search-helper 1.1.91

Cross-platform (Tk) GUI for opening predefined search URLs in a web browser

Search helper

User-configurable, cross-platform Python script using a Tk GUI for opening predefined search URLs in the web browser.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8 or greater
• serializable-trees
  • transitive dependency: PyYAML

Invocation

Choose the configuration file via a dialog:

python -m search_helper

Use a configuration file:

python -m search_helper configfile.yaml

User interface

When you have entered a search string, you can open it in the selected category or categories using the "Open" button or the Return key. This will open the URLs of each category in webbrowser tabs. If possible, each category is opened in a separate browser window.

The first up to 12 category selections can be toggled using the function keys as displayed (F1 through F12 from top down).

Pressing Escape or clicking the "Quit" button exits the program.

You can delete the search term by pressing Ctrl-D or by clicking the "Clear" button. Ctrl-X will copy the search term to the clipboard and then clear the search term entry field.

For single-URL categories, the "Copy URL" button will copy a URL (which is generated from the search term in combination with the category written before the button) to the clipboard.

Categories with multiple URLs have a "List URL names" button instead. Clicking on that button will open a popup window containing a list of all URL names/identifiers that belong to the category written before the button.

Other key combinations selecting multiple categories can be configured in the configuration files. In the example above (which uses example.yaml), that is Ctrl-Shift-A selecting the first and third category.

Configuration files

The configuration file can be in YAML or JSON format. It contains a data structure as described in config_file_structure.md.