FlexLauncher

[jsmorley]

Small application launcher that doubles as an input to one or more search engines.

You set up the "aliases" for programs you want to run in [Variables] in the skin.

If you enter one of the program "aliases", the corresponding application you defined will be run.

If you enter some input that is not one of those programs, then a search will be done in your browser using Google*.

If you start the input with a defined search engine (defined in FlexLauncher.lua, see that file to add or change them) and a colon ":" (i.e. "Yahoo: funny cats") then the search will be done in your browser using the defined search engine. The ":" EngineDelimiter can be changed in [Variables].

Absolutely requires the latest Rainmeter 3.0 beta** from http://rainmeter.net.

[ Direct Link ]

* The default use of Google for searches can be changed by changing the URL for the table value "default" in the .lua file.

** Unicode input is fully supported in the skin.


Currently supported search engine "aliases":

google: = Google search
gimages: = Google Image search
bing: = Bing search
bimages: = Bing Image search
yahoo: = Yahoo search
wiki: = Wikipedia search
news: = Google News search
maps: = Google Maps search
tube: = YouTube search
rdocs: = Rainmeter Documentation search

[Brian]

Nice!

(But it looks like you forgot the "rdocs" command in your .lua file)

-Brian

[sa3er]

it looks like you forgot the "rdocs" command in your .lua file

Affirmative.

Jeffrey, is it possible to replace : with .
Is there anyway that lua script understand the first space character as a wakening key command. If it happens then this will be the same as what what we have in browsers but in the desktop.

[jsmorley]

Affirmative.

Jeffrey, is it possible to replace : with .
Is there anyway that lua script understand the first space character as a wakening key command. If it happens then this will be the same as what what we have in browsers but in the desktop.

You could, the Lua is not very complicated. however, unlike your browser, what you type is not being evaluated character by character, so you would never be able to start an actual query with the "alias" and a space, but that is probably not a big issue. There is no way with InputText to have the input routine itself do something based on some input.

So if you input "google is evil" it would search google.com for "is evil". That was sorta the point of the ":", since you are unlikely to actually want to search for "google: is evil". On balance, I prefer the ":" as it is far less likely to cause unwanted behavior with actual searches that start with an "alias" and a space. I would hate to have to remember to type "google google is evil".

[jsmorley]

Nice!

(But it looks like you forgot the "rdocs" command in your .lua file)

-Brian

So I did... Fixed in new version in the first post. Thanks.

[jsmorley]

Ok, I changed things a bit so you can define the EngineDelimiter ":" to anything you want including a space " " in [Variables].

Also added the missing "rdocs" alias.

See first post of this thread for new deviation link.

[moshi]

nice one. 'mailto:' and and 'search-ms:query=' work as well.

[jsmorley]

nice one. 'mailto:' and and 'search-ms:query=' work as well.

Cool, hadn't even considered stuff like that. Sometimes you just get lucky...

[sa3er]

Unbelievable!!!
Excellent work Jeffrey.
Thanks for doing this!