Magnifying Glass icon on the main display Toolbar: Agent Configurations control panel for start and finish conditions, capture actions, email alerts, and agent chaining.

To get brief pop-up descriptions of all the functions click the -?- icon in the top right corner of the panel and click on any radio button, checkbox or text line.

Seeing saved web displays on the screensaver is nice, but how do I make it go online AS a screensaver?

Any screensaver agent module can be configured to go online while in screensaver mode.  This must be set up however from the Editor, which is accessed by clicking the Edit Module button in the screensaver Settings control panel.  

We recommend that you become familiar first with manually using agents online before you use Surf3D to go online while in screensaver mode?  Why? Because the Editor is where you can interact with the graphical display, see how it is set up, customize any agent for some new use, test it to make sure it is working the way you want, and get a sample report.

Once you have an agent ready that you want to use in screensaver mode, just select that agent using the screensaver Settings control panel Select Module command.  To set up an agent to run in screensaver mode online and collect new data and files, you must do the following things:

Save-As the agent module to a new file name.  

Next, open the agent Configuration panel by clicking on the -magnifying glass- icon on the toolbar.  

Click the Continue checkbox, (and change the node limit if you want to only spider
into say, 500 pages).

Click on the Report checkbox (so the agent will produce a report automatically so when you return the Report will be on screen).

Click Accept on the Agent Configuration panel.  

WARNING on hard drive memory usage! If you configured the agent module to surf the maximum number of web pages (5000) and you have asked it to capture a lot of JPEGs for example, be sure you have enough disk space for all the files. An agent can fill up your disk drive with collected and captured files if you let it.  We recommend to begin with that you limit the total number page nodes to visit to a number less than 500 by entering that number on the agent Configuration panel in the Editor.  If you let it try to capture more picture or music files than you have drive space for, the agent will interrupt only after using 90% of the free space on your drive.

Capturing pictures and files:

Point and click on the -?- in the upper right hand corner of the Configuration panel and a question mark will accompany the mouse cursor. Now click on any entry box, radio button or checkbox and a short description of the agent module action functions will pop up.

If you want the HTML report to open automatically once the agent has finished, click on the -magnifying glass- icon to open the agent Configuration window, and click to select the Report on the Finish Actions section of the control panel. For more information, click on the -?- question mark icon in the main graphical display toolbar and documentation on the particular agent will appear.

How do I set up different agent Start conditions in the agent Configuration panel?

The OPEN radio button opens the agent is a STOPPED state, and this preference is for icon or screensaver started agent modules.

The NEW radio button opens the agent and then STARTS it, and this preference is for icon or screensaver started agent modules.

The CONTINUE radio button opens the agent and the CONTINUEs it from it last point left off in the search. This preference is for icon or screensaver started agent modules. This is the selection that must be made if you want to run a screensaver agent online and autosave the 3D network that is collected.

The GET URL+NEW radio button opens the agent, gets a URL from the browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape), and then STARTS it. This preference is for icon or screensaver started agents.

Every time an agent finishes testing a web page node, it can execute an "EARLY FINISH" test. There are different ways to cause an agent to finish ‘early’. You can limit the total number of pages it will surf by selecting a number for Page Limit that is lower than is available online to surf.

Another method is to select the checkbox for Source ALL or TRUE in the Early Finish Test section. Selecting ALL instructs the agent to test all pages for an early finish. Selecting TRUE instructs the agents to test only the True pages for an early finish.

The radio buttons A, B and C under "Metric" in the Early Finish Test section, when alternatively checked, specify: to use Metric A for Early Finish Test, or use Metric B for Early Finish Test, or use Metric C for Early Finish Test, or use Metric SUM for early finish test.

The radio buttons or ">" or "<" under the title "Test" specify if the early Finish Test is Greater-Than dependent, or if the Early Finish Test is Less-Than dependent, and the text entry line is where the user specifies the numeric Value to be tested for Early Finish. In this manner, for example, if the numeric element on a HTML document tests the number '1000', and the ">" radio button is checked, if the agent obtains a number greater than the number '1000', the agent will execute an Early Finish.

When an agent finishes testing all web page nodes, it will execute a "FINISH" test. The Radio button titled ALL under the title Source, when checked, specifies to test All pages before finishing. The Radio button titled "True" under the title "Source", when checked, specifies to test only True pages for the Finish Test.

The radio buttons A, B and C under the titled Metric in the Finish sub-window, when alternatively checked, specify to use Metric A for Finish Test, or use Metric B for Finish Test, or use Metric C for Finish Test, or to use Metric SUM for Finish Test.

The radio buttons or ">" or "<" under the title Test specify if the Finish Test is Greater-Than dependent, or if the Finish Test is Less-Than dependent, and the text entry line is where the user specifies the numeric Value to be tested for Finishing. The check box titled Rate, when checked, tests for RATE OF CHANGE relative to the previous iterated successful TRUE Finish Test.

The ACQUIRE and CAPTURE section is where the user can specify what type and size file will be collected. The checkbox Include False Pages, when checked, captures files from FALSE pages in addition to pages that have tested TRUE in the Boolean search test.

Check box Text, when checked, enables text capture from an examined HTML document page, and (usually) limits the capture to the normally visible text on an HTML document page, excluding source code text not normally visible. The capture of text can set to a given number of bytes per page, such as 1000 bytes for example.

The check box for Capture JPEG Images, when checked, enables JPEG image capture. If it is not checked, only links will be gathered if within the byte size window titled Bytes per Item, AND collect links limited by the number in the Max# numeric entry box.

Check box Capture GIF Images, enables GIF image capture and behaves the same as JPEG capture. JPEG capture collects file extensions of both .jpeg and .jpg.

Check box Capture Custom, when checked, enables CUSTOM file capture. If it is enabled, only files will be gathered according to the maximum number of bytes specified in the Bytes per Item Maximum and Minimum numeric entry lines. The operation of the Minimum and Maximum size settings are such that before the server sends the image file to the agent, the server is queried to find out what the size of the file is. The size tests are done before the download begins allowing the download to be skipped if the size is out of bounds. This saves bandwidth by ignoring downloading undesired items.

The text entry line next to Capture Custom is where the user specifies the particular type of file to capture, such as any custom file type desired, for example, entering "pdf" to capture pdf files, or entering "mp3" to capture mp3 audio files. Examples of different file types the system can be arbitrarily specified to capture, include but are not limited to the following file types as any arbitrary file type extension can be included. The abbreviation exts = file type extension. File type descriptions are included below for example, however, only the extension characters themselves, such as "cgi", for example are necessary to be entered into the Capture Custom text line. You do not need to place a dot before the extension name in the entry box. Multiple extensions in the custom box need to be separated by a single space between each of them.

type=text/common gateway interface exts=cgi

type=application/postscript exts=ai eps ps

type=audio/x-aiff exts=aif aiff aifc

type=audio/Sun audio exts=au

type=text/active server page exts=asp

type=msvideo/active streaming exts=asf

type=Shockwave/Flash file exts=swf

type=Shockwave/MP3 file exts=swa

type=iexplorer/Chan. Def. format exts=cdf

type=text/plain exts=asc txt

type=video/x-msvideo exts=avi

type=image/bmp exts=bmp

type=application/x-director exts=dcr dir dxr

type=application/msword exts=doc

type=application/x-dvi exts=dvi

type=application/Photoshop file exts=psd

type=image/gif exts=gif

type=text/html exts=html htm

type=image/jpeg exts=jpeg jpg jpe

type=application/x-javascript exts=js

type=audio/midi exts=mid midi kar

type=video/mpeg exts=mpeg mpg mpe

type=audio/mpeg exts=mpga mp2 mp3

type=application/pdf exts=pdf

type=application/vnd.ms-powerpoint exts=ppt

type=video/quicktime exts=qt mov

type=audio/x-realaudio exts=ra

type=audio/x-pn-realaudio exts=ram rm rmm

type=application/rtf exts=rtf

type=text/richtext exts=rtx

type=application/Mac archive exts=sea

type=application/x-stuffit exts=sit

type=application/compression exts=tar

type=image/tiff exts=tiff tif

type=audio/x-wav exts=wav

type=spreadsheet/excel exts=xls

type=text/ exts=xml

type=application/zip exts=zip

The text entry lines titled Max #, specify the maximum number of JPEG files to capture, GIF files to capture, or CUSTOM files to capture. More than one file type extension can be entered into the custom type text entry line to have an agent custom capture multiple types of files at once.

The Bytes per Item numeric line entry titled "Maximum" and numeric entry line titled "Minimum", are where the user may specify the Minimum and Maximum size of individual files that will be captured.

Set the number of pages in the Page Limit numeric entry box.

Agent modules can persistently scan and retrieve results, and then repeat the actions even if the results are True or False in the Boolean search test. This is useful in order to obtain continuously changing data from a given source, such as a stock price for example.

The numeric entry line embedded into the first part of the sentence "If test is FALSE, wait ______ Minutes..." specifies that IF the Finish Test result is FALSE, wait this number of minutes before repeating running the agent module. This is effective for icon or screen saver started agents. The numeric entry embedded into the last part of the sentence "... Minutes and retry _____ times" specifies IF Finish Test result is FALSE and this value is non-zero, repeat the search ‘x’ number of times. This is effective for icon or screen saver started agents.

The bottom section of the agent Configuration window is the FINAL ACTIONS. There are several check boxes here.

Check box Bell, when checked, if the result of the Finish Test is TRUE, rings the bell.

Check box Report, when checked, if the result of the Finish Test is TRUE, opens the HTML Report in your browser

Check box Alarm, when checked, if the result of the Finish Test is TRUE, sounds the Alarm bell.

Check box E-Mail Alert, when checked, if the result of the Finish Test is TRUE, will send an email to any destination. Clicks on the E-mail Msg button, which opens a notification message window, where you can write an E-mail, including entering address, and subject line, a short message. If you want to include all the plain text from the first page of the Report, check the Include Report box.

Check box Close, when checked, closes the Agent on the final Finish, and is effective for icon or screen saver started agents.

Check box Do Final Actions even if it is False, when checked, if Finish Test result is FALSE on the finish, the agent module will then execute the selected FINISH ACTIONS.

The button titled Chain opens the Agent Chain and shell execution window. One valuable feature of the software is the ability to rapidly and automatically update shell application programs and change the priorities of subsequent agent module activity by chaining agents. This can act as a rapid update process using live search on the web to provide maximum recency of information to a shell environment applications. This effects better specificity, currency and relevance of information. The chaining and shell application execution permits an additional operational capability at the multi-agent scale.

A collection of agents can be conditionally chained together with different conditional flow logic, in order to accomplish more complex tasks and collection operations than a single agent can provide. Such multi-agents and agents chains comprise a propositional system.

Agents may be chained to and embedded into conventional rule and or framed based inference systems. Am agent can comprise the execution of business rules that represent key application logic such as rules about conditions associated with the diagnosis and corrective maintenance of a product, or rules associated with an transactional exchange system relating to price, quantity and delivery. Such rule based systems already common within industry describe and facilitate specification of rules and rule sets to be applied to support decision making and management of information.

Using the chaining function, agents can be subordinated to other agents, and clusters of agents can operate in a compound manner to derive complex activities. Agents are defined as active objects within an environment. Agents, as active objects, are classed within as different types of agents. Each agent type has associated individual attributes and capabilities. Agents also have starting and finishing states and variables. Agents undergo transitions from one state to another state depending on their interaction with the environment and the behavior engaged. Agents can operate as an aggregate collection.

Agents can be sequenced and associated according to inter-agent rules of interaction and discovered information due to search activity on a network. An individual agent, when launched, engages in an activity without the aid of other agents. An individual agent, upon completion of it's run-time task, can then trigger other agents through chaining. Multiple agents can be triggered from a single agent. Agent outcome states are preconditions to the initiation of other agents based on the Boolean state of the first Agent results. Agent causing other agents to activate is a form of "forward chaining" propagation. The forward chaining is data driven from the data set discovered by an agent during search or retrieval task execution on web or network.

The Chain Execute window provides a means to conditionally chain agents to one another based on the outcome of their search and retrieval activity returning a TRUE or FALSE result. The On TRUE text entry line is where the user can specify another agent to commence activity if the results of the prior agent returned a TRUE result. The On FALSE text entry line is where the user can specify another agent to commence activity if the results of the prior agent returned a FALSE result.

Both the On TRUE and On FALSE text entry lines can individually specify more than one agent to start, or can specify the computer to launch any application program, or combination thereof of agents, application programs, using a batch file.

The Browse buttons associated with each On TRUE and On FALSE sections can be used to capture a file name and path on the users computer that are to be executed. The full file path must be present, not just the name of the agent to be triggered.

When an Agent chains to another agent, it can pass a URL to it. The URL that is passed to it is used as the Starting URL for the new Agent. This is similar to the GET URL command button on the Search set up window (-X- icon on main toolbar), except it gets it from the preceding Agent instead of the Browser.

There are entry lines for adding the URL to the Agent that is being chained. The URL which is passed to the next Agent in the chain can be either a web address or an HTML document located on the local hard disk or in local device memory.

By setting the URL to point at the HTML report for the Agent project that is on the hard disk, a group of URLs that are discovered on the network by one Agent can be passed to another Agent by looking at the Report. To use this feature you must click on Report in the Final Actions section of the Configuration window.

By limiting the size of the Report in terms of items per page and number of pages, a limited number of URLs can be passed between agents. By using the metric sorting, a limited set of URLs with high-ranking value for successive agent chaining can be passed.

If the Chain feature is being used to launch an application instead of an Surf3D agent, the text which holds the URL data for an Surf3D agent is used as the standard command line argument for the application. When an Agent is launched and there is a URL being passed to it, (which will only happen when an Agent is launched via the Chain feature), it forces the AGENT START action to be set to run (use NEW Agent Start checkbox). This insures that it will execute a NEW search while preventing the Open, Continue, and Get URL+New actions. These other Agent Starts are usually inappropriate for a 'chained' agent.

The agent chaining setup accommodates the password protected mode of an Agent being used as a screen saver module. It is configured so that any agent that is chained by another Agent that is password protected will inherit the password and the full screen mode. In other words, if the first Agent in the chain is launched as a screen saver module, all subsequent Agents that may be chained to it will also act as screen saver modules.