Observe a HTML-page and inform about changes on it.

german version

Version 0.8	email: (entfernen Sie das 'no_spam_')
	no_spam_wagner.stefan @ berlin.de

Goal:

The program downloads a html-page in regular intervals, and searches it for regular expressions.
All HTML-tags are removed, and the remaining text is searched for regular expressions, which can be defined in a list.
Matching rows are displayed in a panel, and different alarms may be triggered.
The alarms are repeated when the resultset changed.

Purpose:

The videotextserver alevtd (http://linux.bytesex.org/xawtv)displayed every goal of my favorite footballclub (SVE Trier 05) , but on the long time I got tired, looking 110 minutes the videotext.
Therefor I made this program, which displays, readable from far away the current state of the game, in which I was interessted.
In the beginning it was only able to make some noise, so I needn't always had a look at it.
Later on, I had the idea to leave the scope of the screen, and wanted the state of the game to be read by a computervoice.
This was surprisingly easy with the TextToSpeach - library for Java, but just in english.
I found a german-talking solution (txt2pho and mbrola) for linux, available on the net. (available for other OS, including windows, too).
If you're interested in these libraries, you have to download and install them separatedly, because for every language and platform you need different things, and some of you will not want to have any of them. Initial links for further searches are provided below.
Of course you may use this project in different contextes for different purposes. Mainly it is usable to query often changing webcontent, like news, stock exchange prices, weather and measured data.

Dependencies:

To run the program:
- Java2 runtime engine JRE 1.5.0 java.sun.com
- To run a videotext-server a tv-card and alevtd .
- To read the texts by a speach-engine: mbrola and txt2pho .
- To read them in english you only need the TextToSpeach - package for Java: http://freetts.sourceforge.net/ .
- To read the output you have to provide the whole pathname of your scripts in the ini-file.
  HtmlObserver will call this script with the filename of a file, containing the text to read.
  Therefor you may generate a fax, which is send from your script, and, if you know how, create a SMS, feed your Screensaver, print big banners on your managers high-resolution-color-printer or do other funny things.
To develop improvements or bugfixes (are there any?).
- Java2 SDK 1.5.0 or later java.sun.com
- useful: ant ant .
- useful: eclipse ant .

Usage:

Define a source:
- Spezify a server ( 192.193.194.195 or www.foo.bar).
- Set a page (index.html or foo/bar/bla/fasel.html).
- Set a port (80 classical http 8080 for many testservers 5654 for alevtd- videotext-daemon)
Define some search-patterns:
- A list of regular Expressions ( .*lautern.* for a row containing "K'lautern" or "Kaiserslautern". )
Define different triggered events:
- Colorize the Textbackground red.
- Read the text (needs (tts) or (mbrola and txt2pho) or other external programs, which use the text found.
- Start external programs (whithout using the text found).
- Ring the system bell.
- Define the textsize (to be readable from far away).
More settings:
- Define the time intervall to poll the remote pages.
- Reset the background with the 'got_it' - Button.
- Use any port.
- toggle usage of the bell.
- Make text bold.

Install:

Download the binary, or source (zip or tar.bz2).
Unzip it in your favourite directory, e.g.: /usr/local/htmlobserver, ~/lib, C:\Programs\htmlobserver.
(Only for bin-downloads:)
- tell the startscript (htmlobserver.sh or htmlobserver.bat) where you installed it (/usr/local/htmlobserver, ~/lib, C:\Programs\htmlobserver)
- move the startscript to a directory in the path (/usr/local/bin/htmlobserver.sh, ~/bin/htmlobserver.sh or C:\Programs\myscripts\htmlobserver.bat).
(Only for source-downloads:)
- Change the build-file build.xml in the section variables the values:
  - <property name="LAUNCH_HOME" value="/home/stefan"/>
  - <property name="LAUNCH_BIN" value="${LAUNCH_HOME}/bin"/>
  - <property name="LAUNCH_LIB" value="${LAUNCH_HOME}/lib"/>
- ant all creates all stuff from source.
Enjoy.

License:

GPLv3

Download:

Version	Goal	Date	current bin.zip	source zip	source tar.bz2
0.8	Minor performance improvement	27.1.2007	30 kb	180 kb	110 kb
0.7	Internal code-change: using Java-generics now in SourcePanel	31.06.2006
0.6	Added a checkbox to allow to follow simple redirections	30.11.2005
0.5	Modified Code to use JDK-1.5-language-features	15.11.2005
0.4	GUI: Relayout Tab-3: Action Bugfix: Avoid Nullpointer-Exception when clicking '-' (remove) while no listentry is selected. Coding-Style: replace names like 'foo_bar' with 'fooBar'. removed noisy 'System.out.prinln' - Messages.	12.11.2004
0.3	GUI: Tabbed-Pane for Mainwindow Source: Use englisch identifiers and comments (instead of german) Bugfix for install (when 'classes' did not exist).	2.10.2004
0.2.0	Call extern text-to-speach - program, to read the text via soundcard.	15.11.2003
0.1.0	Initial Applikation Release	15.10.2003

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