General remarks: This page and its subpages (see below) are intended to give those already familiar with DocFetcher an overview of all the important differences between DocFetcher on one hand and DocFetcher Pro and DocFetcher Server on the other hand. There’s going to be a lot of ground to cover, which can make for somewhat dry reading, so consider complementing this tour with the free demo of DocFetcher Pro or DocFetcher Server.
Compatibility note: With DocFetcher Pro being a full rewrite of DocFetcher, and DocFetcher Server being based on DocFetcher Pro, the structure of the internal files was completely overhauled and modernized. As a consequence, the internal files of DocFetcher on one hand and DocFetcher Pro and DocFetcher Server on the other hand are mutually incompatible. In particular, copying index files from DocFetcher to DocFetcher Pro or DocFetcher Server will not work. — You will have to rebuild all your indexes instead. That being said, DocFetcher, DocFetcher Pro and DocFetcher Server can all be installed and run in parallel without problems.
Quick rundown of biggest improvements: The following is a quick rundown of the biggest improvements in DocFetcher Pro and DocFetcher Server. The subpages further below go into more detail on each item, as well as on other improvements not listed here. In the following, certain features are marked with a Server text box to indicate that they are currently only available in DocFetcher Pro, not in DocFetcher Server, due to the fact that the latter hasn’t fully caught up with the former yet.
- Bundled Java runtime: An internal Java runtime is included, so installing Java is no longer needed. Details.
- Overhaul of pattern table: On the indexing dialog, the table containing file inclusion and exclusion rules has been overhauled. In particular, there is now an inclusion rule, and you can use the simpler wildcards
*and?instead of regular expressions to match files and folders. Details. - Loading and saving indexing settings: On the indexing dialog, the settings can be saved and loaded, and you can change the default settings. This is useful if you’re dealing with a lot of inclusion and exclusion rules. Details. Server
- FB2 and Mobipocket support: DocFetcher Pro and DocFetcher Server can read FB2 and Mobipocket files, with file extensions “fb2”, “fbz”, “fb2.zip” and “mobi”. See here and here for details.
- 7z archive support for the current v0.4 format: DocFetcher Pro and DocFetcher Server can read 7z archives in the current v0.4 format, which is used by 7-Zip since 2014. DocFetcher can only read 7z archives up to the older v0.3 format. Details.
- Indexing folder and archive names: DocFetcher Pro and DocFetcher Server index folder and archive names, so folders and archives will show up in the search results. Details.
- MacOS daemon: In contrast to the DocFetcher daemon, the DocFetcher Pro daemon also supports macOS. The daemons provide automatic index updating while the main program isn’t running. In DocFetcher Server, no daemon is needed since the server is expected to run continuously. Details. Server
- CSV export: The table of indexing errors, i.e., the files DocFetcher Pro failed to read during indexing, can be exported to a CSV file. Likewise, the search results can be exported to a CSV file. See here and here for details. Server
- Filter settings are remembered: The settings of the left-hand filter controls, e.g., the checkbox states in the Search Scope pane, are remembered across program sessions. Details.
- Custom types: Define your own file types for filtering: The Document Types pane, where you can filter the search results by file type, now has companion pane called Custom Types, which is basically a customizable version of the Document Types pane. Details. Server
- Improved Outlook support: Outlook support was improved in a number of ways:
- OST file support.
- Batch indexing of multiple (hundreds?) of PST and OST files.
- PST and OST files can be indexed even when compressed.
- Indexing emails that have only an HTML body and no plain text body.
- Indexing compressed email attachments (e.g., zip files).
- In the email preview: An attachments bar at the bottom to open and save attachments.