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Message |
tfreeman
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2007 13:26
Reply
When a thumbnail picture on a web page is linked to the full sized image of that picture, will Pimpfish be able to also grab that full sized image?
I haven't been able to get the bigger pictures so far. Are there differences in the way the thumbnails work that determines what Pimpfish will be able to do?
Thank you
Terry Freeman
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arnij
Admin
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2007 13:55 - Edited by: arnij
Reply
Hi tfreeman,
Well what you are describing is the core functionality of PimpFish 
However you need to be aware of how the bigger pictures are linked to before you can figure out how to use PimpFish to grab them.
The bigger pictures on a page can be linked to in two ways:
1. The thumbnail/text link to the bigger picture directly
This is the simplest of the two and can be recognized by the picture opening and nothing else being visible (just that one picture and no text) - And often you can see in the navigation bar that it is indeed the picture file that is being shown (e.g. www.something.com/picture.jpg)
In this scenario, you simply use the Grab Pictures This Page Links To grab option and PimpFish should find and download the pictures for you.
2. The thumbnail/text link to a new page containing the picture
This is where the page links to a new HTML page which contains the picture. Often there will be banners, text and/or other pictures on the page containing the big version of the picture. In this case you need to use our new Spidering feature - This feature follows links on the page you are viewing and checks for pictures on the target page. Technically speaking we are "drilling down" one more level in the page structure and grabbing pictures. This would be equivalent to you clicking on all the thumbnails and then selecting "Grab Pictures on This Page" in PimpFish.
To use this feature simply click on "Follow Links on This Page And..." and then Grab Pictures or Grab Pictures Linked To
This feature is ONLY available in the new PimpFish 2007
Also, This feature does NOT work for password protected pages.
So you see, you might need to experiment a bit with the different grab options before you get it right. If you need further info or a more hands-on guide, please send us the URL of the page you are trying to grab from.
Thanks!
Arni J
Zabersoft Support
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tfreeman
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2007 14:48
Reply
Hi Arni:
Thank you for your PROMPT reply and your very detailed response. It's rare to get such an impressive experience from a software's support site.
I am testing your program and will definitely purchase it after I finsh this
e-mail. I'm doing this even before I finish testing the trial download as I want to support your dedication to servicing your program. It's nice to NOT be frustrated when contacting software support.
In regard to my question. The links to the full images are html pages that have some naviagtion controls that advance the pictures to the next ones.
I looked for the "Follow Links on This Page And..." command that you said I would need to use, but I can't where that is in your program. Could you
tell me how to get to that location.
Thank you
Terry Freeman
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arnij
Admin
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2007 15:23
Reply
Hi Terry,
It sounds as if you are maybe not using our latest version of PimpFish. If you are using version 2006 then this command will not be available. What you need to do is download the newest version (2007) from our download page and then the command will be the last one in the toolbar grab menu.
Of course, you might be using Firefox, in which case you will encounter a very limited feature set compared to Internet Explorer. We are working on a new version for Firefox, but it will still be quite some time before we get it updated to the level of the IE version.
We haven't updated our Help Center with the new documentation yet, but it is available on our Australian website - Check out this page for help on Spidering:
http://www.pimpfish.com.au/onlinehelp/index.html?p age=Plugin_Spidering.html
Hope that helps!
Arni J
Zabersoft Support
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arnij
Admin
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2007 15:30
Reply
Wow - You are a man of your word - Thanks for buying a license Terry!
Arni J
Zabersoft Support
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tfreeman
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2007 17:44
Reply
Arni:
You're right. The problem was I had the 2006 version of the trial that I downloaded July 6th but I see now that you now 2007 version. So I downloaded and installed that and everything looks good.
I briefly looked at the help files on the Australian site and they look good. I'll work on reading those tonight.
When I tried the procedure you described earlier to download the full pictures of the thumbnails, it did work. But it puts each linked html page into its separate folder with 11 gif files of the slide navigation images that I don't want.
I tried figuring out if I could just download all the .jpg files. I was looking at changing the FILE TYPES in the opitions and just list jpg and then I also used the FILTER option and just listed jpg, but now somethings seems to be not working at all. I'm not able to get anything to download when I am selecting the FOLLOW LINKS ON THIS PAGE.
I must be doing something wrong. I'll keep trying
Terry
Terry
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arnij
Admin
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2007 18:12
Reply
Well maybe you are doing something wrong, maybe not - It all depends on how the page is structured. In fact, when it comes to filters, please take a look at this post:
Filtering Features Don't Work
It might clear things up. What you might try to make things more manageable is to turn off the "Sort Downloaded Files" option in the Downloading settings panel. Please see this page on how to do this:
PimpFish Downloading Options
Arni J
Zabersoft Support
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tfreeman
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2007 19:19
Reply
Well, I see one thing I was doing wrong. When I thought nothing was happening, I didn't realize that it actually was because windows opened up the Pimpfish window only on the bottom toolbar instead of a window on my main screen.
This happens all the time with other programs and I have never figured out why.
But now I keep getting a message in the downloader window that says something about NO MEDIA FILES when I am attempting to garb jpg files.
I originally was getting the jpg full images to download so it's nothing wrong with the web site that I am attempting to grab from, but some change I must have made when I was adjusting settings.
I want to try uninstalling and then re-installing, but the UNINSTALL option you had in the 2006 version when you clicked on the program from the Windows START button is no longer there in the 2007.
When I use the windows REMOVE PROGRAMS it wants me to CLOSE the running Pimpfish application, but I can't find where in the OPTIONS to do that and I don't see any icon at the bottom of my page to click on to see if there is a CLOSE option.
Thanks
Terry
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arnij
Admin
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# Posted: 2 Aug 2007 05:44
Reply
Hi Terry,
Interesting - Almost sounds like you've gotten yourself into a bit of a pickle here
First of all, the reason why we don't have an uninstall shortcut in our start menu group anymore is: Microsoft.
Believe it or not, but it's one of the more ridicilous requirements they made for us to get certified status. Apparently they don't like uninstall shortcuts in the start menu. Only God knows why....
In any case, your main issue seems to be that Windows, or some other application, is stealing focus from the PimpFish downloader so you can't really follow what happens when you click grab.
I'm not sure what might be causing this on your system - But one good source of information should be the Balloon tooltips that pop up whenever you do a grab. Those should at least tell you what, if anything, got grabbed?
This is also, I suspect, where the PimpFish downloader is hiding - In the tray notification area. You can read more about this here:
Using the PimpFish Background Downloader
(scroll down to the part about Minimizing to the tray and Progress indicators)
If you see nothing running anywhere - And Windows Installer is still complaining - Then simply hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and then start the task manager. Take a look at your list of running processes, and see whether pimpfish.exe is among those. First you can try to click on it and then the "switch to" button - And if that doesn't bring it up, then it's running in the background somewhere - Then you simply kill the process and you should be able to uninstall.
If none of this works - a reboot of your machine followed by the uninstall will do the trick.
I hope any of this information helps
Thanks
Arni J
Zabersoft Support
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Anonymous
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# Posted: 20 Aug 2007 17:02
Reply
Arni:
I fixed my issues by uninstalling and re-loading. I think it works correctly now.
The only thing I can't figure out is how to NOT download gif images when I have selected:
FOLLOW LINKS ON THIS PAGE
and then:
GRAB PICTURES
I deleted GIF from the File Types in OPTIONS menu, but I am still getting GIF images downloaded.
Terry
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arnij
Admin
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# Posted: 22 Aug 2007 07:46
Reply
Hi Terry,
Yes this might seem a bit illogical - But the Spidering plugin runs on our server, and thus maintains its own list of what qualifies as a picture extension. This means it will not apply any settings you change locally.
The only solution is to manually clean up pictures after you've downloaded.
Thanks for writing!
Arni J
Zabersoft Support
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tfreeman
Member
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# Posted: 22 Aug 2007 22:19
Reply
Arni:
Would it be illogical of me to suggest that you add a line like this one below to the OPTIONS area where the file types box is:
Current line:
Picture file extensions, used for the Grab Pictures This Page Links To command
Expand it to this:
Picture file extensions, used for the Grab Pictures This Page Links To command
You CANNOT change file types for other GRAB commands or SPIDERING.
And include this in the help file.
Thank you
Terry
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arnij
Admin
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# Posted: 23 Aug 2007 06:43
Reply
No, not at all Terry!
That is actually a good proposal. We will include this in our next update.
Thanks!
Arni J
Zabersoft
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