WebSquirrel

Version 1.0, Copyright 1998 by Ulrich Kreuzeder, Freeware.

Online help and documentation for some programs is delivered as files in the HTML format known from the World-Wide-Web. A big disadvantage of online help in HTML is that Web browsers cannot search multiple pages for a keyword. This is the task of WebSquirrel.

Starting from a main HTML file, all additional pages are scanned and their titles and links are collected in an index file (*.idx file extension). The topics can be searched for keywords and the pages are shown directly inside the WebSquirrel application.

One dedicated area of usage is the Sun Java Development Kit Documentation. Its Online Help consists of about 10 MB of HTML files and searching for a particular API call or class therefore is quite complicated. Using WebSquirrel, you can simply enter a keyword and instantly get a list of links that contain this keyword! The content of the HTML page then can be viewed inside the WebSquirrel application.

How to use this software:

  1. You must have Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or higher installed to use this software!
  2. Choose the main HTML file. If WebSquirrel has already parsed this file in the past, it reads the list of links from a created index file (filename of the HTML file + ".idx"). If no index file exists, WebSquirrel asks if one should be created. Note that you can always force WebSquirrel to rebuild the index file for a main HTML file by using the button "Rebuild Index".
  3. Enter a query string. The listbox shows only entries that contain the entered string.
  4. Select an item in the listbox.
  5. Press the "View in Browser" button or double-click the listbox entry to view the entry in the preferred browser.

Program parameters:

The program can be started with two program parameters.
1st: name of main HTML file
2nd: query string [optional]

The program can be started only once. Instead of starting a second program instance, the program parameters are passed to the already running first instance.

User Interface Elements:

Query: The listbox below shows only entries that contain the query text.
Clear: Reset the current query and display all links.
View Page: Display the selected topics HTML page from the listbox.
Rebuild Index: Rebuild the index file for the current main page.
Choose Start Page: Select a local HTML file and build an index file connected pages and links.
View Previous Page: Return to the last shown page.
Help: View this online help.
Enjoy the software and feel free to ask for the source code,
Ulrich Kreuzeder (kreuzeder@geocities.com).