OmniWeb Download + Hazel
 

Hi,

I just got me a copy of Hazel from Noodlesoft. Hazel allows to set up some rules for folders e.g. label files which are older than 1 day in red...

The problem I have now is that when I download a large file with OmniWeb, there is no indication when the download is finished and Hazel will try to apply my rules to the unfinished download.

Safari and other browsers already have this implemented and it would be nice if you could also implement a way of indicating that a download is finishes. I think the easiest way would be to have an other file extension for incomplete downloads, like "mydownload.zip.part" or "mydownload.zip.download".

Thanks in advance

Ditto.

*sigh* This message has been artificially lengthened in order to avoid the dreaded error: "The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters."

Here’s my vote for Hazel compatibility. Hazel is a great complement to the OS, and highly regarded. Omni’s very own Ethan even has a lengthy screencast on his Kinkless site on it, and provides a set of rules for its use. So it seems anomalous indeed that if Safari, Camino, Firefox and Flock are compatible with it, OW isn’t.

Hopefully we 3 are not the only ones who want this feature.

[QUOTE=halbtuerke;30642]Hopefully we 3 are not the only ones who want this feature.[/QUOTE]

You're not the only 3. I use Hazel as well and want OW to have compatibility.

I am a Hazel user as well and would like to see support.

I really would like to see Hazel "support" too.

[QUOTE=Schlaefer;31363]I really would like to see Hazel "support" too.[/QUOTE]

Well, for me, it looks like Hazel works in 5.7 as far as the moving goes.

The problem I have is with OW's dowload manager: Once Hazel moves the file, OW can no longer reveal it, saying that the file has been moved after download.

I thought that Mac OS X had a concept of file aliases, which allowed retrieving the location of a specific file even if it has been moved in the meantime (within the same volume). Is this functionality still present in Mac OS X? If so, would it be possible to have OW use Aliases for storing the downloaded items, so that even after it getting moved by Hazel, OW would be able to reveal (or open) it?

-Christian

I don't know if what you mean by "aliases" is what I think you mean, but if it is, we are talking about unix file descriptors. On unix or unix-like system like OS X, if an application opens a file, the subsequent accesses to that file are not handled by the file's path and name, but by a file descriptor, which is basically a number. Thus, if you rename or move a file within the same file system while any application still has it open, that's no problem. You could, for example, move a file currently being downloaded to another folder, and OW would still write to the correct file.

Alas, this only works for files that are still open. As soon as OW has closed the file, it has no means of telling where it has been moved to. [Edit for clarification: OW doesn't even know that the file has been moved/renamed at all, as it has been accessing it (writing to it) using the file descriptor, not the file name.] I think it would be possible that OW could, just before closing the file, find out what the current file name of that file descriptor is, and thus be able to reveal the correct file even if its name/position has been changed meanwhile. I'm not really sure, though, if there actually is an API function to do that.

[Edit: If there [i]is[/i] such a function, it would be a really cool feature if OW could check the real file name every some seconds and adjust the display in the download window accordingly ... :-) ]

Best regards,

Christian

No, I'm not talking of file descriptors, I'm talking of Aliases (and those specifically - not symbolic links). I just checked Apple Developer docs, and they seem to be still available in Mac OS X:

[URL="http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPFileSystem/Articles/Aliases.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20002288-108339"]Alias Semantics[/URL]

When OW would use such an object for storing its Download history, and Hazel performs its move operations in the way recommended in that document (instead of manual copy/deletions - I don't know if it does, but would hope so), OW's entries would still point to the correct file even if Hazel has moved the file after a completed download. That's what I'm after: Having downloaded a file, and having moved it (e.g. by Hazel, or even manually), OW would still be able to perform its "Show" command on a download list entry, as it would be able to find the moved file based on its alias's unique identity component (which is the fallback if its path is no longer available).

Am I missing something?

Regards,
Christian