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The status of the download appears in the lower section of the SiteSucker window. (For more information, see Status Indicators.)
When files are downloaded, they are saved in the Download Folder. By default, the Download Folder is the folder that contains the SiteSucker application, but this can be changed in the Preferences dialog.
SiteSucker also lets you queue up your downloads, providing an easy way to download multiple sites as quickly as possible.
SiteSucker will accept any URL that begins with "http://". SiteSucker will also accept a file URL (beginning with "file://") that references an HTML file stored locally. You can use this feature to tailor your download to only include those files and sites referenced in your local HTML document. (See Using a Local HTML File for some examples.) If you enter a URL that doesn't begin with "http://" or "file://", SiteSucker will automatically add "http://" to the beginning of the address.
SiteSucker offers several ways to move URLs into the application. Besides simply typing the address into the Web URL text field, you can copy the URL from your Web browser and paste it into SiteSucker.
You can also drag a URL from your Web browser or from a URL clipping file into the SiteSucker window. (You can create a URL clipping file by dragging a URL from your Web browser to the Desktop.) If you drag a URL clipping file onto the SiteSucker icon in the Finder, the file's contents will be copied into the text field.
If the Drag Triggers Download preference is on and you drag a URL to the SiteSucker window or to the SiteSucker icon, the download will start automatically after the drag.
Furthermore, any text selected in the Web URL text field can be dragged from SiteSucker to another application, such as a Web browser, or to the Finder, where it will create a URL clipping file. This is a good way to store frequently used URLs.
The SiteSucker queue provides an easy way to download multiple sites as quickly as possible. If you ask SiteSucker to download a site while it is busy downloading another site, the requested URL will be added to the queue. After the current download is finished, SiteSucker will begin downloading the next URL in the queue. To see the contents of the queue, click the Queue button in the toolbar.
While SiteSucker is downloading, you can populate the queue in a number of different ways. You can add a URL to the queue by typing or pasting the address into the Web URL text field and pressing the "enter" key or Download button; you can drag the URL to the SiteSucker window or to the SiteSucker icon in the Finder; or you can select the URL from the Recent URLs menu. SiteSucker will not add a URL to the queue if that URL is already in the queue or it is currently being downloaded.
If you drag multiple URL clipping files onto the SiteSucker window while SiteSucker is idle, SiteSucker will start downloading the first URL and will add the other URLs to the queue. The preference settings in effect when the download starts are used for all URLs in the queue.
To queue up multiple sites, downloading each using different preference settings, create a script. (For more information, see Using AppleScript.)
The buttons in the SiteSucker toolbar allow you to control SiteSucker. Corresponding commands are also available in the SiteSucker menus. The SiteSucker toolbar includes the following buttons:
Download
Click the Download button to begin downloading the address entered into the "Web URL" text field. If you click this button while SiteSucker is already downloading files, the Web URL will be added to the queue.
Next
Click the Next button to stop the current download and begin downloading the next URL in the queue.
Pause
Click the Pause button to pause the download. Click the Pause button again to resume downloading.
Stop
Click the Stop button to stop the download and clear the queue.
SiteSucker also provides a Stop Analysis item under the File menu. This command discontinues file analysis and simply downloads all remaining files. In other words, SiteSucker stops looking for new files to download. The Stop Analysis command does not affect other URLs in the queue.
Recent URLs
When you click the Recent URLs button, SiteSucker displays the ten most recently used URLs in a pop-up menu. When you choose a URL from the menu, SiteSucker enters it into the Web URL text field if SiteSucker is idle. If SiteSucker is already downloading files, the URL is added to the queue. The menu includes a Next URL command that allows you to cycle through the list of recently used URLs and a Clear Menu item that clears the list.
Queue
When you click the Queue button, SiteSucker displays the contents of the queue in a pop-up menu. If you choose a URL from the menu, SiteSucker stops the current download and begins downloading the URL that you've selected from the queue. The menu includes a Clear Menu command that clears the queue.
Preferences
Click the Preferences button to open the Preferences dialog. The Preferences dialog lets you customize the download.
Open Log
Click the Open Log button to open the SiteSucker Log file, which is stored in the Download Folder. This file is created when the Log Download History preference is on and a file is downloaded or when the Log Errors preference is on and an error occurs during a download. If you hold down the option key, SiteSucker will let you chose an application to use to open the file. If the SiteSucker Log isn't present in the Download Folder, this button is dimmed.
Open File
Click the Open File button to have SiteSucker open the local file that corresponds to the address shown in the Web URL text field. This is equivalent to double-clicking the file in the Finder. You can use this feature to quickly view your downloaded site in a Web browser. If you hold down the option key, SiteSucker will let you chose an application to use to open the file.
Open Download Folder
Click the Open Download Folder button to open the Download Folder in the Finder. This allows you quick access to your downloaded files.
SiteSucker shows the status of the download in the lower section of the SiteSucker window. SiteSucker includes the following status indicators:
Level
This is an indication of how many "levels" deep the download has progressed. Levels refer to the number of "link" levels completed relative to the initial link. The URL link that you enter into the SiteSucker window is on level 1. If that page had 10 Web page references (URLs) on it, those 10 links would be on level 2. If each of those 10 Web pages contained 15 links, then those 150 links would be on level 3, and so on. This indicator shows which level SiteSucker is currently working on.
Files Downloaded
This is an indication of how many files have been downloaded.
Files Remaining
This is an indication of how many links are remaining in the download. Each page that is downloaded is scanned for more HTML links. Any new links that are found are added to the counter. Note that the counter can decrease and then increase again after each new page is scanned. In addition, some links may be skipped because the page has already been downloaded or shouldn't be downloaded according to the preference settings. Unfortunately, this means that it is very difficult to tell when the download will be complete. This indicator merely provides a rough estimate of progress.
Errors
This is an indication of how many errors have occurred during the download. If the Log Errors preference is turned on, a log file that describes the errors is saved in the Download Folder.
Status
During downloads, status messages are displayed at the bottom of the SiteSucker window. Here, SiteSucker lets you know which files are being downloaded and which HTML files are being analyzed for links. SiteSucker can process up to six files simultaneously. Long status messages are truncated in the status area, but you can resize the window to see the entire message.
SiteSucker is a relatively simple program and it has a number of limitations.
First of all, SiteSucker totally ignores JavaScript. Any link specified within JavaScript will not be seen by SiteSucker. If you have the Log Errors option set in the preferences, SiteSucker will include a warning in the log file for any page that uses JavaScript.
When SiteSucker analyzes HTML, it only examines the following tags: <a>, <area>, <body>, <embed>, <frame>, <iframe>, <img>, <input>, <link>, <meta>, <script>, <style>, and <table>. If a link is specified in a different tag, SiteSucker will not see it.
SiteSucker will scan Flash (SWF) files for embedded plain text links, but it can only detect links to files that have one of the following extensions: html, swf, mp3, sit, zip, mov, gif, jpg, png, doc, or txt.
By default, SiteSucker honors robots.txt exclusions and the Robots META tag. This behavior, however, can be overridden with the Ignore Robot Exclusions option in the SiteSucker preferences. (For more information, see Options.)
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Basic Operation
