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Reference Manual |
HOW TO use wildcards in URLs.
NAT32 supports the use of the '*' and '@' characters as wildcards in URLs passed to the web command or entered in the "View a Web Page" dialog box:
A wildcard character can appear any number of times anywhere in the typed URL. A temporary file url.htm is first generated, containing a series of links produced by substituting all digits in the range [0..9] for each '*' encountered in the URL, and all letters in the range [a..z] for each '@' encountered in the URL. That file is subsequently displayed.
Examples:
The URL http://www.nat32.com/image*.jpg would expand to 10 references to the following images:
http://www.nat32.com/image0.jpgThe displayed page would then consist of those 10 images.
http://www.nat32.com/image1.jpg
...
http://www.nat32.com/image9.jpg
The URL http://www.nat32.com/file@.htm would expand to 26 links to the following files:
http://www.nat32.com/filea.htmThe displayed page would then consist of a set of 26 links that can be clicked to be viewed.
http://www.nat32.com/fileb.htm
...
http://www.nat32.com/filez.htm
Because wildcard expansion is recursive, specifying * once will generate 10 references, twice will generate 100 references, and so on. Overuse of wildcards within image links will result in heavy network traffic.
The wildcard feature is particularly useful when combined with
image searches.
Right-clicking an image to display the IE Context Menu and then selecting
"Similar pages..." displays a JavaScript prompt that lets you insert wildcard
characters where desired. Clicking OK will then download all available files
that match the wildcard specification.
SEE ALSO
web