Fetchers, Proxies and Posters

• Fetchers
  • Original Webster Standard
    • Examples
  • Archimedes Standard
• Proxies
• The Local Poster

Fetchers

• Original Webster Standard
• Archimedes Standard

Webster Standard

The Following Fetchers are supplied in the <Webster$Fetch> directory.

1. Directory which fetches directory listings from the local disk.
2. !http which fetches from http servers using the telnet part of KA9Q.
3. RNMail Which sends mail via ReadNews (for the mailto method). Provided by Julian Wright
4. RNNews Which reads news via ReadNews (for the news method). Provided by Julian Wright
5. NBMail Which sends mail via NewsBase (for the mailto method). Provided by me.
6. FTP Which, with the assistance of TCPIP v2.04 Allows you to Browse FTP sites.

A fetcher can be used by putting an appropriate command for 'Call Command Below' in the Fetchers section of the Choices window (accessable from the Iconbar Menu)

The substitutions that are automatically carried out on this command as follows...

• %0 is replaced by the machine name in dot notation.
• %1 is replaced with the Directory or filename to be retrieved from the indicated machine.
• %2 is replaced with the name of a file to which the output should be written. The fetcher should stamp this file with the correct file type for the data that was fetched.
• %3 is replaced with the value of any inpage jump. (Any bit after a hash)

Examples

 For HTTP
       <Webster$Fetch>.!HTTP %0 %1 %2

 For HTTP via a proxy
       <Webster$Fetch>.!HTTP www.demon.co.uk:80 http://%0%1 %2

 For FTP
       <Webster$Fetch>.FTP %0 %1 %2

 For FTP via a proxy
       <Webster$Fetch>.!HTTP www.hensa.ac.uk:8080 ftp://%0%1 %2

 For RNMail
       <Webster$Fetch>.RNMail %0 %1%2

 For RNNews
       <Webster$Fetch>.RNNews %0

 For NBMail
       <Webster$Fetch>.NBMail %0 %1%2

 For Telnet
       <Webster$Fetch>.Telnet %0

NOTES

You can miss any % values out if required and include any other command line parameters.

The port for the Proxy may be differant. The examples use 8080, but 80 may also be used, or indeed any other number.

For the Proxies the second to last field should always result in the original URL when decoded.

Archimedes Standard

These fetchers (Which are separate Multitasking Applications) can be used by selecting the 'Call Standard Fetcher' or 'Call Standard Fetcher (Extended URL)' option for a particular method in the Fetchers section of the Choices window (accessable from the Iconbar Menu). Which of the options you need depends on the Fetcher you are using, so you should read the Fetchers installation note

Proxies

Using a proxy may be faster that going direct as many Proxies also Cache pages and files (This is often their main purpose). The proxies also allow FTP, WAIS and Gopher connections without requireing a specific fetcher. (Only an HTTP fetcher is required if you can use proxies for everything else)

The Local Poster

To use this facility You must specify the following in the Forms tag.

• use an Action value of the code to be called.
• use a Method of POST

This code will be called with two parameters.

1. The ACSII value of a file handle for a file to put the response in
2. The ACSII value of a file handle for a file to contain the completed form. This is preceeded by MIME data specifying a type and stating the size of the data part of the file.