To LUGNET HomepageTo LUGNET News HomepageTo LUGNET Guide Homepage
 Help on Searching
 
Post new message to lugnet.market.shippingOpen lugnet.market.shipping in your NNTP NewsreaderTo LUGNET News Traffic PageSign In (Members)
 Marketplace / Shipping / 588
587  |  589
Subject: 
Lego use for Package Tracking Firefox Extension
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general, lugnet.db.inv, lugnet.market.shipping
Date: 
Fri, 16 Mar 2007 01:57:10 GMT
Viewed: 
36 times
  
I was browsing the extensions gallery for the Mozilla Firefox browser when I
came across something interesting.  There was an extension that would add a
"track package" option to the right-click menu, automatically recognizing what
courier the tracking number was from.  As I order things from time to time
(mainly free(!) samples of electronics parts), I saw the usefulness of it.  I
posted this to .market.shipping because of its general usefulness.  However,
upon examining it, I came across another use: looking up Lego part numbers.  The
extension uses Regular Expressions
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions) to recognize the patterns of
different couriers' tracking numbers.  I realized that you could just as easily
get it to recognize set and part numbers, and query Peeron for them.

Here's how: (if you don't understand Regular Expressions, don't worry - you can
just copy it down)

(note: all quoted sections are to avoid ambiguity - take out the quotes when you
type it)

*if you don't have Firefox -- get it! (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/)
Trust me - once you use it for a little while, you'll never want to go back to
IE (shudder!)
*install the Track Package Extension
(http://trackpackageextension.com/latest.php)
*restart Firefox
*go to Tools|Addons (menu)
*find Track Package, and click "options"
*Click the Regex tab, and then click "Add new Regex"
*a set of empty textboxes will appear; type "Peeron General" in the leftmost
one, and "[0-9]{1,7}(-[0-9]{1,2}){0,1}" in the rightmost one.  This sets it up
to recognize set numbers
*click "Add new Regex" once more, this time entering "Peeron Parts" and
"x{0,1}[0-9]{1,5}([0-9]{0,3}|[(px)|(cx)|c|b|a|p|(bpx)|(apx)|(old)|(oldpx)|(pt([a-z]{0,1}))[0-9]{0,3}[a-z]{0,1}"
respectively.
*almost done; click the "URL" tab, then click "Add new URL" twice.  Two rows of
textboxes appear.
*in the first row, type "Peeron General" (important: make sure this is exactly
the same as what you typed on the other tab), then
"http://peeron.com/cgi-bin/invcgis/psearch?query=", and finally "&limit=none"
*in the second row, type "Peeron Parts", then
"http://peeron.com/cgi-bin/invcgis/psearch?query=", and finally "&limit=parts"

*click OK, and you're done!

Now, whenever you see a Lego part or set number, rather than looking up Peeron
and typing it in, etc., just highlight the number (without #, if applicable),
right-click, and select "track package".  Peeron will open, and bring up the
results/info page on the set or part.

For the record, I am no Regular Expressions expert, and if someone sees a flaw
in my regexp, or a way to make it better, please reply here with your
correction.  However, it has worked for me so far.

I hope you all find this a handy trick, and thanks for taking the time to read
this (rather long) post ;).

~Jeffery MacEachern



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Lego use for Package Tracking Firefox Extension
 
(...) Or you could just install the Peeron Firefox extension: (URL) not updated for Firefox 2 though :() ROSCO (18 years ago, 16-Mar-07, to lugnet.general, lugnet.db.inv, lugnet.market.shipping)

4 Messages in This Thread:

Entire Thread on One Page:
Nested:  All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:  All | Brief | Compact
    

Custom Search

©2005 LUGNET. All rights reserved. - hosted by steinbruch.info GbR