Project HDB (HTML Data Browser) & Softpedia "The next level" BETA

[Gozi]

Hi,

I always wanted the possibility to scan a folder automatically and generate a HTML-Page like Softpedia / Filehippo.... for all my downloads.

 

The Challenge:

No Web server required!

Minimum manual editing

All informations in one place

 

Now I would like to proudly present...

 

The solution:

Well, I´ve done this in a "just for fun"-project with some batch, VBS and Javascript code (project size 35KB). And YES, it´s a little bit "quick and dirty", the way I like :-)

 

For prototyping I used Ketarin to update my apps and generate a ".info" file with Javascript content. This is done with a new Softpedia template (version > 2.0) based on my submited Softpedia template.

It pastes the file {appname}.key, if exists, in the .info-file, where I´ve edited the serial keys required.

 

MY Files are all on a NAS and the HTML file too, so I can run it from every PC. When you open the HTML it will automatically read all .info files and generates itself dynamically and always up to date.

 

Supported features (mostly grabbed from Softpedia)

Application name, version, screen shot, rating, description, OS, license, license key, homepage link, comments, category, download link directly from NAS.

 

The advantage of this solution is, you can edit your own .info files for other apps not downloaded with Ketarin too and soon you have your own private Softpedia at home.

 

I would post my files here for every one interested to use or further development (with Flo´s permission!).

Everyone with a little experience in HTML can adjust the page for his needs.

 

How it looks like:

-- (Folder) // Where all my apps are stored

|-(img) // some little graphics for the web page

|

|appname.extension // the app

|appname.info // All information about the app

|appname.key // the serial key is stored in this file to avoid overwriting

|appname.png// the screen shot

|

|Ketarin_HDB.bat // This batch scans the folder and generates a list of all ".info" files

|Ketarin_HDB.vbs // This VBS forms the output of the batch file for compatibility with javascript

|Ketarin_HDB.js // This is the generated file list in javascript

|Ketarin_HDB.css // CSS sheet for the web page

|Ketarin_HDB.html // This is the Web page, which you would open to see all your files

 

Its already up and running with Firefox: http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/7346/khdb.png

Run Speed: ~ 15 apps / sec ! Pretty fast, but would be much faster, if you would not use the big screen shots as thumbnail as I do

 

Next steps:

Using frameset

Generating HTML Anchors (A-Z)

A little search engine

Sorting possibility

 

Till now, I used my Softpedia template version 1.94 and have already some .info files, which are not compatible with this solution. So there is a progress bar implemented telling me how many files could be parsed successfully in the page.

 

Would you like that?

[floele]

Feel free to post your stuff!

Also, you may use our Ketarin wiki (which supports uploads). Either create a separate page, or a new namespace if you intend to make something huge