Unzipping archive from Ruby (Mac and Windows)

tfdesign · 8 Nov 2010, 16:32

by default, on Mac, you cannot view .zip files as directories

I should think so too! How many PC's get infected by zips opening without permission? My sister has already had to reinstall her Windows OS because of similar mishaps (she is one of so many who could really know more about what they are doing!)

@unknownuser said:

and searching for installed programs to unzip is ugly and hard to debug/support.

a port of Dezip to Mac would be nice to have

Really? Perhaps I didn't understand you? I just right click on a zipped download and a contextual menu appears with a list of options to choose from (including the built-in dearchiving software, which is activated by double clicking a zipped file anyway). I hardly call that ugly.

As for a decent zip utility, I thoroughly recommend Betterzip

BetterZip 5 - MacItBetter

BetterZip: the most advanced zip and rar archiver for file compression, encryption. BetterZip makes it easy to work with zip, rar, 7-zip, tar, and xz files and it helps with opening winmail.dat files on your Mac.

(macitbetter.com)

thomthom · 8 Nov 2010, 17:02

@tfdesign said:

How many PC's get infected by zips opening without permission?

None. Opening up a zip is like opening up a folder - you don't execute any code.

@tfdesign said:

Really? Perhaps I didn't understand you? I just right click on a zipped download and a contextual menu appears with a list of options to choose from (including the built-in dearchiving software, which is activated by double clicking a zipped file anyway). I hardly call that ugly.

We're talking about unzipping via SketchUp Ruby in order to make installing and updating plugins easier. What he referred to as ugly was relying and detecting third party zipping software to do so.

fredo6 · 8 Nov 2010, 17:44

@thomthom said:

Though, if you try to download from SCF you need to be logged in, don't you?

Tom,

Very good remark, full of good sense.

Do you know if there is a way to specify the login on the flyin a request to a page (like http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=29230&hilit=plugin#p254673 )?

fredo

thomthom · 8 Nov 2010, 17:47

You could maybe send a POST message with XMLHttpRequest with login information to SCF's login page. ...though I'm not sure if doing that via XMLHttpRequest will give you a persistent session...

tfdesign · 8 Nov 2010, 17:54

@thomthom said:

@tfdesign said:

How many PC's get infected by zips opening without permission?

None. Opening up a zip is like opening up a folder - you don't execute any code.

That's not what I meant, but nevermind. I understand the context now

@thomthom said:

@tfdesign said:

Really? Perhaps I didn't understand you? I just right click on a zipped download and a contextual menu appears with a list of options to choose from (including the built-in dearchiving software, which is activated by double clicking a zipped file anyway). I hardly call that ugly.

We're talking about unzipping via SketchUp Ruby in order to make installing and updating plugins easier. What he referred to as ugly was relying and detecting third party zipping software to do so.

Okay It is different, but then I hardly use PC's any more, so I'm just used to the Mac way.

fredo6 · 8 Nov 2010, 20:27

@thomthom said:

You could maybe send a POST message with XMLHttpRequest with login information to SCF's login page. ...though I'm not sure if doing that via XMLHttpRequest will give you a persistent session...

Would anybody know:

either the inline syntax in the request (if this is supported), like
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=29230&hilit=plugin#p254673 &user=Fredo6&pwd=mypwd
or the post syntax for the SCF login page?

Thanks

Fredo

Dan Rathbun · 8 Nov 2010, 20:35

What URL do you see if you hover over the SCF Login link.
(I have autologin set in my SCF cookie so I never go thru the login.)

jeff hammond · 8 Nov 2010, 20:44

@dan rathbun said:

What URL do you see if you hover over the SCF Login link.
(I have autologin set in my SCF cookie so I never go thru the login.)

the log in page at scf is this url:

http://forums.sketchucation.com/ucp.php?mode=login

thomthom · 8 Nov 2010, 20:44

It would not be part of the URL - as that would be a GET.

The HTML source for the login:


<form method="post" action="./ucp.php?mode=login" class="headerspace" style="border;dashed 2px #ca0016;margin;auto auto 10px auto;padding;0 10px 10px 10px;width;97%;">
	<p style="font-weight;bold;margin;11px 0 0 0;float;right;padding;3px 5px;"><img src="http://sketchucation.com/forums/styles/prosilver/imageset/help.gif" height="22" width="23" alt="" style="margin-right;5px;" /><a href="http://www.sketchucation.com/scf-contact-page2/" style="font-size;1.1em;">Problems with registering / logging in?</a></p>
	<h3><a href="./ucp.php?mode=login">Login</a>&nbsp; &bull; &nbsp;<a href="./ucp.php?mode=register">Register</a></h3>
		<fieldset class="quick-login">
			<label for="username">Username;</label>&nbsp;<input type="text" name="username" id="username" size="10" class="inputbox" title="Username" />  
			<label for="password">Password;</label>&nbsp;<input type="password" name="password" id="password" size="10" class="inputbox" title="Password" />
			
				| <label for="autologin">Log me on automatically each visit <input type="checkbox" name="autologin" id="autologin" /></label>
			
			<input type="submit" name="login" value="Login" class="button2" />
		</fieldset>
	</form>

The important stuff here is:
<form method="post" action="./ucp.php?mode=login"

This means the POST request must be made to http ://forums.sketchucation.com/ucp.php?mode=login
and you need to set the arguments, "username", "password" and quite possible "login" (login as very often the website software checks the value of the submit button to detect if a form has been used - but that depends on the software)

Dan Rathbun · 8 Nov 2010, 20:46

The form fieldnames on the SCF login page are:
username
password

But there is also a "sid" (security ID) involved. The Admins may not want spambots being able to auto login. Ask Coen.

thomthom · 8 Nov 2010, 20:47

@dan rathbun said:

What URL do you see if you hover over the SCF Login link.
(I have autologin set in my SCF cookie so I never go thru the login.)

HTML forms' submit buttons doesn't display the target URL info. One has to look at the source code.

Dan Rathbun · 8 Nov 2010, 20:49

@thomthom said:

One has to look at the source code.

I know (and I did,) it was a hint. But you cut and pasted the code before I could.

tbd · 8 Nov 2010, 21:41

Fredo6: what do you want to do with SCF download ? maybe we can create a backend that suits your needs better thank going through forum software

fredo6 · 8 Nov 2010, 21:57

@unknownuser said:

Fredo6: what do you want to do with SCF download ? maybe we can create a backend that suits your needs better thank going through forum software

I am investiogating 2 things:

1) Scan the SCF page where a plugin is.
That's sorted out with WebDialog and this will allow to check the current version and date of the plugin. This of course requires some strict syntax convention, for instance in the title, so that it is easy and discriminant to parse the info.
At least, this will tell whether the plugin is up to date or not

2) Download the file (zip or rb) to the local disk in the right place.
I assume that with some syntax convention, it will be possible to locate the URL address of the file.
For this however, this requires that the user is logged in to SCF (as ThomThom judiciously noticed).
Then, if the file URL is obtained, I can:

either invoke the download dialog box via WebDialog
or find out another way to download it
Not sure there is an easy way

Fred

fredo6 · 8 Nov 2010, 22:01

I was WRONG about the Mac unzipping as folder.

But I found out that there is an embedded unzip command, which can be invoked via the Ruby system call system.
see main post for details

I have no clue if this is present on all Macs.

Fredo

PS: just taking the opportunity that I have a Mac at hand to make a few tests about this question of plugin installation, as I usually prefer to release scripts for both environments and users.

jeff hammond · 8 Nov 2010, 23:42

@unknownuser said:

I was WRONG about the Mac unzipping as folder.

But I found out that there is an embedded unzip command, which can be invoked via the Ruby system call system.
see main post for details

I have no clue if this is present on all Macs.

yeah, osx has it's own compressor/expander called Archive Utility.app (located at HD/System/Library/Core Services) which is on all macs (unless for some odd reason, someone decides to delete it).. osx also comes with ruby.

i'd assume that if you can get it working on one mac then it will work on all..

one thing that may cause problems is if the user has changed the default expander to something other than Archive Utility (say Stuffit Expander for instance).. i don't think it would matter but then again, i don't really know.

thomthom · 9 Nov 2010, 08:04

@unknownuser said:

Fredo6: what do you want to do with SCF download ? maybe we can create a backend that suits your needs better thank going through forum software

I wonder - is there many out there at the moment looking at some download/update management system? I've been sketching down ideas for something like this.
Maybe we could brainstorm something together instead of working in solitude on this?

tbd · 9 Nov 2010, 10:31

@thomthom said:

Maybe we could brainstorm something together instead of working in solitude on this?

sure. some public read/invite write access mindmap would be nice. do you know something that we can use for the brainstorm part ?

thomthom · 9 Nov 2010, 11:46

No - I've never used such tools. Would be good to find one.
All I have at the moment are some text document and yellow stickers-notes.

Dan Rathbun · 9 Nov 2010, 19:43

What about anonymous FTP download ?

Would the user need to manually specify the save path ?