obtaining posts in a group in text file format

[thegeezer3]

Hi to help automate some of my regular searches Id like to be able to write a few scripts that will search certain groups post listings. To do so requires the listings to be in text format or in a format in which i can convert to .txt. I dont want to to have to do any copy pasting manually.

Ive already checke grabbits download folder for listings but its in its own format whihc i cant read nor convert. Does anyone have any knowledge of this? is it possible to connect directly to my providers servers and simply request this via a command line etc?

[gxs]

NewsRover allows you to "Save message text as", I'd assume some free readers do something similar.

Sorry, I'm unsure what you want to do besides save message text.

[thegeezer3]

I want to basically to be able to get a list/index of all the articles in a group (i dont want to donwload the binary attachments) just the subject author message id etc in a text editable format. Ill check out news rover! thanks for the tip

[gxs]

So the problem is size, most newsreaders allow for message rules, create a new rule that filters Yenc posts? Select all then save as? Problems include text messages uploaded as Yenc, reply to a binary post for instance will have "Yenc" in the subject line...A size filter will sort through the messages but you still need to download ALL messages to enact the filter...

[Hecks]

Hi to help automate some of my regular searches Id like to be able to write a few scripts that will search certain groups post listings. To do so requires the listings to be in text format or in a format in which i can convert to .txt. I dont want to to have to do any copy pasting manually.

Ive already checke grabbits download folder for listings but its in its own format whihc i cant read nor convert. Does anyone have any knowledge of this? is it possible to connect directly to my providers servers and simply request this via a command line etc?

A number of newsreaders allow you to search downloaded headers intelligently from within the app, that would be your best bet methinks - Newsleecher, for example, which also has SuperSearch of course with which you can bookmark searches. Otherwise why not just script searches of an index site like Binsearch? It's quite easy to do, is very quick and means you don't have to keep a crapload of useless header data on your local drive.

As for direct server-side search: use Xpat (if your NSP supports it, Giganews doesn't for example). This is usually VERY slow though, and isn't server-friendly so I can't really recommend it.