The FTP Indexer's End Users Guide
FTP Indexer v. 2.0
Doc V. 1.0
Doc Modified Date: 01.29.2003
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| Section I: Introduction |
| Right now you are either one of two types of people. You're the person who's scratching their head and muttering to themselves "what is this strange thing I see in my web browser?" or you are the person saying "I don't need no stinking introduction!" If you are the former type of person -- read on. If you are the later type of person then feel free to skip ahead to the next section to get a description of exactly what you can do... |
| The FTP Indexer is - as far as you're concerned - an FTP search engine. With one small difference. This indexer allows the administrator to allow you to contribute new sites to the index, and expand the database. Which is really quite spiffy. So, if you had a keen web site that would benefit all the people that use this indexer -- and you feel like sharing ;) -- you could submit it, and the server will add the new sites files to the index, and everyone would, then, be able to find files located on that FTP. Optionally, if you include your e-mail address, the indexer will send you an e-mail letting you know whether the new FTP site was added successfully or not. |
| Thats really the long and short of the matter. Use it and be merry!! |
| Section II: Searching |
| Using the search engine portion of the FTP Indexer is, perhaps, the least complex portion of the FTP Indexer as a whole. All you need to do is enter your search terms, and click "search". It can be more complex than that, but, thats all you NEED. |
| You can customize how many results are displayed on each page of matches by selecting the desired number from the "Matches Per Page" drop-down-menu. If you leave this option alone, the administrators "sensible defaults" will kick in and you'll see however many per page that the administrator has deemed "good enough." |
| You can also change the units of measurement that file sizes are displayed in. You may choose from bytes, kilobytes (kb), megabytes (mb), gigabytes (gb), or terrabytes (tb). for an explanation of what these terms actually mean, visit www.google.com and search for "explanation byte megabyte gigabyte" Once these you should be provided with more than enough information on the subject. |
| Section III: Contributing |
| The beautiful thing about this indexer is that, while it has the ability to be a close ended FTP search engine, it has the ability to be a fully interactive community tool where users contribute new sites to the indexer, and enhancing the experience for everybody! |
| To add a new site to the indexer, assuming your administrator has set the software up to allow users to contribute, simply click on the "Add An FTP To The Indexer" link (assuming the administrator has not modified the layout of the page). From there you can add up to 3 sites at a time, by entering an FTP URL ( such as FTP://ftp.proftpd.org/ or FTP://public:access@www.mysite.com/ ) If you need assistance on how to properly write a URL, then you can simply visit www.google.com ans search for "writing FTP urls" -- this should provide you with more than enough information pertaining to the subject. |
| You can also enter a single FTP site at a time by filling out the appropriate fields on the lower web form, labeled "Queue an FTP by filling in the blanks:" simply enter the information requested by the form, and click submit. |
| A note on e-mail addresses. The FTP Indexer does not collect e-mail addresses for my personal use. It only collects e-mail addresses for the purpose of sending you a notification when the indexer has finished with the FTP site for the first time. You will get either an e-mail stating that the site has been successfully indexer, or that the indexing of the site has failed. The e-mail address is NOT required for contributing an FTP site. |
| You should, however, be warned that a malicious administrator may, indeed, harvest your e-mail address from this script for purposes that are less than legitimate. Please use discretion. You've been warned. |
| Section IV: Reporting Bugs |
| Before submitting a bug report, please search the FTP Indexer forum to see whether, or not, the bug has already been reported -- and whether there is already a resolution for the problem (It will save everybody involved quite a bit of time.) You can find the forum here: http://www.apokalyptik.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=29 |
| If you find a bug, that is heretofore unknown, please do not hesitate to report it (after all thats the only way you're likely to ever see it fixed.) There are a few simple guidelines to follow when reporting a bug. First off, please include a brief description of the bug in the title of the new forum topic, and prefix it with "BUG: ". For example -- "BUG: FTP indexer does not follow symbolic links" is an example of a good, helpful, forum topic. Second, be prepared to be able to reproduce the problem, and to be able to give specifics. This may include providing a developer access to the FTP in question to properly diagnose the problem, and to develop a solution. It may also include being able to provide a debug capture. |
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