Capture an Entire Web Site From over the World Wide Web, including content!
Dreamcatcher has always permitted you to create a site tree or map of a remote site. The resulting Site Tree will permit you to see the structure of any site on the Web, find broken links, make repairs, and update the site.
Now, with Version 4.0, you can capture the entire content of a site: Web pages (HTML files), images (.gif and .jpg), and so on. Web Factory will capture all files your browser would be able to access.
Remember, since you are bringing what may potentially be a huge amount of information onto your PC when you use the Site Capture feature, be patient and have disk space ready. We recommend that a site capture be run only on an ISDN or faster Internet connection, due to the time it may require (smaller sites may be fine with 28.8 connections).
Rather than capture an entire site, you may just wish to capture individual pages and their content (images, etc.). You can do this with our Page Capture feature if you wish to save time, disk space, and, possible, network connection costs.
Warning: Use of this product to violate international copyright law is not legal or in any way sanctioned by TLCO Software or Thunder & Lightning Company. This product has been designed for Web Professionals who wish to maintain their own web sites remotely or who have permission from the owners of the copyrighted material to download such material. TLCO Software and Thunder & Lightning Company explicitly disclaim any responsibility for the improper use of this product by person or persons who are not employees of Thunder & Lightning Company or TLCO Software.
To Capture a Site:
1. Create a Site Tree of the Web Site you wish to Capture
- Go to "File" and then "New"
- Select "Site Tree", then selected "Web File"
- Enter the URL (http://...) of the Web Site your are interested in.
2. Go to the "File" command and select "Save All Files Locally for Site"
3. Designate a directory (for example C:/local/) on your PC in which you want to save the files (set one up ahead of time), and then go ahead with the save.
4. You will find the .htm,.gif,.jpg (etc.) files in the directory you specified. However, if you saved the content of a site which used absolute filenames for some of the files, you will find a new folder in the C:/local directory called "Other". In the "Other " folder, will be all the files which came from an absolute path.
Any files that are in a sub-directory of the homepages directory will be in a subdirectory of the designated directory. For example: If your home page is www.tlco.com/index.htm, and you have a link to a page which is help.html, that file will go to C:/local/help.html. However, /images/pictures.gif will be placed into C:/local/other/images/pictures.gif.
5. Web Factory will use a Path Translation List (.ptl file ), to link the absolute paths used to the directories in "other" where they were saved. This allows Web Factory to use the original absolute links, yet still find the images (etc.) locally. A meta tag will be added to all html files to enable the .ptl file. This tag will be ignored by your Web Server.
6. Linked pages from a different URL than the one you are working on will not be copied.
7. If the site you are downloading has a link to an index page without specifying the full name or URL of the page, then that page will not be copied into the C:/local directory. To capture that page use the Page Capture feature.
8. Similarly, there are certain URL addresses created within sites by other site creation programs which are not recognizable by Web Factory at this time. You may receive a 404 Error, Page not Found, when mapping these sites, and be unable to save the site contents. Try using the Page Capture feature for individual pages for sites of this type.
Example Resulting File Location Original Path Type http://www.tlco.com/site/index.htm The home page index..htm file will be found in the C:/local/ directory specified at time of save - The /site location is the home directory Relative http://www.tlco.com/site/webfact/webfact.html
webfact.html file will be saved in a new folder called "Webfact" created by Web Factory. The child directory "Webfact" is located in the home directory specified during the save. The path to this page on your PC will be C:/local/webfact/webfact.html Relative
http://www.tlco.com/images/logo.gif logo.gif file will be save in a new folder called "other" since /images is not a sub-directory of the home directoryi (only one "other " folder is created). The path to this file on your PC will be C:local/other/images/logo.gif. Absolute http://www.tlco.com/sounds/good.wav good.wav file will be saved in the same "other" folder (only one "other" folder is created). The path to this file on your PC will be C:local/other/sounds/good.wav. Absolute
This Web page created in Web Factory.