New Spotlight clone

[gedto]

This is such a good work. Congratulations.

However, Spotlight is much more than just a search program. It is a whole engine fully integrated into the kernel of the file system, as not only is capable of presenting real-time results as you type (pressing enter would open a separate window), but is also aware of changes that happen simultaneously; if you are performing a search and something changes in the meanwhile, spotlight will show that change.

This is what makes possible the use of smart folders, and what keeps everything indexed and up to date: every change into the file system is reported to spotlight on the fly, and it will update its internal database to be updated. Windows is not capable of this, as Exposé clones are not capable of real-time updating and do not provide navigation features as the original exposé does... but I have to say that your work here is pretty amazing.

Almost two years ago I was so in love with this community, my XP box just seemed so much like a Mac. Three months later I bought a Mac. It's another world, a whole new experience. But it all started here. I just want to tell you: "keep the good work up", and "thank you".

[Saladin]

Yes, I know this, and so my version (which I may end making with tom, depending on how quickly he can finish his VB.NET book), will include a modular system - i.e. one dll that you have to include to get spotlight results integrated into your app! This hopefully helps with the feature that spotlight has to be able to work with programs. As for smart folders, its a GDS limitation - once its in GDS, it can be in spotlight.

[Phat-Liz0rd]

ok guys, I'm thinking of making my own spotlight clone. Made in about 2 hours in C#, my version is extremely efficient and provides unimaginably fast search results.I can't believe how fast it goes! Its built with the framework version 2 BETA, and all it needs is the UI. I've overcome the problem of the tray button as well.

The UI will probably slow it down, but i'll also ship a no-frills version which cuts all the fancy stuff to just give you instant searching. I'd put a pic up, but the dev-UI it has is so bad i think people would just laugh

I'll release SOMETHING this week, wether its an instant searching hunchback or a 1:1 spotlight...

I'll certainly be looking forward to it! And dont worry about the UI, that is secondary.

[Frenchie]

What makes this so much better than AppRocket? Or is it something entirely different?

Anyways, just wondering... From the posts here so far, this looks pretty darn good anyways.

[Ashiaveli]

before i totaly give up on this app im gonna ask one last time:

how do i get it to work? i've installed it perfectly, runs perfectly. i did the google XXXX thing it says to do but when i try to search for anything it says results not found.

do i need another app for this to work or is it standalone?

[Urthwhyte]

Spotlight is completely standalone as of right now, although in the near future I believe that you will need the .net frameworks. Ashiaveli can you please attach a picture of your preferences window with the search stuff copied and pasted, although you'll want to blot out your individual GDS ip thing.

[Ghostwalker]

Also until google crawls your computer it might not display anything GDS needs to finish indexing took awhile on my box.

[Urthwhyte]

I don't want to be pushy on this matterm and I understand that tom is putting a ton of work into this, but is abnybody else having my problem with the spotlight indicator appearing in the wrong place as it is really starting to get to me. If needed I can supply a picture of what it looks like right after I log in if it would be any help. In the meantime I'll just keep manually moving it up. Thx for the good work tom!

[Ashiaveli]

this is what i get when i use firefox and search for XXXX i get the same with IE.

[iamajd]

Urthwhyte...

Yeah, my spotlight jumps down and to the left a bit anytime the screen is resized or something is docked or the taskbar gets resized, etc. It is a little annoying, but I like the app enough to overlook it for now.

Other than that, the only (very minor and unimportant) change I'd really like to see is support for GIF or PNG menubutton images. Something with transparency so that when I change visualstyles, I dont have to recolor the background because the button could be, for instance, JUST the blue circle with the magnifying glass.

[mikeazorin]

Way-ell, I like the idea, but it seems that it just might have something against my computer. This is a screenshot of it running.

It's a bit odd that it seems to float instead of actually being a tray icon. This is particularly because it covers the clock, and with a click of the taskbar, it's gone. Also, I have the spotlight icons from a real mac right here, so feel free to use them.

[mikeazorin]

this is what i get when i use firefox and search for XXXX i get the same with IE.

Ah! It seems no one has cared to answer your simple question. You need to have Google Desktop Search installed, and the XXXX has to be searched under the Desktop tab.

[blankfaze]

mikeazorin: it's meant for use with visual styles or windowblinds themes that have a space on the taskbar for a spotlight icon already, to the right of the clock... it's not supposed to be a tray icon.

as for all that other messiness, though, i don't know what's going on! definitely not supposed to look like that.

[Ellada]

I have found a few problems with the latest version:

First off, the searchbar image and text box are kind of messed up.

Also, I am getting search results that don't start with the letter.

Another point, clicking on the file doesn't open it.

Here is a screeny...

http://img194.echo.cx/img194/9780/searchbar7pp.png

(image too large to post)

Awesome work though...

[mikeazorin]

http://img194.echo.cx/img194/9780/searchbar7pp.png

You do realize that GDS or Spotlight don't just find files that start with the letters you type in. They do an in depth search in major parts of the document's text, tags, and titles.

[Saladin]

Spotlight dotNet is coming along well... the interface doesn't seem to slow it down that much. Summer holidays now (until 17th August!!), so I can really work on it.

I'm gonna be looking at perfecting the popup interface, then we *may* see a prelim release tonight.

[zondajag]

sorry it looks good but i prefer the avedesk desklet purely for the fact that it's simple and easily skinnable (all you need to do is swap some files here and there....but i have to say this is great work anyway

[Saladin]

skin support is coming, don't worry.

and spotlight dotNet is looking good. The UI is starting to lag the searching a little (but that's why tweakng is such a big deal, right?). I'm not gonna post it till i talk to tm next (get the file type icons and have a chat with him about whether or not he's gonna work on his VB.NET thing, since this version is entirely made by me....

I've got it totally customizeable, that means, text colour, tray icon, header image, header text, header text colour, item highlight text colour...etc

All to be edited simply via a settings app I have yet to write, so far its editing the aw XML.

[Ashiaveli]

You do realize that GDS or Spotlight don't just find files that start with the letters you type in. They do an in depth search in major parts of the document's text, tags, and titles.

T H A N K Y O U

i asked if it was standalone and everything i had a feeling thats what hte problem was but everyone ignored.

thx again buddy

[xxdesmus]

Spotlight dotNet is coming along well... the interface doesn't seem to slow it down that much. Summer holidays now (until 17th August!!), so I can really work on it.

I'm gonna be looking at perfecting the popup interface, then we *may* see a prelim release tonight.

Wow, .NET would be absolutely incredible. Stupid question, are you supposed to be able to open the file it finds in whatever app is the default? For example, i search and find an email...will it then open Outlook when i click on the email? Right now it's not doing anything. :slant:

[firecracker6]

@xxdesmus, your question was addressed a few pages back: at this current stage it seems emails will not be opened..

Quotes by TomLapp...

I am going to upload what I have, it searches mail messages and puts them into their own group. I just cant figure out how to open mail messages so it won't open them, instead it will open the containing folder

Fixed the problem with mail messages showing up in all groups, they now have their own group but they don't open right now (i'm working on it)

[Saladin]

Yes, it will use the default app for launching results. As for emails, the problem with them is that GDS doesn't give you any real location for them. For example, I search now and find an email result with the location as: "googlemail://testing new mail server".

Of course, this can't really be used to get to the file. We can, however, get to GDS's cache of it and make it open in the default browser

EDIT: Big speedup achieved. Unfortunatley, it uses 2.0-specific components, and although it could still be ported, that would require changing code i would rather not change.

If anyone could give me the icons for the data types, that would be great (in any well-known format, really)

[Saladin]

ok, here's a preview of spotlight on the .Net framework. Please DO NOT POST BUGS FOR THIS VERSION. READ THE README

if you get an error when deleting the last character in a query, simply press continue. This was a bug i saw after i had packaged it and uploaded it to YouSendIt, and i don't want to fix it until next preview build (Monday?).

[blulegend]

I'm confused. Who is the primary developer on this project? What happened with Tom? Did he give the project to Saladin?

[Saladin]

no, but tom is reading up on VB.NET, while i'm developing the port to .NET

we are working together on it. I'm just showing you what .Net can do with the popup search, which is all I've worked on so far. Unfortunatley, the UI is slowing things down a lot, and I'm having to write my own custom controls...etc to give best searching performance.

Hey, but there's one thing to look forward to at least: I've just got custom search categories to work. Now you can define your own categories as well as the icon associated with that group and extensions sorted there!

The memory load this takes is a little unfortunate (~30MB), but i'm working on it