Allows you to leave your computer during downloads
– safely. For any internet protocol and any application.
• Rated 5 stars by many users at versionTracker.com
• Rated 4 cows by Tucows.com
• Selected by the MacScripter.net web site
• Selected by MacWorld and Internet.Works
• Rated "Excellent" by Cuneyt.pair.com
What users are saying about DA
<< I really love your script and use it almost nightly as I tend to
download files late and really appreciate being able to leave the computer
unattended and knowing that your script will reliably disconnect and shut it
down when the downloads are complete. [...] >>
— Robert Burns - Batavia, New York, U.S.A.
<< The best script ever written. [...] >>
— Marc Zimmerman - Lyon, France
Overview
With this program you can start your downloads using any protocol (ftp, hotline, carracho, http,…) and any application (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Hotline Client,…) and leave the computer alone securely. DownloadAssistant will automatically disconnect, then activate sleep or shutdown.
DA helps prevent pirate intrusions into your system by reducing useless connection time.
You can set the english speech synthesizer so DownloadAssistant will give you audio feedback of the download status (very useful if you are away from your computer!) This function works with DA in foreground or background.
DA can expand files automatically with Stuffit Expander™ after disconnection and before shutdown. Saves time!
It can generate a helpful log file to record what it did for you and when.
What the program does
DownloadAssistant Script disconnects, then activates shutdown or sleep when:
• ALL DOWNLOADS ARE COMPLETE
The "Disconnect if idle for x minutes" option of the "Remote Access" control panel requires that line activity be nil to allow disconnection. In some cases (with Hotline, for instance) this option is unreliable. DownloadAssistant knows when your downloads are complete and disconnects/shuts down safely, no matter what the line traffic is.
• THE TRANSFER RATE IS TOO LOW
Rates may be good when you start, but can decrease significantly over time. If you don't want a slow transfer rate (because you pay for calls, for instance), you can ask DownloadAssistant to act when the rate is below your specified value for a specified amount of time. Useful, because many applications can resume downloads (Internet Explorer, Hotline,…).
• THE DOWNLOAD PROCESS IS INTERRUPTED IN ANY WAY
If no more data comes from the server(s), DownloadAssistant disconnects, even if line activity is not zero.
Registration
It is $8 ONLY!
The demo version monitors for about 60 minutes, then quits automaticaly. With a registered copy, the time limitation is removed, so you can start your downloads and go out, go to bed, whatever you want!
Updates to 2.x versions will be FREE for any registered user.
Registrations are handled by the famous Kagi Shareware service.
If you pay with your credit card, you will receive your registration code within 4 hours only.
• YOU CAN REGISTER ONLINE USING THE KAGI's SECURE SERVER
Connect to https://order.kagi.com/?16M
• OR... YOU CAN USE THE ENCLOSED "REGISTER" APPLICATION
It generates a form you can e-mail, fax or mail.
If you have a problem registering, e-mail me at: fbianchi.dev@infonie.be
How to use DA
1) OPEN DOWNLOADASSISTANT
Double-click on the DA icon.
The first time you run DA, you must immediately set the Preferences. These are saved for the next launch, but during subsequent runs, the startup dialog box appears, rather than the Preferences. Click on "Preferences..." to modify them (Preferences will be explained below).
Startup Dialog Box:
2) CLICK THE "START MONITORING" BUTTON
DownloadAssistant now continually monitors the folder you selected in Preferences as the download location.
If you want to cancel operation, simply select Quit in the File menu.
If you use MacOS 8.6 or higher and you keep DA in the FOREGROUND, it displays information about the download process approximately EVERY MINUTE in the following status window (you don’t have to click "Close Now"— it closes itself after 10 seconds):
However, DownloadAssistant was designed to run perfectly in the background.
TIP: with versions of MacOS prior to 8.6, this alert is not displayed (due to a limitation of older versions of AppleScript); however, you can open the log file with SimpleText (see below) during monitoring to check progress.
- Location: the download destination (a folder or the desktop) DA is monitoring. It should be where your applications download to. You can select the location in Preferences.
- Rate: the rate of data received in the previous minute; this information is very accurate
- Mean Rate: the mean rate of data received in the 15 previous minutes. Unavailable during the first 14 minutes
- Status: could be "OK" or:
- "waiting for start": when a download has not started yet
- "low rate": if the rate is below the minimum selected in Preferences (default is "2")
- "checking for termination": if DA is checking for a dropped or terminated connection
- "checking for completion": if DA is checking for downloads completion (when the rate is 0 Kb/s)
3) START YOUR DOWNLOAD(S) WITH YOUR APPLICATION(S): Internet Explorer, Netscape, Hotline, Carracho… ANY application(s)!
With MacOS 8.6 or higher, before disconnecting, DownloadAssistant displays an alert asking you to confirm the disconnection. If you don't give an answer, DA proceeds 30 seconds later.
DownloadAssistant will faithfully watch over the download process! It will disconnect for you (and activate Sleep or Shutdown if you want). Enjoy!
Preferences explained
Click the "Preferences…" button in the startup dialog to display the Preferences list. Choose a setting and click "Set This…" to modify it (with MacOS versions prior to 8.6, this list is not displayed and all Preference dialogs will open consecutively).
TIP: in the Preference dialogs, the default button (with the frame around it) will give you the setting you chose previously (i.e. the current setting). So, if you don't want to modify a setting, just press Return.
• LAST ACTION:
After DA disconnects from the internet, it can activate shutdown or sleep. Select the option you want. Some computers cannot be put to sleep; they will be shut down instead.
If you ask DownloadAssistant to activate shutdown, quit as many applications as possible before leaving your computer. Some applications cannot be closed automatically (especially if you did not save a modified document). If you forget this, DownloadAssistant will disconnect anyway, but may not be able to activate shutdown! For sleep, you may be able to leave some things running and come back to work later, but be aware that some apps will prevent or disturb sleep.
If you have created a Ram Disk, drag all items located on it to the trash, and empty the trash before leaving your computer. MacOS cannot shut down without a manual confirmation of the loss of the contents of the Ram Disk.
Important! This software uses the Apple Open Transport services. If you don't use Open Transport to connect to the internet (for instance, you use FreePPP), you cannot choose "Disconnect" as Last Action. You MUST choose "Shut Down"! If you don't know if you use Open Transport, connect to the internet as you normally do and open the "Remote Access" control panel (or the "PPP" control panel with MacOS prior to 8.5). If you can see a button named "Disconnect," you are using Open Transport.
• LOW RATE MONITORING:
If you want DA to disconnect when the transfer rate drops below a certain value, enter a minimum rate in the first dialog and click "OK." Another dialog appears immediately, asking for the delay period before disconnection. If, at the end of the delay period, the rate is still below the value set in the first dialog, DA will disconnect.
If you don't want to use this feature, enter "any" in the first dialog (the second one will not appear).
• DELAY BEFORE LAST ACTION:
DA interprets "3 minutes of connection without any byte downloaded" as a procedure termination (or an error). If you want to increase or decrease this value, you can modify it here.
• SOUND NOTIFICATION:
- "None":
DA doesn't use any sound notification.
- "Alert Sound":
DA uses the alert sound (known as "the beep") you choose in the "Sound" (or "Monitors & Sound") control panel.
If DA is in the foreground, it beeps every time it displays the status window (about every minute). Otherwise, it doesn't.
In the foreground or in the background, it beeps 5 times before disconnecting.
- "Voice":
If you use MacOS 8.6 or later, and you installed the Speech Recognition package from your MacOS CD, you can use this option.
If DA is in the foreground, it beeps every time it displays the status window if the state is "OK"; if it's in the background, it doesn't.
In the foreground or in the background, it says:
- "waiting for start": when downloads are not started yet;
- "low rate": if the rate is below the minimum rate you selected, if any;
- "checking for completion": if DA is checking for downloads completion (when the rate is 0 Kb/s);
- "now, rainy days are gone": if the rate recovers sufficiently after a "low rate" period;
- an appropriate sentence before disconnecting.
If you want to use another voice, open the "Speech" control panel and select another one.
Do not check "Speak the phrase" or "Speak the alert text" in the Speech control panel. This interferes with the process.
• LOG FILE GENERATION:
If you choose "Yes," when you click on the "Start Monitoring" button, DA will generate a log file in a folder named "DA Logs ƒ" that it creates on the root of your startup disk.
You can view it and print it with SimpleText or any other text editor.
The log file is named in the form "<the date> — <a reference number>."
The most recent log file of a given day has the highest reference number.
It is a good idea to sort the log files in the Finder by creation or modification dates.
In the log file, you can find data like "low rate" notifications, mean rate (every 15 minutes), connection speed in bauds, disconnection time, total bytes dowloaded during session, and others.
TIP: You can open the log file with SimpleText even during monitoring, but you have to close and open it again for it to be updated.
• AUTO DECOMPRESS:
If you choose "Yes," DA will decode and expand the files found in the download location after disconnecting. DA uses Stuffit Expander™.
The expanded files will be found in a folder named "DA Expanded files" on your desktop. If this folder doesn't exist, DA will create it.
This feature is useful with applications that don't handle auto-decompression (as HL Client)
Tips: You can stop this process: just type command-.
Warning! The original encoded and compressed files (in the download location) are deleted.
• DOWNLOAD LOCATION:
DA has to know in which folder you store your downloads: this is the "Download Location" (i.e. the folder where your applications download to). You can select the desktop instead of a folder, but you cannot select an entire disk.
Note: For the Hotline Client application, the download location is the "Downloads" folder in the HL Client folder itself.
Remember: DA works better with a download folder that contains few items in its hierarchy. It checks this folder right after selection, and again during lauching of the script, to be sure the folder is not overloaded (in which case, the System could be slowed down). If it is, DA alerts you. It is a good idea to keep this folder clean.
TIPS:
You can download more than one file simultaneously.
You can even use more than one application to download at the same time—simply download to the same location. There are two cases:
1) - the application you want to use does not let you choose the download folder you want (for instance, Hotline Client) because it uses its own download folder.
- Create a folder on the desktop (or other location).
- For each application of this kind, replace its OWN download folder (i.e., "Downloads" for Hotline) with an ALIAS of the folder you have just created on the desktop, but give it exactly the same name, i.e., "Downloads" for Hotline. Thus, each specially named alias points to the same original folder.
2) - the application can let you choose a download folder (for instance, Internet Explorer). Simple: choose the folder you created on the desktop.
So now, every application downloads to the same folder.
IMPORTANT! Do not modify the content of the download folder while DownloadAssistant is running. (this can shuffle the transfer rate it calculates)!
Troubleshooting
You may see one of the following:
- "Requires the standard additions dictionary"
One or more AppleScript dictionaries (in the "Scripting Additions" folder of your system folder) are missing. Re-install AppleScript from your MacOS CD, using an AppleScript standard installation.
- "Requires the remote access commands dictionary"
If you use MacOS 8.6 or later, the "Remote Access Commands" dictionary (in the "Scripting Additions" folder of your system folder) is missing. Re-install Apple Remote Access (ARA) from your MacOS CD, using an ARA standard installation.
If you use an older version of MacOS, the "PPP Commands" dictionary (in the "Scripting Additions" folder of your system folder) is missing. Re-install OpenTransport/PPP from your MacOS CD, using an OpenTransport/PPP standard installation.
- A "Type -127 (or -241) error" occured or "Out of memory" is displayed:
You may need to increase the memory allocated to DownloadAssistant (the speech synthesizer is memory-consuming).
- The "Voice" option does not work:
In MacOS 8.6 or higher, the Speech control panel (part of the English Speech Recognition package), and the Speech Manager extension are required to use the "Voice" option. If these items don't load at startup, open the Extensions Manager control panel to activate them, then restart. If you cannot find them in the list, you have to install them from your Mac OS CD.
Do not check "Speak the phrase" or "Speak the alert text" in the Speech control panel.
- A problem about "PrefsLib" or "ExpandLib":
The folder "DA Required" must be in the same folder as DownloadAssistant. It must not be renamed. Files located in it must not be renamed.
- Other errors should be clearly displayed, but if you have a problem, report error messages and circumstances at: fbianchi.dev@infonie.be
How this software was made
It is a compiled script written with the AppleScript language
— just more complicated than the majority of them.
Requirements
MacOS 7.5 or later with AppleScript installed.
AppleScript is a default component of Mac OS (if it was not installed, you can find it in your MacOS CD).
Some limitations from MacOS 7.5 to 8.5 (read the user manual).
MacOS 8.6 or later and English Speech Recognition Package (on your Mac OS CD) is required for the "Voice" option.
Tested on MacOS 8.1, MacOS 8.6 and MacOS 9.0
Should work on MacOS 7.5, but I couldn't test it.
License
$8 Shareware
See the license agreement.
Do not modify this software. Do not modify the user manual.
Do not use this software to assist the download of illegal information and/or illegal software.
Commercial distribution of any version not allowed without written permission.
Upload of any version not allowed without written permission.
Send questions, bug reports, criticism (or encouragement!) to:
fbianchi.dev@infonie.be or fbianchi.dev@kagi.com
I try to answer every message but I always answer to registered users first, in the order messages arrive.
If you encounter a problem, please do not flame the product at versionTracker. It does not help the product, and it does not help me, so it does not help you. Please, e-mail me your problem first!
You can download updates at web site:
http://perso.infonie.be/fbianchi or try http://perso.infonie.fr/fbianchi
You like this software?
Please, write something kind about it at http://www.versionTracker.com
Thank you!
Thanks
For the corrections they made in the text of the manuals and in the text displayed by the software, for their advices, my gratitude to:
- Lawrence, Peter and Bob for the 1.x versions
- Peter for the 2.x versions. Check his web site at www.geminipress.com !
Stuffit Expander™ is a trademark of Aladdin Systems.
Version History
1.0.1, March, 7th 2000
- first public release
1.1
- no more time-trial
1.2
- one minor bug corrected
1.3 to 1.3.1
- help dialogs added for first-time users
- one more error check
1.5
- support for the english voice synthesizer
- requires less processor-cycles during monitoring
- preferences support rewritten (file support and interface)
1.6.0 to 1.6.6
- monitoring procedure optimised
- you can now put your PowerBook or your iBook to sleep when downloads are complete
- with the "Voice" option selected, should the rate recover sufficiently after a "low rate" period that hasn't reached the set time limit, you are notified by the voice synthesizer: "Now rainy days are gone."
- DownloadAssistant now checks the target download folder right after selection, and again during lauching of the script, to be sure the folder is not overloaded (in which case, the System could be slowed down). If it is, it alerts you.
- in previous versions, if you selected a disk (root level) as the download folder, and the disk wasn't mounted at startup or its name had been modified, DownloadAssistant used the root level of the startup disk as the new download folder without displaying an error. This seemed to freeze the computer. Now if the selected disk is not found, the script displays a dialog asking the user to locate it or to locate another folder.
- the way DownloadAssistant checks for the Remote Access Commands dictionary might not work in some circumstances. This has been corrected (1.6.5).
- "Cancel" buttons added in dialogs where possible (1.6.5).
- bad support for real numbers with non-English versions of Mac OS corrected (1.6.5).
- due to a bug I had to correct, version 1.6.5 may be used until 1st September 2000. Version 1.6.6 is not time-trial.
- spelling mistakes corrected in software and ReadMe (1.6.1 and 1.6.5).
2.0 to 2.0.3
- now, DA can monitor the desktop — for everyone that uses the desktop as download location
- DA can create a great log file on your startup disk.
When the day is breaking, you can consult the log to know what DA did for you last night… and when. Moreover, DA reports the mean transfer rate, every 15 minutes, in the log file
- DA displays in the main window a summary of your preferences. You do not have to check them any more!
- with newest versions of MacOS, previous versions of DA could not shut down the computer in some cases. This has been corrected in this version
- some optimisations
- the demo version monitors during 60 minutes now (2.0.1)
- one minor bug fix (thanks to Marc) and more messages in the log file (2.0.2)
- mean rate (every 15 minutes) displayed and better memory handling (2.0.3).
2.1
- bug fix that prevents DA to run under some MacOS versions ("Folder HD:System Folder:Preferences:DownloadAss Script Prefs wasn't found." displayed).
- serial number displayed (as requested by numerous users)
- minor internal optimisation
2.5 to 2.5.2
- can work now on MacOS 7.5 and higher (from 7.5 to 8.5 with some limitations; fully on 8.6 and higher)
- self-extracting archive
- new very detailed user guide
- delay before disconnection is now 3 minutes (instead of 5)
- minor bug fixes and modifications
- bug fix that prevents DA to run on some versions of MacOS 9 (2.5.1)
- bug fix that prevents the demo version (non-registered versions only!) to monitor during true 60 minutes (2.5.2)
2.6
- DownloadAssistant can decode and expand files automatically with Stuffit Expander™ after disconnection.
- You can modify the delay before disconnection when no more data is received
- Generate a new log file won't delete the previous one: DA now keeps previous logs in a folder
- when DA was in the background and the "Voice" option is used, DA beeps every minute. This bug has been fixed
- Some debugging information was still displayed in the preferences (when you choose a folder as download location, the path to this folder was displayed in a dialog). This bug has been fixed
- one minor bug fixed in the preferences handling
2.6.2
- DA doesn't display an "AppleEvent timed out" error message any more (this problem appeared when the computer is too busy to let the Finder reply to a DA's query)
- in previous versions, DA quits all applications before putting to sleep the computer. This bug has been fixed
- the total bytes download info wasn't properly displayed in the log file. This bug has been fixed
- you can stop the unstuff process of files: type command-.
- many manual corrections thanks to Peter
- a low memory problem that could occur with the speech manager is now fixed
- a problem with log files generation on MacOS 8.5 and older has been fixed
- two minor bugs fixed in the preferences handling
