Use DA searching capabilities in your own hard drive

DEVONagent Tips
1

I would like to know if there is a way to ask DA to look into your own hard drive or an external HD that contains thousands/hundreds of documents and draw a correlation chart as is done in the Digest once you finish a search. I find this chart to be very useful to link topics that otherwise would have never occurred to me.

Thanks

2

I guess you’re referring to DEVONagent (DA), not DEVONnote (DN). Anyway, this is not possible right now.

3

DA it is, sorry for the misunderstanding and thanks for your reply. What about documents in a DTpro database using the server option. Can you ask DA to look up there and draw a correlation map using the digest feature?

Thanks

4

That’s possible, e.g. have a look at this plugin (you have to adapt name/port of EngineUrl to your setup):


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>Description</key>
	<string>Searches your DEVONthink Pro Office.</string>
	<key>EncodingUrl</key>
	<string>UTF-8</string>
	<key>EngineUrl</key>
	<string>http://yourhost.local:8080/search?q=_agentQuery_&amp;w=0&amp;o=0&amp;c=1&amp;start=_agentOffset_&amp;num=_agentNumber_</string>
	<key>Identifier</key>
	<string>com.johnwiegley.dtpo.plugin</string>
	<key>Info</key>
	<string>DEVONthink Pro Office Plugin 1.0 ©2007 John Wiegley</string>
	<key>Keyword</key>
	<string>dtpo</string>
	<key>LinksMatching</key>
	<string>*&amp;action=view*</string>
	<key>Name</key>
	<string>DEVONthink Pro Office</string>
	<key>OffsetPerPage</key>
	<integer>50</integer>
	<key>Operators</key>
	<integer>1</integer>
	<key>ResultsPerPage</key>
	<integer>50</integer>
	<key>Start</key>
	<integer>0</integer>
	<key>Version</key>
	<string>1.0</string>
</dict>
</plist>

But only plain/rich texts, HTML pages and web archives are accessible that way.

5

I suggested a while back adding a plugin that could search one’s own files on the hard-drive. Aside from whatever programming issues might be involved, it would seem that this would be a killer idea and a way to complete with something like Google Desktop.

6

Christian, thanks for the plugin. I just realized that when DA goes around on the internet trying to resolve ones query those are the types of info it deals with i.e., plain/rich texts, HTML pages and web archives.

It would be awesome to include searchable PDFs since me many others have tons of them in our databases (wishful thinking).

Sgmiller, I’m with you on this one.

Thanks

7

I agree with sgmiller. Today, my first day of testing out DA (to see if I want to upgrade to the Infoworker’s Pro Bundle), my first lightbulb after I read the tutorials was, “Let’s turn this loose on my files!”

8

I strongly support this request. I am sure Apple has plans to extend Spotlight to the internet (remember Sherlock?) so Devontech beware: would you rather be bought out or phased out? :wink:

For instance, I would be happy seeing a Spotlight tab next to Digest/Pages/Log that uses the same query to generate Spotlight results. Aggregation and digesting may not be necessary for starts.

Just give us a one-stop search facility PLEASE!

9

I too would very much like this feature. In the meantime, what could one do to make large document collections available in DevonAgent? Is there some thirdparty software or such that could be installed and then a plugin like the one earlier in this thread turned loose upon it? PDF’s, ePub, DJVU, and CHM are very important.

[edit]

Actually, there is a product called ‘Searchlight’ which I wonder if could be integrated with DevonAgent. It came with a bundle that I purchased though I’ve not had occasion to use it. Would anyone from DevonTech be able to comment on this as an alternative to full featured local searching in DA?

10

Bump

11

Any plans for 3.0 to add this functionality? It seems like it should be possible since Devonthink can basically do this.

12

The final release might support file URLs (e.g. in search sets) but it won’t scan/crawl/index the disc on its own (yet).

13

If you have DT you could set it to index certain folders in your home directory, that would be similar to what you want.