Sherlock 2

[Protools5LEGuy]

https://web.archive.org/web/20001204223900/http://developer.apple.com/macos/sherlock.html

Sherlock is an exciting new search technology for use in the Mac OS. Sherlock brings together several searching facilities including searching for files using file system information, searching files according to their textual content, and searching for information on the Internet. Links on this page provide access to information about convenient and easy to use APIs available to developers interested in extending Sherlock to access their data formats or Internet based search facilities.

https://web.archive.org/web/20010213204447/http://www.apple.com/sherlock/overview.html

Sherlock 2 now features a great way to help organize your searches. We call them channels, and they help you harness the right search engines for the different types of searches. These channels help you zero in on the information—or people, or online deals—you’re looking for faster than ever before.

Want to find a file on your hard disk? Consider it done: Sherlock 2 not only finds files by title, but by actual content as well. So you can quickly locate your lost or misplaced documents—even if you can only recall a word or phrase of what’s in them.

File Names
Enter part of a file name to get an instant listing of anything that matches or choose the “Edit” button to create custom searches using criteria such as Name, Size, Kind, Label, Date Created, Date Modified, Version, Comments, Lock Attribute, Folder Attribute, File and Creator type.

Content:
Sherlock finds information on your hard disk, even if it’s buried in files with names that reveal little or no information about their contents. Sherlock goes through all the data in all the documents on your hard disk, and finds matches. For instance, if you have a hazy recollection of a document about, say, a paper on France, simply type “a paper about France.” Not only will Sherlock show relevant files—it will show you summaries of what’s in them.

Using a sophisticated index of your hard disk, Sherlock quickly scans the contents of your files in seconds. It's even good about keeping the index up to date at scheduled times while you're away.

With Sherlock 2, information on the Internet has no place to hide. Because Sherlock harnesses the power of dozens of Internet search engines— working simultaneously— to find the information you’re looking for.

This type of channel was introduced with the original version of Sherlock and includes some of the internet’s most powerful search engines. You can choose to see your search results ranked by name, relevance or website.

With more and more people getting online, it’s getting easier to find your long-lost friends, classmates and favorite former neighbors—if you just know where to look. Sherlock 2 does. Sherlock not only tracks down friends for you and gives you their email address, it even serves up their phone numbers (where available).

Sherlock’s newest channel is your ticket to information about your favorite music, movies and events.
Use the Internet Movie Database plug-in to search from an archive of over 200,000 movies and TV shows, or select E!Online to catch up on celebrity gossip and entertainment news.

This new channel features up-to-the-minute news from some of the biggest names in the business including CNN, CNet, ESPN and more. What makes this channel unique is a handy date column showing when each link was published– no more guessing to find the latest and greatest news.

It’s like having your own virtual newspaper, customized to serve up the latest news you’re interested in reading about.

Looking for Apple products, software updates, special events, company news and the latest press releases? You’ve got a friend: Sherlock 2 knows where to find the information you’re looking for on Apple’s corporate website.

One of Sherlock’s great strengths is that it is easily expandable. Now, with Sherlock 2, new plug-ins are automatically added and updated. Plus, it’s even easier to add additional plug-ins by simply dragging them into custom channels.We’ve listed the Mac OS 9 built-in Sherlock 2 plug-ins below, organized by channel.

Note: Original Sherlock plug-ins continue to work great with Sherlock 2 but work best as “Internet” channel plug-ins.

[Protools5LEGuy]

Creating or editing Internet channels
You can create your own Internet channels so that you can search only the sites you're interested in. You create channels using the New Channel command in the Sherlock program.

Creating a channel

To create a new Internet channel:
1   Open the Channels menu and choose New Channel.
2   Enter a name for the channel.
3   Open the Channel type pop-up menu and choose a channel type.
4   To change the channel picture, drag a picture to the Icon box, or click the arrows next to the icon.
5   Click OK.
6   To add a Web site search engine to this channel, download a Sherlock plug-in from the site and drag it to the search sites list in the main Sherlock window.
Tip: You can also add a search engine by dragging the plug-in to the channel's well (in the main Sherlock window).
Editing a channel

To edit an Internet channel that you've created:
•   Select the channel, open the Channels menu and choose Edit Channel, then make your changes.
To remove a site from a channel that you've created:
•   Drag the site from the Search Sites list in the main Sherlock window to the Trash.
Searching the Internet

You can use the Sherlock 2 program (in the Apple menu) to search the Internet for terms or other specific items.

To search the Internet for specific terms:
1   Click the Internet Search channel.
2   Enter the word or words you want to search for.
3   In the Search Sites list, click the checkbox next to the search engines you want to use.
4   Click the Search button (it looks like a magnifying glass).

Using search results

To connect to a site:
•   Double-click a search result in the results list.
Tip: You can also drag the search result to an open window of your browser.

To display a summary for a site:
•   Select a name in the list of found items.
The summary of the site appears in the bottom section of the window, along with a banner from the engine's sponsor. You can click the banner to go to the sponsor's site.

To create a location file (alias) for a site:
•   Drag the site's name from the list to the desktop.
You can double-click the location file to connect to the site. if you drag a person's name, you will create an e-mail location file.

Shortcuts

Shortcuts for choosing where to search

To select a particular folder or group of folders to search:
•   Select the Files channel, then drag the folder to the volumes list.

Shortcuts for selecting search criteria

You can select search criteria in the More Search Options window, which you open by clicking the Edit button.

To move to the next text field in the More Search Options window:
•   Press the Tab key.
To move backward through the fields, press the Shift and Tab keys.

To locate files that have the same characteristics as a particular file:
1   Select the search criteria you want to use (such as kind or label).
Don't enter any information in the text fields.
2   Drag the item from the Finder into the More Search Options window, click OK, then click the Search button.

Shortcuts for working with found items

You can drag found items from the Sherlock window to any location on your desktop.

To copy a found item instead of moving it:
•   Press the Option key as you drag.

To make an alias of the item:
•   Press the Command and Option keys as you drag.

To open a found item:
•   Double-click the item.
You can also drag items to application icons and to aliases in the Finder.

To open the folder containing a found item:
•   Select the item, then open the File menu and choose Open Enclosing Folder, or double-click the folder in the bottom section of the Items Found window.

To copy the name of a found item to the Clipboard:
•   Select the item, then open the Edit menu and choose Copy.

To copy the path of a found item to the Clipboard:
•   Select the item and press the Tab key to select the entire bottom section of the window. Then, open the Edit menu and choose Copy.

To create a summary of a text file:
•   In the Finder, hold down the Control key and click the icon of the text file, then choose "Summarize File to Clipboard" from the contextual menu.

[Protools5LEGuy]

This Technote describes the Find by Content libraries used by Sherlock for searching the contents of files.

The Find by Content libraries export a full suite of routines and functions allowing applications to perform content based searches of files.

With MacOS 8.6, Text Extractor Plug-ins were introduced. These allow Find By Content to extract textual information from binary files for inclusion in index files. Text Extractor Plug-ins are documented in Technote TN1181, "Find by Content Text Extractor Plug-ins."

This Note is directed at application developers who wish to access the Find By Content library directly from their applications.

https://web.archive.org/web/20001204113700/http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1180.html

[Protools5LEGuy]

Mac OS 8.5 includes several enhanced searching capabilities, known collectively as Sherlock. Previously, the Mac OS Find application allowed users to search mounted disk volumes for files based on information such as name, modification date, and file type. Sherlock retains this functionality, but also extends the user’s search options to include both the content of files and the Internet.

Sherlock 2 adds a number of new features to the array of search options presented to the user. To accommodate those new features, some additions have been made to the Internet Search Plug-in language, new applescript commands have been added. Where appropriate, these new features are described in this document.

Find by Content library information formerly found in this note has been moved to Technote TN1180, "Sherlock's Find By Content Library."

https://web.archive.org/web/20010413091049/http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1141.html

[Protools5LEGuy]

This Technote describes the API for creating Find By Content Text Extractor Plug-ins. Text Extractor Plug-ins are used by Find by Content to extract the textual information stored in a document when it is creating indexes and summarizing files. By doing so, it is possible for users to avoid indexing peripheral data such as formatting commands, HTML tags, and other data that does not relate to the information stored in the document. By creating Text Extractor Plug-ins for their document types, developers make it possible for users to conduct meaningful searches for information stored in documents created by their applications.

Text Extractor Plug-ins can be created for use with Mac OS 8.6 and later. Mac OS 8.6 was shipped with two Text Extractor Plug-ins: the "HTML Text Extractor" and the "PDF Text Extractor." The "HTML Text Extractor" strips the HTML tags from HTML files and returns the text stored therein; the "PDF Text Extractor" returns the textual information from Adobe®’s Portable Document Format (PDF) files. In Mac OS 8.5, indexing HTML files meant that both the text stored in the document and the HTML tags were incorporated into indexes. Furthermore, PDF files were excluded from the indexing process. In Mac OS 8.6, meaningful textual information extracted from these files is incorporated into index files used by Find By Content.

This Technote provides information necessary for creating and installing Text Extractor Plug-ins. In addition, an annotated example Text Extractor Plug-in is provided. Developers can easily modify this example to create their own plug-in for use with their own file formats.

https://web.archive.org/web/20010413135352/http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1181.html

[Protools5LEGuy]

https://web.archive.org/web/20001206025300/http://www.apple-donuts.com/sherlocksearch/index.html

Added Entire Archive of plugins from that site

[Protools5LEGuy]

Adding Sherlock Support to the WS4D Family of products was easy.

All databases published by Web Server 4D, WS4D/Email-Search, WS4D/CGI, WS4D/Developer (or the soon to be released WS4D/Library) can be easily accessible by Sherlock. This includes: Site-Search databases, Email-Search databases, and all databases published from WS4D (even custom ones with WS4D/Developer)!

Starting with Web Server 4D 2.0.2, additional server side tracking will be provided, there are:

Recent Users Window will indicate if a database search is normal or Sherlock
All Sherlock Requests are logged into a text file
The WS4D Statistics Window will count the number of Sherlock Requests handled
These plug-ins require that you are running Sherlock which is part of MacOS 8.5. After downloading, drop the uncompressed files (ends with .src), into Internet Search Sites Folder which is located in the System Folder.

https://web.archive.org/web/20010202031900/http://sherlock.mdg.com/