Do .weblocs Generate Entries in DTPO's Spotlight Index?

DEVONthink Tips
1

Do they?

AFAICT, Spotlight doesn’t return them in a search. Webarchives, yes; weblocs, no.

Best wishes, Charles

2

OK, sorry, I see that it does…

3

Yup, as a test I did here confirmed before seeing your followup.

4

Now I’ve got a post-testing question …

What’s the recommended way to remove any items that remain indexed by Spotlight after a database is deleted? DTPO tosses up this dialog when trying to open an item:

Screen shot 2010-07-27 at 09.07.28.png
It acknowledges (correctly) this db may have been deleted, but only suggests (incorrectly) opening it from an external volume.

5

Hi, sjk. Three possible answers come to mind, none of which is completely responsive. :slight_smile:

  1. Check the “Do not ask me again” option. That doesn’t solve the issue, but let’s you ignore it (which might not be a good idea in all cases).

  2. Before deleting the database, in it’s Database Properties panel, uncheck the option to create a Spotlight Index, then click on the Rebuild button. Maybe — I haven’t checked to see whether that will remove the Spotlight index, but will do so before the next time I delete a database.

  3. Create a new, empty database with the same name as the deleted one, check the option to build the Spotlight Index and then Rebuild? Again, haven’t tried that.

But here’s one that will work:

  1. Delete the existing Metadata Cache files for all DT databases, then Rebuild the Spotlight indexes for all the current databases.

Remember, I’m not a developer, just a very heavy user of DT Pro Office. :slight_smile:

6

Thanks for the suggestions, Bill. 2) hadn’t occurred to me since it would only be applicable in the future.

Decided it was easiest to do 4) because the test db I deleted was the only one with Spotlight indexing enabled. Maybe I’ll test 2) later; that would be an acceptable workaround if remembering to do it. I doubt 3) will work, suspecting it’ll use a different metadata filename. Never fond of “hide it under the rug” options like 1); maybe the dialog could offer an option to delete applicable Spotlight metadata?

7

Or perhaps an Applescript? Below is a quick (non-working) sketch ripped out of a script I have to display the Spotlight info for a selected DTPO record:

tell application "DEVONthink Pro"
  set databaseUUID to uuid of database of item 1 of (selection as reference)
end tell

tell application "Finder"
  set fullPath to a reference to (home as string) & "Library:Caches:Metadata:DEVONthink Pro 2:" & databaseUUID
  -- tell Finder to delete fullPath
end tell

If the exercise gives you fits, lemme know and I’ll make it work.

HTH, Charles

8

Thanks, Charles. For now I’d like to encourage Dtech to implement a built-in method for deleting Spotlight metadata a database is deleted. If they don’t think that’s worthwhile, and would hopefully explain why not, then I’ll settle on one or more workarounds.