Alternative in IE Scrapbook feature?

February 20, 2006 6:57 AM

Please help me find an alternative to IE Scrapbook Scraps, which allow field text to be saved for future searches

For several years, I have used the Scrapbook function of IE for Mac to search a public database of law firm court appearances (I think it's a protected, SQL databased; this is the URL where I do the searching: http://portal.courts.state.ny.us/pls/portal30/CMS_DEV.ATTORNEY_COURT_SCHEDULES.show).

IE's scrapbook feature is unusual in that it allows one to enter, e.g., search info into a web page field, save the page (the "Scrap"), and then re-open the Scrap with the info saved in the field still usable (in this case, to conduct a new search).

For example, if I Scrapbook the above-referenced page with the law firm "Dewey Cheatm & Howe" in the field, in two weeks, I can call up the scrap, and just it return to conduct the same search; I do searches for the schedules of dozens of law firms, so this is a tremendous feature.

I have looked for alternatives for the Scrapbook feature on IE for Mac, without success. I have been unable to find an equivalent feature on the PC platform, nor anything with Firefox and Safari for Mac. I can save the web page with the other browsers, but in the process, the text in the field either disappears, or becomes unusable for a future search.

AGAIN, I need to be able to open the saved web page, and have the field text usable for a new search.

So, I am either looking for:

--The direct equivalent of Scrapbook with another Browser; or

--Some alternative process on the Mac platform for quickly conducting the same searches repeatedly.

Thanks,

PP

posted by ParisParamus to computers & internet (20 comments total)

One possibility might be Yojimbo, though it costs money; it has a "web archive" feature that's in the same ballpark, I think. (I never used IE/Mac's Scrapbook.)
posted by mcwetboy at 8:17 AM on February 20, 2006

Mcwetboy, I just downloaded the demo, and it DOESN'T SEE to do what I need....
posted by ParisParamus at 8:36 AM on February 20, 2006

Paris, after the search has run does the URL change? If, for example, your final URL is in the form www.bloodylawyers.com/something/schedules?firm=dewey&someothervariable=666 then you should be able to bookmark this address and revisit it to run the search again. It should also be relatively trivial to write a bookmarklet to run the same search with variable inputs (changing the firm, for example).
posted by blag at 8:45 AM on February 20, 2006

blag, the URL is always the same; that's the problem; it's the field info that changes, and needs to be preserved and remain usable.
posted by ParisParamus at 8:49 AM on February 20, 2006

I've made backups of backkups of IE, but at some point, OS is not going to allow it to run...
posted by ParisParamus at 8:50 AM on February 20, 2006

is it possible to create/edit a/the web page to have each law firm's name-string built into it?
posted by ParisParamus at 8:54 AM on February 20, 2006

blag, what is a bookmarklet?
posted by ParisParamus at 9:02 AM on February 20, 2006

A Bookmarklet is a Favelet
posted by soundslikeobiwan at 9:48 AM on February 20, 2006

Try this:
posted by soundslikeobiwan at 10:03 AM on February 20, 2006

More info on saving POST forms as GET URLs here.
posted by soundslikeobiwan at 10:04 AM on February 20, 2006

soundslike, thank you. I will try to digest this and see if its what I need.
posted by ParisParamus at 10:25 AM on February 20, 2006

soundslikeobiwan, will these work in Firefox? (obviously not Safari, I suppose)
posted by ParisParamus at 10:31 AM on February 20, 2006

works on firefox for me. IM me if you need more help.
posted by soundslikeobiwan at 10:43 AM on February 20, 2006

Sorry, posted and ran. soundslike has put us on the right track: paste his link into TextEdit and look at it closely. See the part about halfway through which reads

&p_arg_values=Dewey+Cheatm+%26+Howe

? That's the contents of the "Firm / Attorney Name" field from the form. Note that the ampersand has been encoded as %26. Here's another one with "Paris" as the attorney name.

You could create a series of these bookmarks in TextEdit, just replacing the p_arg_values information with the name of the firm you're trying to track. Load them up in Safari and bookmark them for future use. Hope this helps.
posted by blag at 11:12 AM on February 20, 2006

soundslike, you're not showing up in my AIM.
posted by ParisParamus at 11:14 AM on February 20, 2006

Thanks, blag. i'll take a look at this later. Please check back...on deadline here for a motion...
posted by ParisParamus at 11:34 AM on February 20, 2006

IT WORKS, OMG, THIS IS AMAZING! Please come to a Mefimeetup in NYC--free drinks for ya
posted by ParisParamus at 11:44 AM on February 20, 2006

http://portal.courts.state.ny.us/pls/portal30/CMS_DEV.RPT_FCAS_OPEN_ATTORPRINT.show?p_action=RUN&p_mode=1&p_exec_mode=&p_page_url=&p_redirect_url=&p_reference_path=&p_arg_names=enter_attorney_name&p_arg_values=ARRAYSTART&p_arg_values=Greenstein&p_arg_values=ARRAYEND&p_arg_names=optional__enter_county&p_arg_values=ARRAYSTART&p_arg_values=%25&p_arg_values=ARRAYEND

!
posted by ParisParamus at 11:44 AM on February 20, 2006

Yeah, you've got it. Good stuff.
posted by blag at 1:03 PM on February 20, 2006

It's even easier than textedit; Use the bookmarklet pointed to here, then whenever you do a query at the portal.courts.state... site, run the bookmarklet to convert the page to a GET form. Bookmark the results from that query and you can re-run it at will.

Paris -- try IM again.
posted by soundslikeobiwan at 1:58 PM on February 20, 2006