Description
~~~~~~~~~~~
The SFVFILTER.dll file is a File filter for use with Newsbin Pro.

It can handle two different file types:
	.sfv files as often used for checking completeness of posts
	.csv files as often used in picture groups for defining wants

It is used by any of the following methods from the Newsbin user Interface:
  *  Using the "Load Plugin Data" option on the Newsbin File menu
  *  Dragging the .sfv file to the newsbin Post List or Download List
  *  Using the "Process with Plugin" option on the right-click menu in the
	 Downloaded Files list.

In all cases, the plugin will read the list of files specified inside the SFV file,
and then scan the Post list to see if they can be found in the Post List.  If they
are found then the files are added to the Download List.  In the case of .csv files
an additional check is carried out that the post is roughtly the same size (allowing
for encoding overheads) as the entry from the .csv file.  This is because names tend
to get re-used in picture groups where .csv files are commonly used so it tries
to limit any selection to those that are at least of roughly the correct size.

If you use the drag-and-drop method, then you can also drag a directory to be used
by this plugin.  It will scan the directory for all .sfv/.csv files found and
process them in turn.  The way this is implemented relies on a "quirk" of the way 
the current version of the interface is defined, and it is possible that support 
for this might need to be withdrawn at a future date if the plugin interface is changed.
In the meantime it allows for user feedback to be provided on the usefulness of this 
feature so that it can be used to help influence future directions for the development
of the plugin interface.

RELEASE NOTES
     1.  At the moment if you want to use the "directory dropping" feature the directory
         that you drop has to have a name that terminates with .sfv or .csv.  I added
         this restriction to help with making sure that the SFVFILTER plugin does not
         get in the way of other plugins that handle other extensions.

     2.  In the current 4.33 beta releases, if the file that you try and use is located
         in a folder that might look like a group name or an abbreviated group name then
         the plugin will not be called and you will either incorrectly get a pop up 
         displaying "No Plugin to Process this File type" or a message will be displayed
         in the status tab of the form "MSG=MF_PT - Plugin Failed to open File: XXXXXX" 
         where XXXXX is your filename.

     3.	 If using 4.3.3 betas, then there is currently a bug where an attempt to load
         a file can fail if the file is in a directory whose name looks like a group 
         name or an abreviated group name  (e.g. "a.b.dvd" or "alt.binaries.dvd").  the
         symptom is that you get a message in the Status tab about being unable to open
         the file in question.

Pre-Requisites
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Newsbin Pro version 4.3.2 or later.

   
Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Make sure that Newsbin is not currently running
* Copy the SFVFILTER.dll file into the PLUGIN folder at the Newsbin install location.
* If you are running Windows XP and had an earlier release of the SFVFILTER.dll file
  installed then it can be advisable to reboot your machine in case XP has cached the
   dll (although in most cases you will get away without the reboot).

That is it - the next time Newsbin is started the Plugin will be picked up by Newsbin.
You can verify if it has been picked up by looking under Preferences->Plugins to see
if the SFVFILTER plugin is listed.

History
~~~~~~~
01 July 2004    1.0.0       Released to IRC channel for use with Newsbin 4.32B3 or later

05 July 2004    1.0.1       Updated to work with Newsbin 4.3.2B7
                            Released to Newsbin beta test area of forum

08 July 2004    1.0.2       Reworked some code for speed.
                            Tightened up matching to reject filenames embedded in longer ones.

17 July 2004	1.0.3       Added support for .csv files
                            Added support for drag-and-drop of directories
                            Added size checks that the file found in the post list is a
                            rough match on the size from the .csv  files

10 Sept 2004    1.0.4       Fixes to logging in diagnostic version
                            Fixed problem with size check for SFV files (always failed)