Sequential Links Rustler

Prepares and presents them tasty links just the way you like

Website pages sometimes contain links to resources -- other web pages, or image, video, sound, or text files -- for which the files and/or the directories in which they're stored have been named using numeric sequences.

When the design of those sites makes it a chore to access those resources, you might want to generate your own HTML page with links to a selected subset of those resources.

That's where Sequential Links Rustler comes in.

Getting Started

0. (You will need to have Python 3 installed on your system.)
1. Clone this repository, or download and extract this zip file
2. Change to the directory containing these files
3. Run python slr.py or python3 slr.py
4. In the resulting GUI dialog
   • Fill in the URL mask -- see examples below and here,
   • Change options (if desired),
   • Click Rustle Up Some Links, and then
   • Sit back and wait (not long!) for your new web page to load.

Basic Usage

Sequential Links Rustler accepts a "URL mask" and generates an HTML page with links to the specified resources, opening the resulting file in your chosen browser.

A URL mask is like a standard URL, except that one or more numeric values have been replaced with "sequence definitions".

A minimal sequence definition consists of a Start integer and a Stop integer, separated by a hyphen and surrounded by curly brackets.

For example, in the URL mask

https://therden.github.io/sequential-links-rustler/images/sausage{0-20}.jpeg

the sequence definition is {0-20}.

From this URL mask, Sequential Links Rustler will produce and load an HTML page that looks like

URL mask helper

Sequential Links Rustler now has a Convert URL button that, when pressed, will evaluate a normal URL, replacing all numeric sequences with equivalent sequence definitions -- which you can then edit to customize the HTML file that will be generated.

Options

Several aspects of Sequential Links Rustler's are configurable. These can be viewed by clicking the Show Options button (which will then display the text Hide Options.)

Options for image links

• Specify the size of thumbnail images as % of browser window width

  Use the spinner to increase or decrease from the default value of 13%.

• Choose whether to hide or display links to inaccessible image files

  By default, a placeholder is shown for broken links; but if you want to see links only for images that load successfully, check "Hide broken image links"

Other Options

• Choose alternate location to save the generated HTML file

  The HTML files generated by Sequential Links Rustler are saved to your home directory by default -- you can specify an alternate location during the current session.

• Choose alternate name for the generated HTML file

  By default, the filename will be "rustled.html" -- but you can specify another name during the current session.

• Delete HTML file on Exit

  By default, Sequential Links Rustler will delete the last file it generated when it exits. If you prefer to retain the file, uncheck this option.

• Choose the browser in which the generated HTML file will open

  Note: if you choose a browser that is not available on your system, no error message will be displayed -- the generated file just won't be opened.

Advanced "sequence definition" features

• zero padding of sequence values
• sequences of declining values
• custom intervals between values
• multiple sequence definitions within a single URL mask

For detailed information about these options, and more example URL masks, see the GitHub pages associated with this project.

ToDo

I track bugs and ideas for improvements and new features in Issues -- feel free to contribute your thoughts there.

Speaking of contributions

It isn't required (of course), but if you find this project useful and are so moved, you can

Buy Me a Coffee is a terrific way to support creators.

It's quick, easy, and (unless you choose otherwise) public -- by default, your contribution will be recorded and made visible at my page on the Buy Me a Coffee site.

Credits

And speaking of credits...

My sincere thanks to

• MikeTheWatchGuy, for creating and maintaining PySimpleGUI.

• Quinn, for love, laughs, and encouragement.

• Jacob Halton, for the three black Sausage (from the Noun Project), which I abused dreadfully in creating the image of "The Rustler".