1. The URL chooser dialog box
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1. The URL chooser dialog box

The URL chooser dialog box allows to specify the location of a file or directory on the local file system and, if virtual drive plug-ins have been installed[15], on remote (e.g. HTTP, FTP) file systems. This file or directory may be an existing one or a file or directory to be created; it depends on the command displaying this dialog box.

This dialog box is similar to the "Open Web Location" dialog box found in many Web browsers. To use it, simply type in its text field the URL (Uniform Resource Locator — see syntax below) of a file or directory.

Now rather than typing an URL, you can select it using a file chooser dialog box:

Browse local files

Allows to choose a local file or directory using the standard file chooser dialog box.

Always works, whatever is specified in the text field.

Browse remote files

Allows to choose a file or directory found on the local file system and, if virtual drive plug-ins have been installed, on remote (e.g. HTTP, FTP) file systems.

Cannot work if the text field is totally blank. You have to type[16] at least the URL of the initial directory you would like to browse.

Note that the special chooser dialog box displayed after clicking on this button has a simple yet handy, integrated file manager (similar, albeit simpler, to the "Browse Files" tool). To use it, simply right-click anywhere on the file list:

Clear

Erases the contents of the text field where the URL is typed.

The dropdown menu next to the Clear button

(Disabled unless virtual drive plug-ins have been installed.)

Instead of erasing the text field, this menu allows to replace its contents by the protocol part of an URL, e.g. "http://", "ftp://", etc. The list of these prefixes depend on which virtual drive plug-ins have been installed.

[Tip]Specifying the "http://" URL of a document found on a WebDAV server

Assumes that WebDAV virtual drive plug-in has been installed and that the option "Use URL chooser rather than file chooser" has been selected.

Before using the Browse remote files button, make sure to type in the text field the URL of an initial directory which is WebDAV enabled.

Example: you have typed "http://www.acme.com/" as an initial URL. After clicking on the Browse remote files button, you get the following error message: "Cannot connect to http://www.acme.com/: http://www.acme.com/ does not support WebDAV". Try to type the URL of a subdirectory such as "http://www.acme.com/publish/" because, may be in the "www.acme.com" server, directory "/" is not WebDAV enabled, while directory "/publish/" is.

Syntax of Uniform Resource Locators

An URL (Uniform Resource Locator), often called Internet Address in Web browsers, has (to make it simple) three parts:

  1. The protocol part. Example: "http://" in URL "http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/download.shtml".

    Unlike Web browsers, XMLmind XML Editor requires you to specify the protocol.

  2. The authority part, often a server, sometimes empty. Example: "www.xmlmind.com" in URL "http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/download.shtml".

    Example of URL with an empty authority: file:///C:/temp/documenation.zip. Because the authority is empty, this URL could be specified as file:/C:/temp/documentation.zip.

  3. The file path part. Example: "/xmleditor/download.shtml" in URL "http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/download.shtml".

    File path components, that is, directories, are separated by forward slashes ('/'), whatever is the platform running XMLmind XML Editor.

    The file path of a directory must end with a '/'. Example: "http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/" is the URL of directory /xmleditor/.

More examples:

  • http://www.xmlmind.com/store/buy.php

  • http://blazer.inria.fr/~john/

  • https://www.acme.com:8080/registry/customers.xml (8080 is the port number of the www.acme.com Web server)

  • ftp://zenda.prisoner.tv/pub/docs/refman.zip

  • ftp://john:sesame@zenda.prisoner.tv/pub/docs/refman.zip (same as above with a username "john" and password "sesame").

  • file:///home/john/documentation.zip

  • file:/home/john/

  • file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/john/documentation.zip (spaces must be escaped as "%20")


[15] A virtual drive plug-in allows XMLmind XML Editor to edit documents stored in places other than the local file system. This is done by emulating a hierarchical file system.

All sorts of add-ons, including virtual drive plug-ins, can be downloaded and installed using Options → Install Add-ons.

[16] Or choose an item from the dropdown menu next to the text field. This menu lists last recently visited URLs.

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Chapter 9. Dialog boxes Home 1.1. The "Document conversion parameters" panel