[NTLK] Looking for Nethopper's 'HTTP' protocol plugin

[Grant Hutchinson]

> On Feb 21, 2025, at 10:27 PM, Dan <dan at dbdigitalweb.com> wrote:
> 
>> What version of NetHopper are you using?
> 
> NetHopper version is 3.2 which I think is the latest?

Yep, that’s the latest.

I installed 3.2 and Padilla’s NHPatch (which you definitely need for servers with multiple domains.

> I tried installing Daniel Padilla's patch and while it installed I get "An error occurred
> activating the package ZHPatch:DPR. It may not work with this system." (Part 0 type auto)

This sounds like a package caching issue. I’ve had the same error when I’ve switching between networking cards and haven’t disabled an unused driver.

It might be cleared up by freezing some packages you’re not currently using and rebooting your Newton.

> Even just starting it I get "Downloading this document requires the 'http' Protocol plugin, which is not installed. Please check the AllPen plug-in page, http://www.allpen.com/plugin/, for more information."
> 
> Of course the site is long gone.

And their really weren’t more than a couple of plugins anyways ... and they‘re on UNNA.

I am running into a similar error with some sites, but not others. I think this might have to do with the header information being sent by the web server prior to sending the HTML.

For example, I can access newtontalk.net and textfiles.com using NetHopper site with any issues.

Both of these servers send a “Content-Type: text/html” header, which is about as basic as you can get.

But when I try newtonfaq.com (which is hosted on GitHub) or frogfind.com, I get this error:

“Downloading this document requires the Data Handler plugin of type text/html; charset=utf-8”, which is not currently installed.”

Both of these sites send a “Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8” header that NetHopper is choking on.

I think the “plugin” mentioned in the error message isn’t really the problem. The error is simply referring to the fact that NetHopper can’t figure out how to parse whatever data is coming back from the server, in this case a Content-Type that isn’t specifically defined as “text/html”.

One solution to this might be to take Padilla’s source code for the NHPatch and somehow adapt it to treat all Content-Type headers as “text/html”.

Another solution is to use Courier or Newt’s Cape instead of NetHopper. :)

g.

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Grant Hutchinson
NewtonTalk List Dad & Web Custodian