How do you download the MetaProducts Users Forums ?

Defenestration
06/06/2004 09:25 pm
A couple of questions:

1) How do you download the whole of the MetaProducts Users Forum ?

2) How do you download just the Offline Explorer Pro Users Forum ?

Thanks

Oleg Chernavin
06/07/2004 07:29 am
To download the whole forum, please use URL Filters | Filename section in the Project Properties dialog - select Custom Configuration and add:

forums

to the Included keywords list.

If you want to limit the download to Offline Explorer Pro forum, please add:

topic=7
forums

keywords to the same list. Click OK button to save the Project settings changes.

Best regards,
Oleg Chernavin
MP Staff
Defenestration
06/19/2004 11:58 am
I tried this and it just downloaded everything. Here`s exactly what I did:

1) Create new project using the pre-defined template "Download only pages, images and scripts from the site", with the address "http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpSupport_User_Forums_Message.asp"

2) Added "topic=7" and "forums" to the included keywords list in the URL Filters->Filename section of the Project Properties dialog

3) Clicked OK

4) Right-clicked on the project in the Projects tree and selected "Download->Start"

** All forums were downloaded, instead of just the OE Pro forum. It looks like the "forums" keyword is being matched correctly, but the "topic=7" is not being matched. Consequently all the topics are being downloaded.
Defenestration
06/19/2004 07:40 pm
As an update to this, I also added "forums_add" to the URL File Filters->Filename excluded files keywords list so that mpSupport_User_Forums_Add.asp pages were not added to the project. However these were still downloaded and added to the project.

There seems to be a problem with keyword matching in OE.
Oleg Chernavin
06/21/2004 06:55 am
Sorry. I was wrong. topic=7 should be the only keyword in the list.

Oleg.
Defenestration
06/21/2004 01:47 pm
> Sorry. I was wrong. topic=7 should be the only keyword in the list.
>
> Oleg.

Does the included keywords lists use the boolean OR operator for the keywords, so if you have "forums" and "topic=7" as included keywords, OE will match pages if it contains "forums" OR "topic=7" ?

or does it use the AND operator ?
Oleg Chernavin
06/21/2004 04:43 pm
There is OR logic - a page is enabled if any of the "included" keywords match. If you need AND, use one keyword like:

forums*topic=7

This looks to be quite flexible.

Oleg.
Defenestration
06/21/2004 04:44 pm
So if you want AND, you just separate the keywords with an asterisk (`*`) ?
Oleg Chernavin
06/21/2004 04:52 pm
part1*part2 means part1 followed by part2 in a URL. It is like wildcards in DOS/Windows filenames.

Oleg.
Defenestration
06/21/2004 04:57 pm
> part1*part2 means part1 followed by part2 in a URL. It is like wildcards in DOS/Windows filenames.
>
Got it. Thanks.

Does it also support the `?` wildcard for matching a single character ?
Oleg Chernavin
06/21/2004 05:05 pm
No. ? symbol is widely used in URLs, so I decided not to use it as a wildcard. In fact, these keywords use a subset of Regular Expressions (RegExp). So, to match a single symbol use this syntax:

part1[a-z0-9]part2

You will find more information and examples in the Help file.

Oleg.
Defenestration
06/21/2004 05:11 pm
> No. ? symbol is widely used in URLs, so I decided not to use it as a wildcard.

Good point.

>In fact, these keywords use a subset of Regular Expressions (RegExp). So, to match a single
> symbol use this syntax:
>
> part1[a-z0-9]part2
>
> You will find more information and examples in the Help file.
>

Thanks
Oleg Chernavin
06/21/2004 05:18 pm
You are welcome!

Oleg.
Defenestration
08/13/2004 07:40 pm
Oleg,

I do like the new look of the User Forums but have come across a problem. All the messages are stored in the same directory on the metaproducts web server so the project I had setup for downloading only the OE Pro forums no longer works because each message no longer contains "topic=" in the URL. eg.

http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpSupport_User_Forums_Message.asp@id=6350

Two questions:

1) Is it possible to download only specific forums and if so how ? (I`m not hopeful for this cos I can`t see any way of identifying which messages belong to which forum. I hope you can prove me wrong though!)

2) If it isn`t possible, would it be possible to change the users forums so that messages have "topic=" (along with the corresponding forum topic number) in the message URL, identifying messages with a specific forum thereby allowing specific forums to be downloaded, as it was before.

Thanks.

PS. One other suggestion for improvement to the forums - when replying to a message, it would be nice if you could see all previous messages in the thread, below the "Reply to Message" box.
08/14/2004 12:04 am
> 1) Is it possible to download only specific forums and if so how ?

Yes. Here is one possible setting (download only the OEP-Forum):

Project Properties

Project:
Addresses: http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpSupport_User_Forums_Topic.asp?topic=7
Uncheck "Level limit"


File Filters:

Text:
Load using URL filters settings

Images:
Load only from the starting server

User Defined:
Load only from the starting server


URL Filters:

Filename:
Check "Custom filenames configuration"
View included files keywords
Keyword:
(add the following keywords)
http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_message.asp?id=*
http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_topic.asp?topic=7*

____________________________________________________________________________


If you want to download OE, OEP and OEE forums in one Project:

Project Properties

Project:
Addresses: http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpSupport_User_Forums.asp
Uncheck "Level limit"


File Filters:

Text:
Load using URL filters settings

Images:
Load only from the starting server

User Defined:
Load only from the starting server


URL Filters:

Filename:
Check "Custom filenames configuration"
View included files keywords
Keyword:
(add the following keywords)
http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_message.asp?id=*
http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_topic.asp?topic=6*
http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_topic.asp?topic=7*
http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_topic.asp?topic=21*

HTH
Defenestration
08/14/2004 09:39 am
> > 1) Is it possible to download only specific forums and if so how ?
> > Yes. Here is one possible setting (download only the OEP-Forum):
> > Project Properties
> > Project:
> Addresses: http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpSupport_User_Forums_Topic.asp?topic=7
> Uncheck "Level limit"
> > > File Filters:
> > Text:
> Load using URL filters settings
> > Images:
> Load only from the starting server
> > User Defined:
> Load only from the starting server
> > > URL Filters:
> > Filename:
> Check "Custom filenames configuration"
> View included files keywords
> Keyword:
> (add the following keywords)
> http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_message.asp?id=*
> http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_topic.asp?topic=7*
> > ____________________________________________________________________________
> > > If you want to download OE, OEP and OEE forums in one Project:
> > Project Properties
> > Project:
> Addresses: http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpSupport_User_Forums.asp
> Uncheck "Level limit"
> > > File Filters:
> > Text:
> Load using URL filters settings
> > Images:
> Load only from the starting server
> > User Defined:
> Load only from the starting server
> > > URL Filters:
> > Filename:
> Check "Custom filenames configuration"
> View included files keywords
> Keyword:
> (add the following keywords)
> http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_message.asp?id=*
> http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_topic.asp?topic=6*
> http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_topic.asp?topic=7*
> http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_topic.asp?topic=21*
> > HTH
>

Thanks it seems to be working. I don`t fully understand why though because I would`ve thought the keyword

http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_message.asp?id=*

would end-up downloading all the messages.

Is it because links to the specific forum messages are only included in links ending with "topic=" and when extracted all links that then match the above keyword will be messages from that specific forum ?

08/14/2004 12:43 pm
> I don`t fully understand why though [...]

I think you already understood it.
Just have a look at how you "guide" OEP through the forum (in the same way as you would browse the forum).
The starting page is http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpSupport_User_Forums_Topic.asp?topic=7.
All links that you would then follow are included in the keywords http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_topic.asp?topic=7* (the page overviews) and http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpsupport_user_forums_message.asp?id=* (the messages in the forum).
OEP has no chance to escape from the specific OEP forum and won`t go to the other page overviews (other topic numbers) with the links to the unwanted messages, the keywords don`t allow it.

OEP would load messages from the other forums if they are linked in any OEP forum messages, but that doesn`t matter at all (it is desired), because the path would end up there. Remember: no other forum page overviews will be loaded.

I think this is self-explanatory; it`s (should be) simple logic.

Bye
Defenestration
08/14/2004 01:02 pm
Got it. Thanks for confirming.