Magnet URI bug?

[ejjrooom 0]

I'm using ApexDC++ 64-bit 1.5.4.1410 (ought to be the latest) on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. I find the program's magnet URI handling behavior to be extremely irritating.

Question - Are magnet links for torrents (sites such as TPB only use magnet URIs now) the same as magnet links for DC++ files? If yes, that would imply that either program can handle links from both, but I find that to be highly unlikely. So if the answer is no, why do both P2P networks use the same terminology?

Further, since I suspect the links are confusingly named the same but actually are quite different, under Settings / Advanced I have "Install Magnet URI handler on startup" turned off, since I fear it will interfere with the existing magnet link association with my torrent client of choice. Is this assumption correct? If yes, that makes this situation even more idiotic, since I can't have torrent and DC++ magnet links open in their respective programs.

Also, I have "Ask for Magnet action" turned off. Yet, whenever I click on a magnet link in ApexDC++, I see this irritating dialog:

Why? If I wanted to simply "do nothing" and clicked the link by mistake, I would just close the damn tab! Why when the option to ask is turned off am I shown that dialog every single time, and can't search by default simply by clicking the links? If this is by design, I am gonna indulge in a whole lotta eye-rolling (down with useless and what's worse, modal dialogs!), else if this is a bug then it can be logged as such and hopefully be fixed sometime soon.

Thanks for reading!

[Mek 13]

Further, since I suspect the links are confusingly named the same but actually are quite different, under Settings / Advanced I have "Install Magnet URI handler on startup" turned off, since I fear it will interfere with the existing magnet link association with my torrent client of choice. Is this assumption correct? If yes, that makes this situation even more idiotic, since I can't have torrent and DC++ magnet links open in their respective programs.

Unfortunately it's exactly like you described. But if I am wrong, someone from apex team is free to correct me :)

[Crise 26]

Unless ApexDC is run as administrator it may not have permission to edit registry (Windows Vista and newer), which would explain the "annoying dialog", despite the option being off.

Also, as for magnet links in general, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_URI_scheme

In other words, magnet links are generic kind of link, what program can use them depends entirely on the hash that is contained. However, since there are several notations of hashes supported by DC (ie. TTH) we can't limit it to one specific kind of magnet link so easily.

Also, it should be noted that if you click a magnet link in any hub chat, then ApexDC will always attempt to handle the link regardless of any settings. The options on the dialog depend on whether the magnet link contains a name or not, ie. if we only have a hash all we can do is search, but if we have name hash and size we can directly add the file to queue (of course that does not guarantee availability of any sources).

Edit: just looked it up and there is a rather odd requirement for the link to contain a filename before ApexDC does anything with the link automatically. I will look into this better and see if there is an actual basis for this (obviously we can't add nameless files to queue but for searches there should be no reason to have this requirement).

[ejjrooom 0]

Edit: just looked it up and there is a rather odd requirement for the link to contain a filename before ApexDC does anything with the link automatically. I will look into this better and see if there is an actual basis for this (obviously we can't add nameless files to queue but for searches there should be no reason to have this requirement).

Ran as Admin, checked the "Ask for Magnet action" option on, then off, but no change. I think it is as you suspect, that the issue has to do with the mandatory filename requirement even for searching. This makes no sense and effectively makes that option useless, since the dialog is always displayed. Would really appreciate it if this can be fixed for the next release, since I'm using magnet links a lot more now than before on various hubs.

[ejjrooom 0]

One more thing I'd like to add - whether that irritating dialog is shown, or after this is fixed the search is carried out automatically, I'd very much like an option to specify whether to switch to the new search tab immediately or not. Firefox has a similar option - "When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately", which I keep unchecked. The reason for this is, in Apex when the current hub/chat tab has a whole series of magnet links, I'd like to quickly click each one and start searching. But given the behavior now, even if the bug is fixed I'd need to constantly switch back to the tab with the links, since the newly opened search tab gets focus by default.

[Mek 13]

Good idea, +1