Re: browser-history applet

[Fabrice Bellet <Fabrice Bellet imag fr>]

On Fri, Aug 06, 1999 at 12:54:01PM -0500, James M. Cape wrote:

> There is a wish concerning a browser-history library at
> [http://www.jcinteractive.com/gnome-ui/software/libs/browser-history.shtml].
> The idea is that all applications can use a single history (or portions
> of a repository), which also adds Netscape's history.

This proposal seems interesting. I'd like to work on it. Several points
need to be studied :
  * storage format for this persistent history (xml ?)
  * how to populate this history database :
     - transparently through the X properties of the browser, as it
     already works for the actual browser-history. The problem is 
     that this property is not generic to any browser. For example, 
     gzilla and Mozilla don't work with browser-history.
     - explicitely through an API to be defined, and to be used
     in new apps dealing with URLs ?
     - explicitely in a proxy-like client/server scheme, to ensure
     compatibility with existing older browsers ?
  * how to exploit this database and how deeply ? How do this library
  will differ from proxies (like wwwoffle), that nicely can work with
  local search engines (htdig), except by the fact that this library'll
  keep URLs only and not the content? 

One of the major interest of the actual b-h, is that it maintains its
database in HTML format. So the history is instantaneously available
to any browser without further processing of a given private storage
format. 

Best regards,
Fabrice