+ (Plus) sign separator instead %20

[dfarfan]

Hi,

I want to implement search templates using the + (plus) sign to separate arguments instead of the default %20:

An example:

Code: Select all

http://www.metacritic.com/search/movie/black%20swan/results

This don't give the results i want

Code: Select all

http://www.metacritic.com/search/movie/black+swan/results

This gives the result i want

Both * and %s uses the %20 separator.

Any way to replace the %20 with a + sign?

Thanks in advance.

[manfred]

Unfortunately it is not possible to change the separator at the moment. I forwarded your suggestion to the responsible developer.

In the meanwhile, a possible workaround is to create an Apple Script and use InstantSend or the Enter Text functionality of LaunchBar.
An example how the Apple Script could look like:

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on handle_string(searchQuery)
   
   set _url to "http://www.metacritic.com/search/movie/" & ReplaceBlanks(searchQuery) & "/results"
   open location _url
   
end handle_string


on ReplaceBlanks(theString)
   set current_Delimiters to text item delimiters of AppleScript
   set AppleScript's text item delimiters to " "
   set sList to every text item of theString
   set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "+"
   set newString to sList as string
   set AppleScript's text item delimiters to current_Delimiters
   return newString
end ReplaceBlanks

[dfarfan]

Thank you very much for the quick response. I'll give a try to your script.

I hope this will get implemented soon (maybe * for %20, and %s for +)

[manfred]

After some research I found a better solution
It is a little bit tricky to create the search string, but you do not need the plus separator at all!

This search string works:

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post-http://www.metacritic.com/search?search_filter=movie&search_term=*

[dfarfan]

Thank you very much, it's works on Metacritic, but that was an example, there are many sites that uses + instead of %20, and not all sites support POSTing the request.

Anyway, great solution!

[dashard]

The last reply to this query was almost 4 years ago, and the solution of using "post-http://..." no longer seems to work:

LaunchBar can’t open “post-http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/xxxxxxx” because Internet addresses starting with “post-http:” are not recognized by OS X.

Any other ideas? Seems like some sort of prefix or flag for the wildcard (as suggested in a previous comment) would do the trick nicely.

FWIW, ! would actually go for *+* as a wildcard indicating a + sign, and *-* indicating a dash, etc. Simple solitary * would behave as always, with the escaped space character.