New Web Import Utility for Win500

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WD5EAE

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I wanted to be able to import frequencies into Win500 from various web sites so I wrote a Windows utility which has a number of features to do this. It can parse Web text using a regular expression or it can parse tables when present in the HTML. There are no instructions yet, but the utility is fairly straightforward.

1) Download from http://www.wd5eae.org/monitoring/WebBuddyForWin500.zip
2) Unzip the two files to a folder of your choice.
3) Run the EXE
4) Enter a URL into the dropdown box at the top, or use the dropdown to choose an existing URL
5) Hit ENTER or press the Go button to load the web site
6) Configure the various options at the bottom of the screen until the grid contains the data you want to send to Win500
7) Click the "To Clipboard" button
8) Go into the Conventional Objects tab of Win500 and press Ctrl-V

I'd consider it alpha quality but there aren't any sites I haven't been able to parse to my satisfaction. Please contact me via my email address listed in the about box if you run into a web site that you can't parse.

WD5EAE
 
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DaveNF2G

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I store my frequency information on my website, so this could be very useful for me. I will be testing it against that.
 

fmon

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This also works with all Winxx programs as well as Butel and PSREdit. Could not get it to worki with ScanControl.
 

oilmillcharlie

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I wanted to be able to import frequencies into Win500 from various web sites so I wrote a Windows utility which has a number of features to do this. It can parse Web text using a regular expression or it can parse tables when present in the HTML. There are no instructions yet, but the utility is fairly straightforward.

1) Download from http://www.wd5eae.org/monitoring/WebBuddyForWin500.zip
2) Unzip the two files to a folder of your choice.
3) Run the EXE
4) Enter a URL into the dropdown box at the top, or use the dropdown to choose an existing URL
5) Hit ENTER or press the Go button to load the web site
6) Configure the various options at the bottom of the screen until the grid contains the data you want to send to Win500
7) Click the "To Clipboard" button
8) Go into the Conventional Objects tab of Win500 and press Ctrl-V

I'd consider it alpha quality but there aren't any sites I haven't been able to parse to my satisfaction. Please contact me via my email address listed in the about box if you run into a web site that you can't parse.

WD5EAE

Can this also be set up to parse files such as Xcel files on a hard drive???

B.K.
 

ka3jjz

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Frank I can't do anything with this at work, but likely you would need to paste the results into a notepad file that can be mapped into Scan Control using the csv mapper function. A little clumsy, but a possibility.

This is an interesting sounding utility...73 Mike
 

fmon

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Can this also be set up to parse files such as Xcel files on a hard drive???

B.K.
Excel 2003 and 2007 will Data Import from this site or for that matter, any site. Then one can copy/paste data to nearly any software.
Frank I can't do anything with this at work, but likely you would need to paste the results into a notepad file that can be mapped into Scan Control using the csv mapper function. A little clumsy, but a possibility.

This is an interesting sounding utility...73 Mike
Thanks Mike. I started to write other possibilities in previous but couldn't work up a good explanation. You've explained it very well. ;)
 

WD5EAE

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Framesets...

I store my frequency information on my website, so this could be very useful for me. I will be testing it against that.

Hi Dave,

I see you use framesets. The program doesn't handle a framed web site directly but if, for example, you use the URL of the frame that has the frequencies in it directly [ for example NY Statewide Public Safety instead of NF2G - New York ] then the program works.

On running it against your page I noticed the listboxes cannot be set to blank once they are set which can be a problem if you select the wrong column. I'll fix that today. I originally wrote this to solve an immediate personal need and the UI was very crude. I thought that others might find it useful since it avoids the need for another tool like Excel. I spent some time yesterday fixing the UI up so that it wasn't buck ugly. In the process of simplifying it, I overlooked a few things like that which can be fixed. That is why I called it "alpha" quality. Please send any suggestions...

73,

WD5EAE
 

WD5EAE

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I've just posted a new version that now support web sites with framesets and also allows you to reverse the results of a mistaken column selection without restarting the program.
 

WD5EAE

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Sorry for the additional posting.. I am working on:

1) Grabbing DCS codes (CTCSS is only supported in the current version)
2) The method which determines how many columns are in a table is going to be enhanced to account for the diverse ways tables are constructed
 

WD5EAE

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A new version is up which supports DCS, and alpha substitutions for the alpha fields (eg. change 'Tactical' to 'Tac' or 'Joint Operations' to 'JO'). The alpha substitutions ARE case sensitive. If the program doesn't find a substitutions file it creates it with a few default values. In table mode the Edit Substitutions button appears and you can completely configure which alpha substitutions to make when the data is parsed from the table.
 
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DaveNF2G

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I'll have to see how you're dealing with DCS, but it reminds me that the program will also have to understand NAC information.
 

WD5EAE

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DCS has its own regular expression, which is user modifiable, but in my testing against your web site, it seems to work as it is currently coded.

I've got further mods completed that add "browser" buttons Back and Forward. I'll try to get it up on the site later tonight or tomorrow.
 

WD5EAE

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I was not familiar with NAC so I read up on them on the Radio Reference wiki. What do NAC codes typically look like on web sites? I see a lot of Federal NAC codes do not have a-f in them so... Is there a way to distinguish between DCS and NAC or should I give the user the ability to force the values to DCS or NAC?
 

WD5EAE

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OK... I read up on DCS codes and from a visual scan of the numerics I see there isn't a lot of overlap in the two number pools. Dave, do you know if there is any overlap? I can code the two tables and have it push DCS or NAC based on the value.
 

pro106import

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DCS has its own regular expression, which is user modifiable, but in my testing against your web site, it seems to work as it is currently coded.

I've got further mods completed that add "browser" buttons Back and Forward. I'll try to get it up on the site later tonight or tomorrow.

I just used the "backspace" key on the keyboard to substitute for a browser back button and it worked fine. Thanks for the nice little utility.
Bob
 

WD5EAE

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OK, I just coded both the DCS and NAC lists and found the only overlap values are:

131
143
156
212
325
654

So, I'll go ahead and code the program to push DCS or NAC respectively. I think I may default to DCS for these 6 overlap values and let the end-user change them in Win500 to NAC if needed.
 

WD5EAE

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Bob, thank you for the comments. I was right-clicking over the browser and going "Back" that route. It just struck me as a little too primitive without any buttons. The current version is showing mouseover links in the status bar, it has the back and forward buttons and a progress bar during page retrievals so it's more user friendly.
 

WD5EAE

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I found a case where a single invalid CTCSS code in the pasted data could result in every CTCSS code getting set to "Search" for the entire paste operation. Therefore I added a table of valid CTCSS values and if any value is not an accepted value, the program sets that one entry to "Search". I also look for DCS codes that also appear in the NAC code list. If there is an overlap, once the save to clipboard operation is complete, the completion dialog displays a list of any Entity Name, Freq and DCS/NAC Codes which you need to verify. I haven't run across cases of overlap in my testing, but the code is there to handle it.

The updated version on the web site now at the same URL. Feedback is welcome.

WD5EAE
 

WD5EAE

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I've uploaded a new version with a few more enhancements:
1) Hitting the Enter key on the URL box now longer causes the annoying system beep
2) There is an option now which can insert the Table numbers into the browser display so that if you have a page with multiple tables, you don't have to guess which table number you need to select
3) The alpha substitutions now have a memo control on the main screen so that alpha changes can be made on the fly instead of through an external editor
4) A table mixing conventional and P25 systems caused the RxMode for all systems to change to Auto. Any P25's in the table are now set to Auto. I don't have much experience with P25 (where I live there may be one P25 south of here) but I am guessing these actually belong on the Trunked object tab, not conventional systems. But copy / paste does not seem to work on Trunked systems... I understand they are more complicated that a single conventional frequency but it would be nice to have paste work on this tab to get a new system started. If I am incorrect about any of this please let me know.
 

WD5EAE

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OK, another self-correction... I think P25 should be changed to FM, Tone set to NAC, and the NAC code entered in... So it can be a conventional frequency but use P25 NAC
 
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