BulkLoader 1.0.1 X
What
is new in BulkLoader 1.0.1 X?
BulkLoader
1.0.1 X is a maintenance update that only corrects a
compilation error in BulkLoader 1.0 X that showed BulkLoader
as a classic application in Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. This
has been corrected so that BulkLoader can start normally
under Mac OS X 10.3; the application itself remained
unchanged. BulkLoader 1.0 Classic has not been affected
by this problem.
What
is BulkLoader?
BulkLoader is a freeware downloading tool that does exactly what the name
says: It downloads files bulk! BulkLoader can download a series of
sequentially numbered files at once, so you won't have to open them first in
a
browser. More and more tech documents, PDFs, images, online photos etc. are
just numbered files without thoughtful filenames for each file. If you want
to download a complete online photo album, you'll find yourself opening each
picture one after the other in your webbrowser -- a truly time-waisting
thing! BulkLoader puts an end to this sillyness and downloads all the files
you want one after the other automatically. There are two versions of BulkLoader,
one for Mac OS X and one for Mac OS 8/9. A windows release migt be available
soon.
Example: You sent your holiday pictures taken on good old celluloid
film to
your photo dealer -- and paid him extra bucks to put all the pictures onto
the
web. Now you would of course like to download all these online pictures to
your harddisk -- but you will have to open each one in your browser and
stare at an annoying interface surrounding your pictures which takes a
long time to load.
Instead, you can now do just this:
Copy the URL of one of the images of the series you want to
download to the clipboard and paste it into the URL field of BulkLoader.
Click "Assist" and BulkLoader will automatically analyze the URL
and file
format and also the number that is used in the filename. BulkLoader will
then suggest you the settings for downloading -- usually a really good thing.
So you'll just have to choose a destination folder on your harddisk and
click "Download". BulkLoader will then start downloading the files
and
constantly display the file being processed and data throughput. Click on
the small "Preview" triangle so see a preview of the images you are
downloading. It's as easy as that! And best of all: It is completely free!
Easy
steps to BulkLoader
The
source material
At first, you will need a URL (web address) of the source material (pdf,
images, etc.) you want to download from the web. There are several
possibilities to do that:
a) type it!
Click into the URL-field and enter the first part of the URL of one of the
files you want to download, but only to that point where the number of the
file follows.
egg: You want to download a series of images from
http://www.thhdesign.com/testimage004.jpg
to
http://www.thhdesign.com/testimage182.jpg
Instead, you just type in this field:
http://www.thhdesign.com/testimage
Set the first file number that you want to download to 4.
Set the last file number that you want to download to 182.
Set the number of digits the number shall have to 3
Check the "Example" field, whether your number looks correct
as in the original URL.
Put the rest of the original URL into the Suffix field: .jpg
Besides, you can determine, how many files may be missed in
a row without stopping the download.
Egg. if you set 5 as "max. DropOuts" tolerance, BulkLoader
will stop downloading if it encounters a gap of
more than 5 unreadable files in a row. If there are less
than 5 drop-outs and then a correct file again,
the tolerance will re-count from zero again.
Egg.: In the example above, imagine the files 123 to 126
and the files from 151 to 159 were missing.
BulkLoader will detect the missing files 123, 124,
125 and 126. Since file 127 is downloadable
agian, BulkLoader will not stop downloading, since
it tolerates 5 drop-outs in a row. But, when
it comes to file number 151, it will detect the
missing files 152, 153, 154, 155 and then stop
downloading, since the gap to the next downloadable
file is larger than 5. In such cases, you
can however set the tolerance to any (higher) level
you would like.
There are often situations, where you don't know the exact
number of files that are available on the
server. In that case, simply set the first file number to
"1" and click the "Auto" button next to the
last file field. It will then read "AUTO" to indicate that
it will search the last file automatically just by
using the tolerance feature above; if there are more than
five files in a row not available, BulkLoader
assumes that all available files have been downloaded.
Again, you are invited to vary this tolerance
threshold to any value you prefer.
b)
use the assistant (recommended)
This is actually the big hit with BulkLoader: Forget about typing URLs. You
can either copy a URL from an document loaded in your webbrowser or -- also
a nice thing -- save one of the files out of that series onto your harddisk
using your webbrowser. Get the "Info" window of the file (Command-I
in the
finder) and have a look at the "Comment" field: In most cases, you
will see
the URL of the file in here. Now just copy that URL out and paste it into
BulkLoader URL (first part) section. Then hit the "Assist" button
and
BulkLoader will analyze the URL and split it into a first part (egg.
http://www.thhdesign.com/support), a number part (egg. "004" and
a
suffix part (egg. ".jpg"). BulkLoader will also recognize, how many
digits
the numbers in your files have. Please note that in some situations, this
separation may not be adequate; in that cases, please correct the URL
manually.
In the end, you will just have to hit "Download" and there you go...
Progress
Bar and Remaining Time
Please note that the progressbar is only working when you have specified a
first and last file number. Besides, BulkLoader will then also display an
approximative remaining download time -- based on the size of the latest
downloaded file, the throughput and the number of files to go. This time
indication assumes that all files are about the same size -- please note
that it might be completely wrong when file sizes vary very much from
file to file.
Preview
Click the Preview triangle to show the preview of a downloaded image file.
Please note that the preview image will only become available after it has
been
downloaded and will get lost, when you close the preview triangle again. If
you re-open preview, you will have to wait for the next file to be
completely downloaded until you will see a preview image. Please note that
the preview feature prolongs downloading time -- especially when you
download large number of files. If you want to gain speed, turn preview off.
Pause
Download
As soon as you start a download clicking the "Download" button;
the
button's name will change to "Pause Download". Using
this pause feature,
you can interrupt downloads at any time (egg. if you need your bandwith
for some minutes to use a webbrowser; send email etc.).
Resume
Download
If you click the "Pause Button", the name of the button
will change to
"Resume Download" -- so you can at any time click here and resume
downloading where you paused it. BulkLoader does it all for you!
Cancel
Download
You can always clear a download just by clicking into the
"Cancel Download" button.
Reset
BulkLoader
You can reset all fields and functions in BulkLoader using the "Reset"
command in the menu.
Download
accomplished
When all your files are downloaded, you will hear a beep chime to inform you
that the task has ended. Besides, BulkLoader will the number of
transferred files.
How
much does it cost?
It is sheer unbelievable -- but this pretty is yours for free -- just because
it's
Tuesday. Have fun!