Webmonitor's Help

OVERVIEW

Purpose of the application is to monitor specific web pages, RSS/XML/Atom/RDF feeds and forums for instances of specific keywords. When these keywords are found it notifies user via Windows system tray and/or e-mail and can display the page with the keywords highlighted in yellow.

Web Monitor can notify a user when specific words or phrases appear in the updated feed as well when there is a new feed message available.

Web Monitor also allows the user to email that updated message to any email address they choose. So for example the user can email the message to their blogger and it will post on their blog automatically.

Web Monitor is able to search and monitor message boards like VBulletin, phpBB and Invision. It monitors posts for specific keywords and when they are found it notifies the user.

When user views the message notification, it will show the specific text or phrase highlighted in yellow.

FUNCTIONS

WEB PAGE SEARCH: This option monitors a web page for new instances of keywords or for changes in the web page: 

1.     User enters name of search

2.     User chooses when to receive alert (when keywords or phrases are found or when web page changes)

3.     User enters URL to monitor and keywords or phrases to check for

4.     User enters frequency to check page (seconds, minutes, hours, days)

5.     User enters username and password if page is password protected

6.     When alert appears, user is notified via Windows System Tray

7.     When user views message the keywords are highlighted in yellow

Web Monitor will only search the changed parts of the page. If it just searches the entire page it will display duplicate alerts for already found keywords.

So once it loads the changed page, it searches the new text on the page only. If the keywords are found in the new text then it will product alert.

XML/RSS/RDF/ATOM SEARCH: This option monitors a news feed for keywords or for new posts to feeds. It works with all types of xml feeds, not only the ones I list here. Here is how it works:

1.     User enters name of search

2.     User chooses when to receive alert (when keywords or phrases are found or when feed is updated)

3.     User enters URL to monitor and keywords or phrases to check for

4.     User enters frequency to check feed (minutes, hours, days)

5.     User enters username and password if feed is password protected

6.     User enters email address to email new message. This will simply email the new message posted to the feed. Web Monitor emails the message so it can be posted on blogs with blogger.com and word press email function

7.     When alert appears, user is notified via Windows System Tray

8.     When user views message the keywords are highlighted in yellow

YAHOO NEWS XML SEARCH: This option monitors Yahoo News feed for keywords or for new posts to feeds. Here is how it works:

1.     User enters name of search

2.     User can only receive alerts when keywords are found

3.     URL is already entered into application (added in SETTINGS area) so user only enters keywords or phrases to check for. Web Monitor then searches yahoo news xml for each keyword or phrase.

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=KEYWORD (keyword)

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=%22keyword+keyword+keyword%22 ("keyword phrase")

4.     User enters frequency to check feed (minutes, hours, days)

5.     User enters email address to email new message. This will simply email the new message posted to the feed. Web Monitor emails the message so it can be posted on blogs with blogger.com and word press email function

6.     When alert appears, user is notified via Windows System Tray

7.     When user views message the keywords are highlighted in yellow

Note: this option can be performed with the xml search above, but in that case Web Monitor would have to search through thousands of daily news posts on yahoo which can be difficult. Instead Web Monitor searches yahoo feed for specific instances of keywords. If a new instance is found it notifies users. So instead of searching thousands of posts a day, it only searches for new additions to search results list.

GOOGLE NEWS XML SEARCH: This option is the same as the Yahoo alert, but it monitors Google News feed instead.

MENU ITEMS

VIEW ALERTS MENU

  • View Alerts List: Takes user to the alerts list window
  • Check for new alerts: Checks for new alerts
  • Delete selected: Deletes selected alerts
  • Print selected; Prints selected alerts

SEARCHES MENU

  • Add SEARCH: Takes user to the add SEARCH window
  • Edit SEARCH: takes user to the edit SEARCH window
  • Export Searches: exports all searches as package
  • Import Searches: Imports a search package

SETTINGS MENU

  • OPTIONS: Takes user to the options window

HELP MENU

  • ONLINE HELP: Takes user to the online help page. This is just a URL
  • About: The about screen

WINDOWS

ALERTS LIST WINDOW: this window displays a list of all alerts. User has ability to sort alerts by columns: 

  • Date/Time: Displays date and time message was created
  • Search Type: Example RSS feed, Web Page, YAHOO NEWS, etc.
  • Search Name: The name of the alert entered by the user
  • Keywords Found: Shows the keywords found in this alert
  • Subject: The title of the alert if available

ADD SEARCH WINDOW: from this window the user can do the following:

  • Choose the search type from a drop down list
  • Enter necessary information for the search (see FUNCTIONS sections above)
  • Save search

EDIT SEARCH WINDOW: This shows a list of all searches.  It shows the search type, the search name, keywords for search. From this window the user can

  • View all searches
  • Double click on search to Edit search settings
  • Save new settings
  • User can also choose to delete a search

OPTIONS WINDOW: This shows a list of all system options:

  • Enable/disable auto check for new alerts
  • Enable/disable new alert pop up window
  • Enable/disable alert notification sound
  • Load monitor application on start up
  • Edit default xml URLS for: Yahoo news, Google news etc.

OTHER FUNCTIONS

Web monitor can export and import "search packages" so others can implement the same alerts. This can be done using Searches->Export Searches and Searches->Import Searches menu items. Exported search packages are saved as XML file on the disk.

SEARCH NOTES

All searches support the following syntax:

Keyword1: searches for any instance of keyword

keyword1 keyword2: searches for instances of both keywords in same document.

"keyword phrase": searches for instance of complete phrase in same document.

See: http://www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html

 

 

 

Write a comment