Reset Visited Status of Links by Site

[ardarby]

I would like to be able reset links to unvisited for nominated sites, e.g. lynda.com training courses. We use a single sign on for anyone taking the courses and right now they all show as being done (i.e. link has been "visited").

I did a search but only found a limited thread from '07 and it didn't suggest that I could pass a list of sites to it, nor did it show the final filter (if it ever got built).

TIA

[ProxRocks]

how 'bout just clearing the browser cache between users?

[ardarby]

That's fine for ALL sites, but I just want to be able to do it for a selected set of sites.

[Oddysey]

ardarby,

The information you seek is held in the file named desktop.ini, located in the main TIF folder. I'm under the impression that Proxo can't access this file, but perhaps you were referring to some other means of editing it? (I'm referring to Windows of course (any version), I can't speak for Linix, Mac or other OS's.)

I've had limited success with editing small files (less than 16KB), but for the most part, the data contained therein is jumbled together and hard to find, let along edit. If you do go in there, be sure to replace your site's/pages's name with spaces, or the byte count (the file size) will be incorrect. Windows might choke up the next time it wants to access the file (it usually does for me).

HTH



Oddysey

[Toppy]

(Dec. 21, 2009 04:59 AM)ardarby Wrote:  That's fine for ALL sites, but I just want to be able to do it for a selected set of sites.

Hi ardarby, I think Mozilla Cache Viewer from NirSoft is what you need, you can easily sort the cache by server, and delete all those server related cache elements, there's also IECacheView in case you're using IE.

BTW, There's a ton of gems produced by NirSoft, all freeware.

[whenever]

(Dec. 20, 2009 10:05 AM)ardarby Wrote:  I would like to be able reset links to unvisited for nominated sites, e.g. lynda.com training courses. We use a single sign on for anyone taking the courses and right now they all show as being done (i.e. link has been "visited").

Instead reset, I think you can use CSS to override the style of visited links and make them look like normal links.

To do it for selected set of sites, you can define a list in the filter's URL Match part.

[Oddysey]

Toppy, the cache isn't where one finds the status of links - visted, unvisited, whatever. It's in the desktop.ini file, but sadly, it's not in plain text that's easily readable.


I think whenever's solution is closer, and obviously easier, but it produces the opposite result - all links look like they've never been visited, by any of the users.


The best solution is obvious, that is to give everyone taking these classes a separate log-in ID. Unless there's a bunch of money involved, where's the harm in that?


BTW, Toppy is correct about NirSoft, there's a lot of good free stuff there.

HTH



Oddysey

[ProxoDent]

(Dec. 26, 2009 04:02 AM)Oddysey Wrote:  Toppy, the cache isn't where one finds the status of links - visted, unvisited, whatever.

Correct. Cache is not where information on status of links is held, not even in Firefox. Both IE and Firefox separate cache and history. Not sure how Opera handles it exactly. I could look but I'm too lazy right now.

(Dec. 26, 2009 04:02 AM)Oddysey Wrote:  It's in the desktop.ini file, but sadly, it's not in plain text that's easily readable.

As far as I know, the index.dat file is where IE history has been stored since version 4.0, not in a desktop.ini file. But maybe I don't know much.

(Dec. 26, 2009 04:02 AM)Oddysey Wrote:  I think whenever's solution is closer, and obviously easier, but it produces the opposite result - all links look like they've never been visited, by any of the users.

True. Using CSS solely to control the link status color is an all or nothing proposition: status changes color or not. Turning it off via CSS could not be controlled per user session.

(Dec. 26, 2009 04:02 AM)Oddysey Wrote:  The best solution is obvious, that is to give everyone taking these classes a separate log-in ID. Unless there's a bunch of money involved, where's the harm in that?

The solution might be different depending on which browser is being used, but the OP didn't specify.

Aside from creating separate login-ins, I think a valid solution for use with FF would be to create a separate profile for running the lynda.com sessions and set the browser to delete ALL browsing data (or especially History) upon exit for this profile. That way, the 'normal' browser profiles / sessions can maintain cache and history, while the specialized training profile / session gets cleared out after each use.

In Firefox, use the profile manager to create the profile, then drop a link on the desktop pointing to the proper profile:

c:\program files\FireFox\firefox.exe -p profile.lynda

Setting the homepage in this profile to lynda.com would be helpful.

For IE, maybe even creating a separate user profile would be worth it. I think IE8 has the ability to clear browser files on exit.

Similar procedures could be achieved with other browsers.

(Dec. 26, 2009 04:02 AM)Oddysey Wrote:  BTW, Toppy is correct about NirSoft, there's a lot of good free stuff there.

Yep.the NirSoft stuff is handy.

[Toppy]

I can be wrong once again, if so, please forgive me for that, but perhaps these utils will do exactly that :

MozillaHistoryView (NirSoft freeware)

IEHistoryView (NirSoft freeware)

EDIT: After first checkout, you're able to remove history items only for the IE version, Mozilla's history.dat layout makes it impossible to remove specific items.

[ProxoDent]

(Dec. 28, 2009 07:00 AM)Toppy Wrote:  EDIT: After first checkout, you're able to remove history items only for the IE version, Mozilla's history.dat layout makes it impossible to remove specific items.

Prior to 3.0 (I believe), FF used a history.dat file. Now, it uses an SQLite file. The file not only contains history, but bookmarks and tags as well.

It is true that the NirSoft utility cannot delete history entries for FF (dat or sqlite), but FF's own utility can, so it's not really a matter of being impossible, it's just that the NirSoft developer didn't implement it.

And while the FF built-in history manager (Libray) works quite well for deleting individual pages or entire sites, my suggestion for creating a separate profile was made in an effort to avoid having to use such utilities. But it definitely is an option, albeit one requiring a little more effort.

[Oddysey]

PD, you're correct of course, I'm so wrapped up in another project just now that I've got 'desktop.ini' on the brain. In fact, you're doubly correct - I've been thinking only in terms of IE (any version), and the proper file to investigate for links visted, etc. in that browser is indeed 'index.dat, located in the main TIF folder. For other browsers, everything I said above may or may not be true.

HTH


Oddysey

[JJoe]

Depends...

You may be able to have a Web page filter, called Al's, that adds something to every link on the page. Modified links might look like
lynda.com/al/training/courses.txt.

Then you would need an out header filter to strip the "al/" or "notal/" and redirect to
lynda.com/training/courses.txt.

The browser shouldn't know that
lynda.com/al/training/courses.txt or
lynda.com/notal/training/courses.txt will get the same page.

The user would have to remember to enable their filter.

I think.

HTH