Looking For Programmers

[dm-horus]

I know this is totally the wrong place for this, but Im sure to get the best exposure to the ppl I need to get with...

Im looking to design a downloadable toolbar for my website, Inisder Guide.
While I was writing the new user tutorial for my site which instructs computer/internet newbies on how to register with the site and how to use the forum, I realized that to a great deal of my target audience those instructions were too advanced. The more you simplify, the longer the tutorial gets and the less likely it is that a layperson would follow it through. Then I had the thought that it would be much easier to simply point a new user to a downloadable program that did the hunting work for them. I figure that if someone knows enough to even find my website that they will know how to download a program, install it and use a searchbox.

My idea was for something called "Insider Toolbar." A program similar to Yahoo! Toolbar or Google Desktop. It would provide only a simple searchbox that would lookup relevant articles, guides and forum threads on my site. This way users wouldnt necessarily have to go through the rigors of setting up their first email account (unless they already have one) and registering with Insider Guide. While my entire site is fully usable to unregistered users, anyone who posts a question MUST be registered to get an email response. A computer newbie who needs an answer fast isnt going to keep checking the forum for a reply and anyone who doesnt have an email account to get email replies wouldnt be able to make use of the resources anyway, which makes providing a downloadable toolbar more and more attractive.

So this mainly goes out to those at OPU who might be interested in writing up a program like this and would be willing to go through the release stages and bug fixes. If nobody can make such a commitment, would anyone be willing to tutor me what I need to know to write it myself?


If anyone wants this thread removed from this forum section, LET ME KNOW FIRST. Dont just delete it please. Id like to use it as a request template.


Thanks,
Chris

[Eddy-B]

Horus.. i don't wanmt to argue, but: the FIRST thing i do after installing IE is remove the Google searchbar. And whenever i see Yahoo! get too close, i shut down IE just to make sure it doesn't impose itself onto me.

(people hate these things)

[dm-horus]

do you do much computer repair? the first thing i notice is that anyone who has had a computer for less than 5 years has numerous toolbars. if theyre gonna download them, they might as well get one that does something.

anyone who downloads a toolbar doesnt know what it is and assumes that it does only what is advertised. the whole point of my site is to actually DELIVER where most only make guarantees that come up short. having a toolbar that actually benefits you would be great. having one that does only what it says would be superior.

i understand your apprehention when approaching anything called "The ______ Toolbar" but remember that my concept has nothing in common with Yahoo toolbar or Google Desktop except for the fact that theyre downloadable and appear client-side. Seperating ourselves from the stigma that adware-laden toolbars are a plague of the noobs is necessary when the numbers of new or first-time internet users is the highest ever. simply allowing noobs to think these programs are acceptible and to turn up our nose at them for something they didnt know is the kind of thinking my site is devoted to abolishing. letting them continuously download the very software that forces us to develop countermeasures only perpetuates the problem but making a toolbar that leads users in the RIGHT direction would be helping to end the problem instead of fueling it. producing a functional tool that does what it says would be a step to that end.

I hope that anyone reading this would take a look at the purpose of the toolbar i propose, the goals of the site and the direction i am leading it in. the best way to fight fire is with fire. if yahoo and google toolbars are IE then im looking to make the Firefox of toolbars. something that doesnt fit the cookie cutter and gets the job done.

[BlackBox]

Well, as for writing a toolbar for IE, read up on writing Browser Helper Objects. (That's the code that implements the toolbars in the case of Google and other toolbars). I don't really know much else about it though.

Firefox uses its Extensions system, again I'm not knowledgable on it.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't really have time to help on this project, there's still a lot of OP2 related things that people want to see be worked on (namely the Mapper).

[dm-horus]

thanx this is already helpful. ive written a small firefox extention for opu already so that part isnt difficult. however, getting whatever toolbar i make to work with my site properly is beyond my skill atm. even if you guys cant or wont make it for me, being there as an advisor would really help me out.

[BlackBox]

Well, what I would do is write a small PHP script that searches the website content based on input to the script, and then returns the results in a format that the toolbar can understand. XML is one possibility.

As for the toolbar actually sending the data, it could probably use regular wininet.dll calls to access and retrieve the data.

[Wild_Targ]

My underqualified opinion is that XML is the way to go; it is generally portable (i'm pretty certain that most browsers support XML now), and if it is written into the site code it would load under the browser process, not its own, and be able to search your Site index under said process.  I'm not sure that's the best way to do it, but it seems, at first thought, a lot better than being a piece of software that a user must install and run on their own machine.  Unless of course you want it to search for info outside of your site.
     Just offering MHO.