LinkCollector Portable Edition

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AnalogXP
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LinkCollector Portable Edition

#1 Post by AnalogXP »

Hi!

I release the new version of the manager of bookmarks and would like to test the program. To learn your opinions on the program. I did not wish to advertise, but this site concerns a portable software.
I will be very grateful for the help! Active users will get the free licence!

Program: http://www.vscsoftware.com/download/lin ... r_beta.zip
Screenshot:
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Last edited by AnalogXP on Sun Jan 09, 2011 3:36 pm, edited 4 times in total.

garbanzo
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#2 Post by garbanzo »

are you offering license keys for testers? i would be happy to help! i have been looking for a simple, clean, and portable bookmark app for a long time. i just downloaded the demo and it seems great.

one thing i can say right away is that it's missing drag-and-drop support. that would be very useful since there is no 'drop box' that is present in many of these apps. it should support dragging form the address bar of a web browser, as well as from a .url file on the hard drive.

also, while the hotkey capture seems to work fine, it seems there is no way to specify what category the captured bookmark is going into - it just goes to the category that is currently open. this definitely needs to be fixed!

otherwise it's looking good :)

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AnalogXP
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#3 Post by AnalogXP »

garbanzo wrote:are you offering license keys for testers?
Yes.
garbanzo wrote:one thing i can say right away is that it's missing drag-and-drop support. that would be very useful since there is no 'drop box' that is present in many of these apps. it should support dragging form the address bar of a web browser, as well as from a .url file on the hard drive.
How not work drag&drop? The link from a browser text can be dragged in the program. From a browser address bar also it is possible to drag the link. But except a 'Opera' browser.
Thanks for other offers, I will think and work.
garbanzo wrote: also, while the hotkey capture seems to work fine, it seems there is no way to specify what category the captured bookmark is going into - it just goes to the category that is currently open. this definitely needs to be fixed!
When shows a window "Add bookmark", you can select other category, clicking on the list.

acgrego
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#4 Post by acgrego »

Nice piece of software. I was looking for this kind of software for so long.

I'm interested to test it. How can get the license key?

Greetings!

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AnalogXP
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#5 Post by AnalogXP »

acgrego wrote:Nice piece of software. I was looking for this kind of software for so long.

I'm interested to test it. How can get the license key?
To get a free license key, try:
- Find an error in program work
- To offer improvements
- Create a review on other sites, forums, blogs
- Put the link to our site

If you have friends which wish to get the licence for this program, I offer the discount at a rate of 20 %. The discount is valid till 11.05.2008
Simply insert the given code (LCollector-PE-1123) into the necessary field on the purchase page.

garbanzo
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#6 Post by garbanzo »

AnalogXP wrote:
garbanzo wrote:one thing i can say right away is that it's missing drag-and-drop support. that would be very useful since there is no 'drop box' that is present in many of these apps. it should support dragging form the address bar of a web browser, as well as from a .url file on the hard drive.
How not work drag&drop? The link from a browser text can be dragged in the program. From a browser address bar also it is possible to drag the link. But except a 'Opera' browser.
you're right, it's working from FireFox. i was trying to drop in the window in general, but you have to drop into a specific folder. however, it is definitely not working with URL files. i get the 'file drop' cursor when i drag a URL file into the app, but when i let go, i just get the 'add bookmark' dialog and nothing is filled in.
AnalogXP wrote:
garbanzo wrote: also, while the hotkey capture seems to work fine, it seems there is no way to specify what category the captured bookmark is going into - it just goes to the category that is currently open. this definitely needs to be fixed!
When shows a window "Add bookmark", you can select other category, clicking on the list.
yes, this works. i was expectig a drop-down list in the 'add bookmark' window, which i think is more intuitive than clicking on a inactive window to select a folder.

some more suggestions:

i don't think you should put a restriction on shrinking the window. i wanted to make it smaller while i was working, but it seems the default size is the minimum size, and it can't be reduced.

the State column should be optional. i don't want to see it all the time, only when i'm checking links.

there should definitely be a column in the main window for Comments. i see that they show up in the tooltip, but if they were in a sortable column, they could be very useful for organizing.

a Rating column also would be a very nice addition. each bookmark could be given between 1 and 5 stars, like the program's icon. i think this would be very useful. i have about 20 bookmarks for sites that have CD cover scans, for example, but some are much better than others, and it's hard to keep track of them.

right-clicking a bookmark lets you Copy informatio to the the clipboard, but it's not very useful:
Description Link State The Portable Freeware Collection Post a reply http://portablefreeware.com/forums/posting.php
the Copy command should be contextual - if you right-click on the Description field, it should copy the description. on the Link field, it should send the URL to the clipboard.

last thing - the information on the status bar doesn't update when i add new items, either bookmarks or categories. but if i restart the program or delete an item, the information gets updated.

well i'll keep using it and let you know how it goes :)

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AnalogXP
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#7 Post by AnalogXP »

garbanzo, very good comments!
All your remarks will be considered.
Thanks!

garbanzo
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#8 Post by garbanzo »

thank you for the license, AnalogXP. this is a good app, and i'm looking forward to finally getting my bookmarks organized and made portable.

let us know when it gets updated!

acgrego
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Troubleshooting

#9 Post by acgrego »

What I noticed until know:

1. The "import" feature in firefox doesn't import the bookmarks toolbar. Only imports the Bookmarks Menu.

2. In my HP PC the to capture the bookmark whenI hit the hotkey it shows support information from the computer like Model Number, Product Number, Serial Number....

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AnalogXP
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Re: Troubleshooting

#10 Post by AnalogXP »

acgrego wrote:What I noticed until know:

1. The "import" feature in firefox doesn't import the bookmarks toolbar. Only imports the Bookmarks Menu.

2. In my HP PC the to capture the bookmark whenI hit the hotkey it shows support information from the computer like Model Number, Product Number, Serial Number....
1. I have decided not to touch yet this panel. I not so well know databases.
2. Interestingly! You did not try to replace hotkeys? Something will change?
If something will find, please write to me.


At this forum there are true professionals. Thanks all. :wink:

Onesimus Prime
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Cool bookmark manager! (with some suggestions)...

#11 Post by Onesimus Prime »

Your program is GREAT overall, and probably my favorite portable bookmark collector that I've tried so far. Let me put it this way: right now, I'd prefer a MS Word .DOC of categorized hyperlinks to most bookmark managers I've tried.

Yours seems logical, friendly, powerful, functional... and it's even portable. All those combined = greatness!

However, that doesn't mean I don't have some suggestions. :-)
Ok, maybe several... so grab your favorite soft drink and 'sit for a spell'!


Most importantly, it doesn't seem to be at ALL friendly to portable browsers. Don't know how it's working for other people, but I've been trying to point the "Bookmarks sources" to my Portable FireFox, and it doesn't seem to work. It also doesn't "remember" my change once I close and re-start the program. That's a problem, for sure (assuming it does the same to others).
(A few times it also 'forgot' that I changed the "Open bookmarks with" to FireFox (installed), but that's been working recently. I can't explain what changed, though?)
So far, it seems like you've made a great manager, made it portable, then left out a few VERY helpful portability features. Maybe even a necessary one for some would-be users.

There are (at least) three places where FireFox is mentioned/used: Import; Export; Open bookmarks with...
I HIGHLY suggest adding a blank for Portable FireFox (or portable browsers in general) under your "Bookmarks sources" area, and making it easier (i.e. via your GUI, not just editing .ini) to set a relative path for it. Even if it's just the capability to past the path in as text, that'd be better than nothing. Actually, I'd really suggest text editing & text paste-ability for ALL of the "Bookmarks sources" fields. This would probably require a different way than you're doing it right now, though...

Then maybe you could query if there's something in the "portable browser" blank and give that as an option for "Open bookmarks with".
Summary thus far: allow portable browser use for both import/export, and Open with. But not at the expense of also using machine-installed FireFox, though. (I, for one, use both. Actually, I even use more than one version/location of Portable FireFox, and you can take that sort of thing into consideration if you want, but I'm probably unusual there.) I assume you've also taken portability into account with this program's registration?

Amusing "bug"? Open "options" and change the Hotkey to anything. Now try immediately changing it back to Ctrl+Alt+S (or whatever it used to be). You can't do it - and you can't cancel the change either. You have to exit Options, come back into it, and reset the hotkey to whatever it used to be. A "Cancel" button, at least, would be helpful, and the option to immediately change it back might be somewhat nice.

Another weird thing, when I change the "Open bookmarks with" to FireFox, the .ini says:
OpenWithBrowser=C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\\Firefox.exe
Notice the "\\" there; slightly odd. I actually didn't try opening a bookmark (I've got some really WEIRD computer issues that make me scared of what would happen if I tried...), but I assume that'd be a problem!

One of my first thoughts was "tags" (like in GMail) would be nice. I guess that can be simulated via the comments, for now. But it might be nice as a separate field eventually. Another thing I thought of to simulate tags was intentional bookmark duplication under multiple folders. But then it'd be nice to have an option to ignore intentional duplicates when searching duplicates, and...that all might get messy, quickly.

Speaking of duplicating bookmarks, the drag-and-drop moving/organizing of bookmarks is nice. I had wondered if holding Ctrl down while moving would copy instead, like in Windows Explorer. The mouse icon would seem to indicate that it does, but functionally it does not. It still just moves like normal. It'd be nice if holding down Ctrl while 'moving' DID copy.

I REALLY appreciate the ability to do hierarchical folders. I wonder if you might consider hierarchical links, too? Sometimes I like to keep track of parent/child links; I don't know if that appeals to other people also.

Right-clicking in an empty white space right now does nothing. I'd suggest maybe making it equivalent to right-clicking on the top-level "Bookmarks" folder.

Possibly keep track of what browser the bookmark came from (maybe even what COMPUTER! Oooh...) and allow for sorting or searching by that field?

I like how you automatically import the page title into Description (OR one's customized bookmark name, if importing from pre-existing bookmarks). Here's just an idea that I'm not even entirely sure whether I'd like or not, but anyway - If it's a bookmark with a customized name, keep that in description, but offer an option to retrieve the page title and put it into the Comment field.

Earlier I mentioned that I have a whole lot of Word .docs of links (and even .txt files). Don't know if you'd want to consider batch importing urls/page titles from plain-text at some point?
I see that I can import one at a time, url only, but if I have a title on the previous or next line and drag it in as well, LC tries to include that as PART of the url - which obviously wouldn't work.
Also, if I drag a plain-text url onto a subfolder (a folder within Bookmarks), it doesn't seem to go into that subfolder, but just the general Bookmarks folder (bug?). *pseudo-edit* I just figured out what you and Garbanzo were talking about. I agree that selection on an inactive window is counter-intuitive. It'd be nice if whatever LC folder you drag a url to was the temporary "default" where that url would be filed, and then you could still change it, if necessary, before 'Adding' the url.

My last suggestion would be to consider a progress/status bar for link verification? It took longer than I expected at the start with no indication of what it was doing...(until green lights started coming on, at which point it went pretty quickly).

--------------------------------------------------------------

I also agree with just about all of Garbanzo's suggestions. I think the only one I disagree with is about Copy. My vote is to keep it as-is. I'd rather have the Description and Link in one go, and I can probably bear with cleaning out the extra stuff. Plus, the way it is now lets one cut/copy and paste complete entries within LC, which would break if it were one field at a time. Maybe some sort of separate option for copying Description, Link, Comments (!), other fields, or multiple fields as plain-text would be nice. *sigh - pseudo-edit #2* Okay, the current format prevents me from dragging a Link back into a browser to open it. I'm a little disappointed about that.
(Garbanzo, when you copy, it's as a table, so it doesn't make as much sense as plain-text.)
I also did not have any trouble with LC's default hotkey.


Wow...that was really, really long. Sorry 'bout that. Hope all this has been (or will be) helpful to you, AnalogXP. I realize that some of these suggestions may not 'see the light of day' for a while, if ever, and some of it may just be practically impossible to implement. I'm not a programmer, so I don't really understand [the work behind] what I'm asking for. :-)
Also, if you implement too much, then it might even lose some of its current simplicity appeal. *sigh* Sad that it always seems to be a trade-off between functionality and simplicity

If you've got any questions about my "portable-ese" terms or anything else, let us know and I (or possibly someone else who's here more than I) will do our best to answer.

Again, let me commend you for a bookmark manager that's ALREADY GREAT, and will probably only get better from here!

Onesimus Prime
Posts: 133
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Sorry, a revision and 2 more...

#12 Post by Onesimus Prime »

Okay, your links in LC actually opened in the Portable FireFox that I already had open. Wasn't expecting that. How'd it work? Black magic? :-) Seriously, how did that happen? It might be nice to be able to alternately choose the installed FireFox - or maybe that would be a bad change. Don't know how you've got it configured. It might be kinda cool if it just uses whatever FireFox is open (I'm guessing that's what you're doing right now?)
What happens when a FireFox isn't open, though? It'd still be nice to set a relative path and have the option to start Portable FF

Two more suggestions:
Allow sorting by State, and whatever columns you add in the future (like maybe Comments?)
Allow to select multiple links and Check them; also add Check option when right-clicking on a folder.

garbanzo
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Re: Cool bookmark manager! (with some suggestions)...

#13 Post by garbanzo »

Onesimus Prime wrote: I also agree with just about all of Garbanzo's suggestions. I think the only one I disagree with is about Copy.

(Garbanzo, when you copy, it's as a table, so it doesn't make as much sense as plain-text.)
the issue i had is that i often find myself digging through my bookmarks doc to find links to send to people in the various forums i frequant - links to apps, tutorials, etc. if i take the time to import all my links into this app, then copying the URL isn't so simple anymore.

you said the info is copied as a table, so i dropped a copied bookmark into Excel - interesting! it has a few extra cells for some reason, but it's kind of cool. but i think this feature would be better suited to an Export command - Export to spreadsheet or something...

Onesimus Prime
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#14 Post by Onesimus Prime »

I think the extra cells are because we're basically getting what the program 'thinks' in - the fact that it copy/pastes as a table is just a bit of a bonus. :lol:
An export option would be good. I basically got around to saying that in the paragraph after the long "-----------------------" in my first post. It'd be nice to be able to select however many entries, maybe check which fields we want to export in a popup window, and be good to go.

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AnalogXP
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#15 Post by AnalogXP »

Onesimus Prime, super!

I will try to execute all your wishes.
Very interesting supervision.

Thanks!

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