What is a "plice"
The word "PLICE" comes from the merger of the words "Page" &"sLICE".
It indicates every portion of HTML source file in a position to reproduce functionally and graphically what the user wishes to extrapolate from a public web page. Some examples:

A diagram updated in real time	Access to the web mail
Real time updated financial table
Access to a search engine

Operating handbook

WebBiter is the first and the only application available today able to manage plices.
In order to understand how it works it is necessary to consider the following points:

1. Installation
   
2. Building of a Web Portal
   
3. Viewing
   
4. Uninstallation

• The first 2 letters (Wb) indicate that it is a WebBiter executable file.
• The following 2 letters after the first character "_" indicate the language (EN = English, Italian IT =, etc.).
• The third following letter after character "_" indicates the type of version (to = alpha; b = beta; v = stable version).
• The 2 final figures indicate the order of the version

As an example, Wb_ITa12.exe represent the version alpha 1.2 in Italian. The stable version of WebBiter will contain an automatic checking system of the latest programme updates currently available.

Editor & Plug-in Installation
While launching the executable program the installation starts automatically. It installs the Editor and the Plug-in of the application in two different phases. Therefore, the user is called to accept the WebBiter licence condition of use for 2 times during this phase.

While the Plug-in is transparent for the user, the Editor generates an icon on the desktop (Picture 1) with which one can get access to the application.

Picture 1

The installation generates two folders: WebBiter Editor and WebBiter Plug-in inside of which are present all the necessary files to make WebBiter work correctly.

Multilanguage Version
From the following site it is possible to download the official Multilanguage versions available at the moment.

Users can however localize their own version by editing the file "lang.txt" located inside of the folder WebBiter Editor. In the lang.txt file to every row corresponds an indication in a certain language (command, label, message) used in the program.
Every line is structured in two parts (Picture 2): the first represents what gets visualized by the application,
the second one, starting from the character #, indicates its meaning and is expressed in English.
The user who wants to translate the text components of WebBiter must simply modify the first part of every row leaving unchanged what is brought back after the character # (including character #).

Picture 2

ATTENTION. It is recommended to save a back up copy of the initial lang.txt file as every erroneous configuration of the file will involve an incorrect functioning of WebBiter.
Together with the first stable version of the program will also be made available on this site a tool for the automatic generation of lang.txt files coming from input fields in a form available for the users.


2. Building a Portal

The Editor Window
In the window that appears to the user (Picture 3) we can see a graph and a matrix made of 3 x 3 cells. The window contains moreover a main menu with the following items: File, Window, ?.

Picture 3

To the item File correspond the sub items (Picture 4):

• New - in order to activate a new session of WebBiter editing
• Open - in order to open .plc files previously saved to eventually modify their contents
• Save - in order to save the .plc files and keep their original name
• Save as ... - in order to save files to which no name has been assigned yet or to change their name
• Options - in order to set up the opening page of the browser inside the application
• Exit - in order to exit the WebBiter Editor.

While going out from the Editor, the application always asks to save the running job, even if it is empty or if no operation has been carried out yet after the last save.

Picture 4

To the item Window belong these sub items (Picture 5):

• Index - not active at the moment
• Update - it allows to update all contents inside of the cells (for further information please see command update inside the configuration menu into a single cell)
• Properties - not active at the moment

Picture 5

To the item ? belong the sub items (Picture 6):

• Help - it allows to connect to the current page of WebBiter web site in which gets constantly updated the application handbook
• Information about WebBiter - that opens a window from which it is possible to determine the version of WebBiter currently installed.

Picture 6

NOTE - the main item is visible only when an internet connection is active. Its lacked visualization indicates that the user is not connected to the net and that therefore it will not be possible to carry out some WebBiter configuration operations.

To activate the inner browser
In the initial matrix made of 3 x 3 cells suggested by WebBiter, can be transferred those portions of public web sites that the user considers of interest.
In order to activate the inner browser to the application, bring the mouse cursor in correspondence of the desired cell: moving the mouse over the matrix allows the below cell's border to change its colour from grey to black (Picture 7).
By clicking with the right key of the mouse inside the matrix; will appear the configuration menu of the cell which border is highlighted in black (Picture 7).

Picture 7

The Plice item of the configuration menu of the cell concurs to open the browser of the application in one new Windows's window (Picture 8). Although the menu for the browser management is simplified to be able to adapt to WebBiter needs; its capacity of rendering the web pages is identical to that one installed on one's own PC.

Picture 8

We can define the following items:

• The field of Input for adding the Internet address (Picture 9)
• The button Open to open any browser readable file from the local hard disk (Picture 10)
• The button to Start navigating on the selected internet address (such button has the same function of the enter key of the keyboard) (Picture 11)
• The button to Stop the navigation (Picture 12)
• The buttons to go Backwards (Picture 13) or Forward (Picture 14) in the history list of the visited URLs

Picture 9

The initial page shown by the WebBiter browser is configurable by the user via the Options submenu of the file item of the main menu of the Editor (Picture 15).

Picture 15

With the exception of Internet Explorer, during navigation it is not possible while using the Webbiter browser to activate the functions by clicking on the mouse right key which in this case are exclusively dedicated to the application functions.

Selecting the Plice
By using the browser inside of the WebBiter application, the user catches up the web page from which he/she wants to extrapolate his portion of interest (plice). The portion that can be extrapolated by WebBiter must be "consistent" it means that it must build up a branch or one leaf of the HTML structure of the web page in question.
WebBiter characterizes the consistent portions of HTML code based on the standing point in where the user points the mouse inside of the web page of interest by right clicking on it.

By clicking on the mouse right key the plice location menu opens (Picture 16) that menu contains the following items:

• The Minimum Plice so as to evidence the minimum portion that it is possible to extrapolate starting from the point selected by the user
• Extend - in order to evidence the portion of immediately greater dimension in comparison with the one just selected by the user, that means to pass from the leaf to the branch to which it is connected inside of the HTML Structure of the Page
• Move on the right - in order to pass on the adjacent leaf on the left, when this exists, inside of the HTML structure of the page
• Move on the left - in order to pass to the adjacent leaf on the left, when this exists, inside of structure HTML of the page
• Previous - To return to the selection previously carried out
• Import - in order to transfer the plice with the previous commands inside of the selected cell.

Picture 16

Minimum Plice commands, Expand, Move to the right, Move on the left, Previous, can be activated by pressing the left key of the mouse.
Further to their activation, one can visualize the consistent portion identified by WebBiter in relation to the type of commands that get executed the window for the plice location is gets ckised.

By using in sequence the previous commands, it is possible to determine the optimal web page portion to be transferred in the cell.

The fact of activating the Import commands (Picture 17) with the left key of the mouse, determines the final transfer of the plice selected in the matrix cell and the closing of the WebBiter browser.

Picture 17

NOTE - If the cell is empty, further to the plice command, the WebBiter browser opens on the page defined by the user on the options menu.
If the cell contains already a plice, the opening of the browser in the cell determines the opening of the web page from which the plice has been extracted.

Plice Properties
Every plice possesses properties that the user can modify in order to personalize functionally & graphically the plice. The properties are accessible under Property on the configuration menu of the cell (Picture 18).

Picture 18

Static and Dynamic indicate if a plice will be loaded a single time when the WebBiter Plug-in opens or if the user wishes that the contents get updated regularly.

This property has been thought in order to distinguish plices containing invariable input fields; for example the access to one's own web mail or an electronic module to access the public phone booth), from the ones containing variable information through time (as an example a box related to news or to diagrams/a stock exchange tables updated in real time). The intervals are expressed in minutes.

Every plice is characterized by a background colour coming from the original web page from which it has been extracted. The user can modify the colour by selecting the Personalized button able to activate the colours RGB mask in Windows (Picture 19).

Picture 19

NOTE - the rules of rendering tables of Internet Explorer developed from by Microsoft can make such commands ineffective.

The Description allows the user to characterize the plice with a free text box that will appear also on the index of the .plc page (function still not activated).

• close the Property window
  
• move the cursor over the plice element you want to consider key
  
• right mouse click to open the cell configuration menu
  
• select the Key command (Picture 19)
  

Click on the mouse right key button in order to open the configuration menu of the cell. Select the item Key (Picture 20) of the cell configuration menu.

The carried out selection will come inserted automatically into the Property window and it is not editable by the user. In order to cancel the key; use the button cancel located on the right of the visualisation window.

Picture 20

The alert is an alphanumeric string that the user can define in order to indicate to WebBiter to inform when, during the following updates, the string is found again inside of the variable contents of the plice.
That turns out particularly useful when we let WebBiter work in the background while other applications on the PC are being used at the same time.

Beyond informing with a sound, WebBiter indicates which plice has found the alert string by highlighting it with a red border.

3 options of extraction of the plice can be activated by the user in case some instructions in JavaScript were inside the HTML code of the web page.
The configuration proposed by WebBiter has been demonstrated to be statistically more efficient but sometimes, it is preferable to modify the initial settings to allow the parsing algorithms to work better relatively to the specific plice.

The command update of the configuration menu of the plice allows to verify the ability of extraction of the plice set up by WebBiter.
In the case WebBiter does not succeed to set up the plice of interest, please try to modify the extraction options of the Properties window.

While the sub item update present in the item Window of the main menu determines a plice update (Picture 21) present in matrix, the update item in the configuration window of the plice determines the update of the single plice (Picture 22).

Picture 21

Picture 22

Operations with the Cells
WebBiter shows initially a square matrix of 3x3 cells dimensions. The user can however modify the structure in a topological sense of the matrix adapting it to his/her own requirements in terms of number and dimension of the cells.
The passage of the mouse cursor over a cell determines a colour change from grey to black of the cells border (effect when the mouse is over the cell). By clicking over a cell with the mouse left key the border of the cell turns from black to red.
The possible operations on the matrix can be set up through the current commands in the configuration menu of the cell and are the following:

Commands applicable to the cell indicated by the mouse cursor (see black cell border) (Picture 23):

• Divide in 2 side by side cells
• Divide in 2 overlapping cells
• Insert a line below
• Insert a line over
• Insert a column on the right
• Insert a column on the left
• Eliminate a row (only in case no cell in the row contains a plice. Delete plice(s) before)
• Eliminate a column (only in case no cell in the column contains a plice. Delete plice(s) before)
• Update (carries out an update of the plice by recalling the web page containing it and extrapolating it again).
• Cut (to cancel the plice and to save it in the clipboard)
• Copy (memorises the plice in the clipboard).
• Paste (copies the content of the clipboard in the cell).
• Paste URL (previously opens the WebBiter browser on the address of the web page copied with Copy)
• Cancels (eliminates the plice from the cell).

Picture 23

• Commands applicable to pairs of adjacent cells selected in sequence via the mouse left key (red border). (Picture 24)
• Join (to join cells)

Picture 24

• Commands applicable to any type of twin cells selected in sequence through the left mouse key of (red border) (Picture 25).
• Exchanges (in order to exchange cells, or two plices previously inserted or in order to move a plice from one cell an empty one).

Picture 25

NOTE - the management commands of the matrix can be executed also in presence of a plice inside but with the following warnings:

• it is not possible to join two cells if both contain a plice: at least one of them must be cancelled.
• it is not possible to eliminate a row or a column if a single cell contains at least a plice in a single cell: the plices must be cancelled respectively in the row or the column that needs to be cancelled.

Rescue of the .plc files
After having defined the plices and having transferred them in the matrix duly adapted topologically, the user who wishes to save his own portal, must use the commands "Save" or "Save as... " (Picture 26) shown under the item "File" of the main menu.
The proprietary files generated by WebBiter have a plc extension and can be saved anywhere into fixed or removable disks.
The installation of the WebBiter Plug-in allows Internet Explorer to interpret the .plc files as HTML standard files type.

Picture 26

3. Visualization

To visualize the .plc files
.plc files type represent the result of the configuration, of the user, of a personal portal generated by WebBiter.

The visualization of the .plc files happens using Internet Explorer installed on one's PC (and not the browser in WebBiter, that has the only scope of editing the .plc files).

In order to visualize the personal portal, use the open command of Internet Explorer main menu item File and to select the .plc file of interest (Picture 27).

Picture 27

Add to Favourites
Like every standard web page, the portal realized via WebBiter, contained in a local file with a plc extension can be recorded and organized into the favourites by using the commands available in Internet Explorer.

Explorer .plc file as initial page
Like every standard web page, the portal realized via WebBiter, located in a local file with a plc extension, can be defined like an initial page while opening Internet Explorer by using all the available commands on the browser (Picture 28).

Picture 28

4. Uninstallation

Uninstalling WebBiter is carried out by using the Applications Installation programme of the Control Panel
of the Operating System. The user must select and remove the WebBiter Editor and WebBiter Plug-in in the Install/Uninstall applications' folder.