Computers & Accessories

Smart Image

Is there an automatic image downloader capable of downloading images posted on forums?

I already have NEOdownloader, but it doesn't seem to handle dynamic URLS. There is another program called "bulk image downloader," advertised to automatically download images from message forums--but either it doesn't work or I'm not smart enough to figure out how it works. I read the manual, I tried thousands of different things, but no matter what I try -- it only scans the current webpage, and won't find images on the links.

Any other ideas?

I use Bulk Image Downloader all the time with all sorts of sites and it works great for me.

Firstly, make sure you've installed the latest version of BID.

If you've made changes to the BID configuration you may have inadvertently broken it. Try resetting the BID config (BID menu->Reset Configuration to default values). It may also help to reset the BID cache (Advanced config->General->Clear cache and temp files).

If the images on the page are thumbnailed (small images linking to large images on another page) then make sure that the BID filter is set to 'thumbnailed images only' (press Alt+1). If you're after the images on the page itself then set the BID filter to 'embedded images only' (Press Alt+2).

If BID doesn't automatically detect a multi page gallery you can use a 'ranged URL' to load multiple pages. Suppose the forum thread URL has 10 pages and the page links are like:

http://a.com/abc/view.php?t=1&pg=X

where X is the page number.

You can use a ranged URL like this to load all 10 pages:

http://a.com/abc/view.php?t=1&pg=[1-10]

Ranged URLs can be used to create list of image files too (fusker style):

http://a.com/pic[001-100].jpg

If you're dealing with a forum or site that must be logged into with a username/password then:
1. Always enable the 'remember me' or equivalent option when logging in.
2. Launch BID from your browser's right click menu as this send the current cookie info to BID and enables it to download correctly.

For best results with such sites it's best to use FireFox with the BID FireFox extension installed.

You can read more about password protected sites here:

http://antibody-software.com/web/frequently-asked-questions/faqs/bulk-image-downloader-faq/#2.2

If all else fails contact the developers here - they're always very helpful:

http://antibody-software.com/web/contact/

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