While DocFetcher Pro features many improvements over DocFetcher, a number of things from the latter are currently missing or have been removed altogether for one reason or another. This is covered on this page.
As DocFetcher Server is based on DocFetcher Pro, if a feature is missing in DocFetcher Pro, then it can be assumed to be missing in DocFetcher Server also.
Removed Functionality
No 32-bit support: Unlike DocFetcher, DocFetcher Pro cannot be run on 32-bit operating systems. Only 64-bit operating systems are supported. If you’re not sure whether your operating system is 32-bit or 64-bit, try running the DocFetcher Pro demo. Like the full version, the demo only runs on 64-bit operating systems.
Details: The main reason why 32-bit support was dropped is that the most recent versions of SWT, the GUI library used by DocFetcher and DocFetcher Pro, no longer support 32-bit operating systems. Thus DocFetcher Pro cannot support them either without clinging to old SWT versions.
Linux: No GTK 2 support: Unlike DocFetcher, DocFetcher Pro does not support GTK 2, only GTK 3.
Details: The most recent versions of SWT no longer support GTK 2.
No single portable version for all platforms: Unlike with DocFetcher, there’s no single portable version of DocFetcher Pro that can be run on all supported operating systems. Instead, there’s a separate portable version for each operating system.
Details: All DocFetcher Pro versions come bundled with an internal Java runtime, and each Java runtime only runs on a single platform. Thus, each DocFetcher Pro version also only runs on a single platform.
No system tray support: Unlike DocFetcher, DocFetcher Pro does not support being minimized into the system tray and disappearing from the taskbar.
Details: This feature was originally implemented to save space in ancient taskbars like the one from Windows XP, where a single program would typically take up a significant amount of space. In modern taskbars, this is usually no longer the case, so DocFetcher’s “hide in system tray” feature is no longer useful, and only makes people forget to properly close the program when shutting down the operating system. In particular, if the operating system is shut down while the program is in the middle of indexing, this may leave behind a broken index.
No multi-user support, shared indexes or custom index locations: DocFetcher has a misc/paths.txt file that allows customizing the location of the indexes. This makes it possible to share indexes among multiple DocFetcher instances and thus allows multiple users to use the same indexes. In DocFetcher Pro, the misc/paths.txt file is gone without replacement, so it’s not possible to customize index locations and/or share indexes. The need for multi-user support is addressed by DocFetcher Server. Also, if you really need to relocate the indexes for some reason (e.g., lack of disk space), you can move around the portable versions of DocFetcher Pro, where the indexes are inside the program folder. This also applies to DocFetcher Server.
Details: DocFetcher was originally not designed for multiple users, and support for this was only tacked on later as an afterthought. Accordingly, DocFetcher’s multi-user support is known to suffer from all kinds of problems: Cumbersome setup, performance issues, bugs and crashes. A proper web interface is how any sane person would implement it, and that’s what DocFetcher Server is all about.
No support for multiple program instances: If you try to start a new DocFetcher instance while another one is still running, a confirmation dialog will ask you whether you really want to do that. In DocFetcher Pro on the other hand, only a warning message is shown, with no option to start a new program instance.
Details: DocFetcher was never designed to support multiple instances running simultaneously and accessing the same program files. Nevertheless, it allows this to happen, at the risk of file corruption and other bugs. In contrast, DocFetcher Pro prohibits multiple instances for the sake of program stability. In the future, DocFetcher Pro may allow spawning multiple program windows in a safe manner. At present, the closest workaround available is to use multiple separate copies of the non-portable and/or portable versions of DocFetcher Pro.
No Python API: DocFetcher has a Python-based search API to programmatically run searches and retrieve results. This API is not available in DocFetcher Pro, and there is also no replacement.
Details: This feature was axed due to the number of people actually using it probably being tiny.
Currently Missing Functionality
No global hotkey: At present, DocFetcher Pro does not have a global hotkey (such as Ctrl + F8) to move the program window to the top above all other program windows. However, it is possible to emulate the global hotkey with the help of additional software. For instructions, see the question “Can you bring back the global hotkey from DocFetcher?” on the DocFetcher Pro FAQ.
Details: The global hotkey was removed because it is known to cause program instability. It may be added in the future if the instability issue can be resolved.
No support for SFX archives: Unlike DocFetcher, DocFetcher Pro currently does not support self-extracting archives, also known as SFX archives. These are basically executable archive files that can unpack themselves. DocFetcher Pro may support SFX archives at some point in the future.
Details: All of DocFetcher Pro, including its immensely complicated indexing algorithm, was rewritten from scratch for the 1.0 release. In the end, there was not enough time left to also reimplement the handling of SFX archives.
No “List Documents” action in Search Scope pane: In DocFetcher, the “List Documents” action in the context menu of the Search Scope pane lists all indexed documents in a selected folder. In DocFetcher Pro, this action is currently unavailable.
Details: Near the end of the DocFetcher Pro 1.0 release, there wasn’t enough time to implement this relatively minor feature.