Download Zip Files V.!.0

Program Version 1.0, May 11th, 2005

Zip File Downloader is a companion program to Easy Zip File, which adds the capability of a download manager to automate downloads of compressed file types from the internet, using a zip file 'spider' interface (the program is capable of following the links to zip files on a webpage). After the files have been downloaded they can then be sent to the Easy Zip File program, or any other zip file program capable of accepting the batch processing of zip files. The program is also able to function as a stand alone zip file downloader.

The first step in using the program is to enter the URL (address) of the web page containing the links to the zip files. Currently the program recognizes the same file types as the Easy Zip File program (the most common types) : .ZIP, .RAR, GZ, TAR, and the program also recognizes executable program files ( .EXE ) which may or may not be self extracting zipped files.

There are three ways to enter the address of the web page into the Edit box at the top of the program interface. You can type in the address manually. You can choose the currently displayed page in a web browser using the 'Get URL' button after selecting your browser from the list. Or you can highlight the text in your browser's address bar by clicking once on the text, and then RIGHT CLICK (using the right side mouse button instead of the usual left side button) on the blue text and from the pop up menu choose 'Copy'. Return to the Download Zip File program and then RIGHT CLICK on the Edit box and from the pop up menu choose 'Paste'.

When the address is selected, you may need to enter a user name and password if these are required. The port selector is automatically set for '80' (the typical port for HTML transport over the WWW). Some pages may require a different port, and if you know the port, you can enter it here, and the program is also able to recognize when a different port is required and can automatically update the Port display. It is not recommended that you attempt to communicate with a server on a port other than the standard port or the port expected by the server or the communication will probably fail.

When programs such as browsers or this program communicate with a server on the internet, they leave behind a record in the server's log file. The 'Agent' is the name you wish to appear on the log file record of the server when it is accessed by this program. This is set to a default of 'Zip Spider'.

When the address of the page on the Internet has been entered and any options have been selected, you can then move on to spidering the web page to find the links to the zipped files by pressing the Download Web Source button. The web page will spidered and when the process completes the list of zip files found will be displayed on the list at the bottom left of the program screen.

The list contains items with checkboxes. Only those items that have been check marked will be downloaded by the Spider.

To begin downloading the zip files, press the Download Zip Files button. If you want to save a copy of the HTML source page with the zip files for informational purposes, be sure to checkmark the 'Save HTML Page' checkbox before commencing the download operation. You will be asked to select a folder for the downloaded zip files. You can double click on the folders of your choice to select them, or type a folder path into the text area at the top of the folder selection box. With the type of folder selection box used by this program, it is the text at the top of the box which indicates the final destination of the zip files. You can create new folders easily by separating the folder names with a backslash ('\'). For example, if you have a folder named animals on your hard drive and you wanted to create a folder named dog and then further divide the topic by creating another folder named poodle, you could type into the folder edit box
c:\animals\dog\poodle
and the zip files would be saved in the poodle folder, which would be found inside the dog folder, which would be found inside the animals folder on the 'c:' disk drive. You can also select already existing folders using the graphics interface by double clicking on the folder pictures.

When you have selected the folder, if you have chosen to save a copy of the HTML source file, you will then see the familar 'SAVE' box, where you can name the HTML file and choose which folder you would like to use. The default is to save the copy in the same folder as the zip files just selected previous to this step.

The Spider will then proceed to download the check marked zip files on the list, and the bar graphs will indicate the progress of the operation. You can stop the downloading by using the 'STOP' button.

When the download is complete, you can use the 'Add to Easy Zip File' button to send the zip files to the Easy Zip File program, if it is installed. In order for this function to work, the Easy Zip File program must be installed in the same folder as the the Download Zip File spidering program. The downloaded zip files will be displayed on the Queue of the Easy Zip File program (see the instructions of the Easy Zip File program for more information) and from the Queue they can either be processed manually, one by one, or they can be sent to the batch unzip process for automated unzipping.

To reset the program, use the Clear Button. The button which looks like a CD is a link to this software site, and the Button which looks like a pen and notepad is a link to send email concerning this program.

Below the Download Web Source button is a drop down list which contains the 40 most recent web pages you have visited. Choosing one of these links will reload the page into the program. Choosing the option to 'Clear Items' will erase all the items on the recently used list.

If you are downloading zip files from certain 'php' or 'asp' sites (the name of the web page is not 'html' but rather contains 'php' or 'asp') then the links to zip files might not always be a link to the zip file itself but rather an instruction to a database program to bring up a webpage containing the link to the zip file. In this case the program will download the HTML link which is sent back from the database rather than the zip file, since there is no way of telling for certain how the database program is configured other than to open the link and see what happens. If this happens, the Unzip program will complain that the file is not a valid zip type file. If you change the end of the filename to 'html' you will see what the problem is (the page can then be viewed as html in a web browser).

Download Zip Files program link - > dlzip.exe ~700KB


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