Use DockBrowser to bypass the 'Connect to Server' dialog

Jul 21, '03 08:54:00AM

Contributed by: Diggory

If you find the "Connect To Server" dialog a little slow for connecting to AppleShare servers in the Jaguar Finder, then you might like DockBrowser (screenshot). DockBrowser is another useful piece of Apple sample code. It sits in your dock and shows the number of AppleShare servers on your LAN in a Mail-Style badge (at least all of them that advertise their service through Rendezvous).

To quickly connect to any server, just control-click on the dock icon to reveal the app's pop-up menu, which shows a list of the available servers, and select one to connect to it. Because the app is not searching for servers (it already knows their addresses), it is much faster than the "Connect" dialog. In the app's preferences, make sure you have "afpovertcp" selected, otherwise you will be shown all Rendezvous webservers on your LAN.

You can download the source code directly from Apple, and note that the Developer Tools are required to compile the application - I would post the app itself, however I'm not sure about the legality of that.

[robg adds: I tried compiling on my desktop G4, and it failed with two errors. I then copied the project over to my G4 laptop, and it built successfully. The two machines are running the same build of OS X (6L60 of 10.2.6) with the same version of the Dev Tools, so I'm not sure what's up ... but the app ran just fine once I moved it back to the desktop after compiling on the laptop. Update: Two friends, one on a desktop, one on a laptop. Desktop user: no luck, laptop user: compiled. That's two compiles on the laptops, zero compiles on the desktops ... odd!]

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