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trovu – Web shortcuts managed in Git.

trovu is a spin-off from Serchilo / FindFind.it.

trovu allows you to define shortcuts for URLs / websites and then quickly access them in a command-line way, e.g.

• g berlin – search Google for "berlin".
• gd london, liverpool – find a route on Google Maps from London to Liverpool.
• db b, m – find the next * Bahn* train connection from Berlin to Munich.

Differences to Serchilo

• The shortcuts are kept in text and JSON files in a public Git(hub) repository (this one). Users can also use their own repository, thus:
  • more freedom.
• trovu's parsing works completely client-side, so no search queries are sent out, only to the actual target site. Thus:
  • faster processing,
  • enhanced privacy.

Step-by-step: How a query is processed

First, lets look at the (example) settings:

• Namespace URL templates: For every namespace, the template defines where to look for its shortcuts. For site namespaces they point to the repository trovu-data. Optionally, for user namespaces they can point anywhere.
  • o: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/trovu/trovu-data/master/shortcuts/o/{%keyword}/{%argumentCount}.txt
  • de: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/trovu/trovu-data/master/shortcuts/de/{%keyword}/{%argumentCount}.txt
  • .de: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/trovu/trovu-data/master/shortcuts/.de/{%keyword}/{%argumentCount}.txt
  • johndoe: https://example.com/trovu/{%keyword}.{%argumentCount}.txt

Now, lets look at a processing of a query"

1. A query comes in, e.g. g foobar.

2. The current namespace setting is o,de,.de,johndoe.

3. The query is parsed – in the client by Javascript – into

   • keyword: g
   • argument: foobar

4. Based on the query and the namespace settings, the client Javascript tries to fetch 4 URLs:

   • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/trovu/trovu/master/shortcuts/.de/g/1.txt
   • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/trovu/trovu/master/shortcuts/de/g/1.txt
   • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/trovu/trovu/master/shortcuts/o/g/1.txt
   • https://example.com/trovu/g.1.txt

5. From the fetches that succeeded, the results are evaluated in namespace order.

6. Since already the first text file exists, its URL is used for further processing

   • https://www.google.de/search?hl={$language}&q={%query}&ie=utf-8

7. The {$language} placeholder is being replaced with the variable de.

8. The {%query} placeholder is being replaced with the query argument foobar.

9. A redirect to the URL is made.

Repositories

trovu-data

This repository contains all the data, e.g.

• shortcuts
• mappings (later)

Fork this repository to add or edit shortcuts (and send then a pull request).

trovu-web

This repository contains the web frontend.

trovu-android / trovu-ios / trovu-gtk

Future plans. (Can be picked up by anyone.)

Demo

https://trovu.net/