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RSS Feed option: peek inside the torrent


joval

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The only way to determine the size and number of files inside a torrent is to actually download the torrent file and see what is included this is a known fact, but with RSS feeds, all we know is the name/description of the torrent and the link of how to get it, and RSS downloaded torrents only have the name to go on. What I propose is to have an option inside the right-click-menu in the RSS window to "peek" inside the torrent.

Peeking:

To "peek" a torrent, we must have the .torrent file, so the file will be downloaded to a file with the name of the feed as either part of the filename or as a subdirectory within the user defined storage area (or where the torrents are stored by default), so that it is "easy" to find later on. Once the torrent has finished downloading, we can read the torrent file to determine the number of files, their sizes, and the total size of the file(s) within the torrent. We also get the tracker(s), and by querying them we can get seed/peer information. In order to keep querying the trackers periodically, a new Status: "Peeking" could be created for all the torrents in this state that would be like being in the Downloading State, but no information would be sent to the tracker, no connections would be attempted and no information sent to the peers. As far as the tracker was concerned, we would be a peer with zero pieced available.

A new column indicating the status of the torrent in the RSS window will be needed to show the status of each item:

- unknown: if the torrent has not yet been peeked

- error: if there happens to be an error while downloading the torrent

- querying: while waiting for the tracker to reply our information requests

- ready: the tracker replied with requested info and the information is valid

- stale: if after the information requested is shown, there happens to be an error/timeout with the tracker(s) and the information is out-of-date.

- downloading: if the torrent is currently being downloaded

- downloaded: if the torrent has finished downloading and reached seeding goal.

If the user chooses to download the torrent from the RSS window, the action of what to do next would depend on the entry's status:

- if 'unknown', download torrent from RSS link, read the file and place in download queue (actual process)

- if 'error', treat as 'unknown'

- if 'querying', allow query to finish, update Peeking status, and change from Peeking to Downloading

- if 'ready' or 'stale', change status from Peeking to Downloading

- if 'downloading' or 'downloaded', ignore.

With all this information, we can improve RSS filters by optionally deferring automatic RSS downloading until we can get this additional information, and download the torrent if:

- the number of files inside the torrent is at greater than Y files, or less than Y files, or within a user defined range X and Y files; or

- the total size of the torrent is greater than Y KB|MB|GB|TB, or less than Y KB|MB|GB|TB, or within a user defined range X and Y KB|MB|GB|TB,

Each RSS Feed could have a "peeking enabled/disabled" option (disabled by default), that with each rss-update event and the status of an entry in the RSS feed were "unknown" the torrent would be downloaded (overwriting any existing file with the same name) and added to the Peeking Queue in order to obtain the additional information and make it available.

Each RSS Feed could also have a "cleanup enabled/disabled" option (enabled by default), that with each rss-update event, if a torrent were removed from the feed, the downloaded torrent file could be deleted from the temporary storage directory.

Whenever the user right clicks on a feed, the following action must be added: "Purge all torrents."

This option would

a) erase all downloaded torrent files from temporary storage;

B) remove "peeked" torrents from RAM;

c) reset the status of all torrents in the selected feed to unknown.

Also, the option "Purge Torrent" must be added to the right click menu when a torrent is selected in the RSS window, that would reset the status of the item to 'unknown' and delete the downloaded torrent file if it exists.

Having all this information available could be a real time saver, since some torrent names/descriptions don't give you an idea of the size, and number of files inside, and more detailed information is generally only available on the RSS website, and generally it would require several clicks the get the information inside the torrent.

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Having the dialog open when adding torrents is the default action, and I also have not changed this in case I need to change the destination directory, label, or want to select files from those available.

I am not asking to see a list of files, but a total. I want to know if the torrent contains 1 file or many and how many before I download it. I also would like to know what the size is, this way, if I can better determine where to place the data, since I generally setup uTorrent to stop seeding after a 3:1 ratio, but if the torrent is really "hot" I keep it alive for several months, so knowing the size would help me determine the best place to store it.

I took my time writing this feature request, because I think having more information is generally better, and with this "feature" I would not have to download a torrent 2 or more times If I need more information but cannot afford to download the torrent due to limited disk space.

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Depending on the layout of your feed and the feed provider you don't necessarily have to do either (there's a tag for filesize). BUT what you're really asking for is to make uTorrent a more verbose feed reader. It's just a downloader... sure the RSS element in uT could use some polishing (as it has every version since addition), but it takes time and a dearth of OTHER things to be done for it to get a look.

I'm not understanding your limitation on the current setup... unless you want it all to happen without user intervention. You can download a torrent WITHOUT it downloading automatically. Pre-caching the torrent file is kind of counter-intuitive for something you usually set-and-forget or download from direct links (magnet or URL via Ctrl-U).

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I'm for publicizing a(n) "Bittorrent RSS Feed" standard then... with specific keys that trackers/admins can append to their schema to include in their data they return... lol, but I'd imagine a prominent tracker software would first have to recognize/support this before a client can try to push for a standard to keep all this data in the feed.

Any takers? I know DWK used to do tracker development.. maybe someone knows people with opentracker who're interested in making this work.

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