found (Error code = 5)
This page is not accessible offline. Possible reasons: either it was an invalid link on the server or Project settings do not allow the page to be downloaded.


the numbers could be explained in the helpfile. for example:
1 = not downloaded because of level limit
2 = not downloaded because of filesize limit
3 = not downloaded because of filesize type

etc...

it wouldn?t take that much diskspace this way (some bytes per missing file + the enlarged help-file).
it also could be made a non-standard feature which you enable only for checking in case you really need it
Ranjid 03/29/2006 07:01 am
a error code would be enough i think, too.

i just had it several times now that i had to search for some time for the setting which mad oe stop loading some files i wanted to be included.
Ranjid 03/29/2006 07:01 am
about "2. It might be confusing, if the missing file belongs to several Projects. Some of them might be aborted, other - have URL Filters or insufficient Level setting."

i see the problem but perhaps you can find something about this?

at least i have no projects in one folder which share files(websites)
Oleg Chernavin 03/29/2006 07:01 am
The biggest problem is the database here. Even with the error code it will be large. Just imagine - a typical site contains several thousand links. When you download it, thousands of links have to be added to the database. Each record there is the link, Project ID and the error code. URL of some link could be quite long. Also, browsing sites will be slower, because for each missing link (images also) Offline Explorer will have to search for the link URL in the database.

Oleg.
Uwe 03/29/2006 07:01 am
yep this is true,

perhaps an logfile on disk would be an alternative. in the logfile missing files could be listed with an errorcode. then there would be no need for an database and you still could search the logfile for the files you are interested in.
so everything could stay like it is at the moment and only an logfile would be added. the only slowdown would then appear while creating the logfile, (the logfile could be overwritten with every run of the project) the browsing wouldn?t be affected at all this way.

of course this logfile could become quite big for large projects too but normally you only need it when you setup an new project to check that everything is working correctly and when it works you can disable the logfile again.
Oleg Chernavin 03/29/2006 07:01 am
There is a log available. You can turn on loggin in the View menu | Messages | Log Window

Oleg.
03/29/2006 07:01 am
yes but in the log you cann?t see why a file was not downloaded (at least i haven?t found it).
Oleg Chernavin 03/29/2006 07:01 am
Log outputs information on any file that should be loaded and you can see if the download was successfull or not there. All files that should not be loaded (because of Level, Filters, etc.) are not displayed there. Do you need to log that kind of information as well?

Oleg.
Uwe 03/29/2006 07:01 am
yep that was the idea!

it would be great if in the logfile all files which were not downloaded would be listed (with the reason why they were not downloaded).

this would have the same effect Ranjid (and me) wanted, but it wouldn?t require an database to make it possible.
Oleg Chernavin 03/29/2006 07:01 am
I just thought about another thing here - each page contains a number of links, most of which are on other pages as well. So, the log will contain lots of the same links reported. Is it fine?

Oleg.
Uwe 03/29/2006 07:01 am
i think it would be ok if files would be logged multiple times. you still can simply search with notepad(or other tools) for the filename you are interested in.
Oleg Chernavin 03/29/2006 07:01 am
I finally added it. Please download the updated version here:

http://www.metaproducts.com/download/betas/oep1054.zip

Please unzip it and place updated file to the directory where Offline Explorer Pro is installed.

You will need to use command line to enable that feature:
oe.exe /LogRejectedURLs

Now the standard log (View | Messages | Log window and the command line log:
oe.exe /LogRejectedURLs /log=c:\oe.log

will contain detailed parsing results.

I hope this helps you.

Best regards,
Oleg Chernavin.