Difference between revisions of "Usage Searches"

Revision as of 01:24, 5 December 2005

Description

From this window you can search for files on the eD2k and Kademlia network and add them to your download queue.

Usage

Main

This is how a bare search window looks:

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search1.jpg

The part surrounded by a red square is what's actually used for searching.

The above part of the search box is where you will input your search queries:

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search2.jpg

The lower part in the serach box is where search results are displayed:

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search3.jpg

Basic searching

Begin a search

To begin a search, type on the Name box the text you want to find and then click on the Start button:

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search4.jpg

For example, if you wanted to search for files which's filename contained the work amule, you would search for amule (see image above). If you would want to search for Debian ISO CDs, you would type something like debian iso.

The logic of search queries is described in this article.

Getting results

Once a search has began, a results tab will appear:

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search5.jpg

On the results tab you will see a list of available files. You can see the filename, size, amount of sources and amount of sources with the complete file (in brackets), type of file and fileID:

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search6.jpg

When no results are found for the search query, the results tab appears empty.

On global searches, a progress bar appears which indicates the progress of the search.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search35.jpg

Stop a search

To stop an active search just click on the Stop button (or close the active tab as explained later in this article):

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search18.jpg

Downloading

There are three ways to begin a download:

Through the download button
Double clicking
From the extended options menu

Each of them have advantages and disadvantages. They are now described.

Download button

When a search has been performed and results have appeared, you can now start downloading the files listed. To do so, just select the file (or files, see the multiple selection article) you wish to download and click the Download button.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search7.jpg

This method is available for all users and allows multiple files downloading in a single click.

Double clicking

To begin a download, instead of clicking the download button, you can just double click the file you wish to download.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search8.jpg

This method is very comfortable, however, it will only download a signle selected file. That is, if you have more then one file selected, it will only download the file you double click on, not all those you have selected. Of course, you will also loose the selection.

Extended options

Once you have selected the file(s) you want to download, right-click over it (just right-click over any of the selected files if you selected more than one) and select Download.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search21.jpg

A great advantage of this method is that you can directly define he category you want the file(s) to be added to if instead of selecting Download you select Download in category and the category you want it to be enqueued into.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search22.jpg

This method allows multiple files downloading with a single click, but is not available for those Mac users using a single buttoned mouse.

Tabs

Main descriptions and usage

Whenever you perform a search a tab is displayed:

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search10.jpg

If you now start another search, a new tab will appear and the old results tab(s) will go to background leaving the new tab in forground:

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search11.jpg

Each tab shows a text which corresponds to the search you performed for the results shown in that tab.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search12.jpg

If you click on any of the tabs, the results obtained for that search request are shown. This allows you to have multple search results simultaneously (so you can compare them, for example).

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search13.jpg

Appart from the search text, the tab displays also a number in brackets. This number corresponds to the amount of results found:

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search14.jpg

Close a tab

The X button displayed on each tab to the left of the search text can be clicked to close the tab. Closing a tab will also stop the search it is performing if the search is still active.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search15.jpg

Scroll tabs

When there are enough openned tabs not to fit in the window you will be able to scroll through the tabs by using the two arrows displayed to the right and left of the tabs.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search20.jpg

Advanced searching

Several aspects of a search can be tweaked. This are:

The search type. In other words, the method aMule will use to perform the search.
Extended search parameters to adjust better the results and how to operate with them.
Filename filtering to remove non-wanted results.

Search type

In the Type selection box yuo can decide the search method to use. Read this article to learn more about how it method works and what it is good for.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search23.jpg

Extended parameters

By clicking the Extended parameters button advanced seach options will be displayed.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search24.jpg

This options are described below.

File type

You might want to select what kind of files you wish to be shown in your results. This is, just show videos, audios, documents, images, etc. You can select this here. You might want to read this article to know more about this tweak.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search29.jpg

Extension

The File type search parameter filters results based on their extension, but you might be searching for files with a concrete extesion. If so, enter hte extension in the Extension box and only those files with that extension will be displayed.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search31.jpg

Minimum size

You can select the minimum size you want files in the results list to have. All files with a size smaller than the indicated in the Min size box will be dropped. Note that you can select if the amount is to be interpreted as Bytes, KiloBytes, MegaBytes or GigaBytes.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search32.jpg

Maximum size

You can also select the maximum size you want files in the results list to have. All files with a size higher than the indicated in the Max size box will be dropped. Again, note that you can select if the amount is to be interpreted as Bytes, KiloBytes, MegaBytes or GigaBytes.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search33.jpg

Availability

Sometimes you will want to discard all results with too few sources. You can do this by setting a number in the Availability box. All files with less sources than that number will be dropped.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search34.jpg

Filtering

By clicking the Filtering box, some advanced optins will apear to filter the results.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search25.jpg

Filter

The normal behaviour of the filter is to list in the results list only those files which's filename contains the exact string provided in the Filter box. Once the text is in the box, click on the Filter results button to filter the results.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search28.jpg

Invert result

You can invert the way the filter works by clicking the Invert result button. If you do so, only files which's filename does not contain the string in the Filter box will be listed in the results list.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search27.jpg

Hide known files

By clicking this button, all files which are already in the download queue or have been completed will be removed from the results list.

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search28.jpg

Clearing searches

There are several things you can clear in the search window when the seraches have been performed and you don't need the results any more.

Clear search text

The search text can be removed by selecting the text and deleting it or by simply clicking the Reset button:

http://www.amule.org/dev-up/window_search16.jpg

Clear a tab

We've already seen that to clear a tab you must click on the X button by the search text in the tab: