Jump to content
IGNORED

AA Threads -- Is there a way?


Larry

Recommended Posts

There are several threads here that have some really valuable technical information that I'd like to have handy.  I currently (sort of) have them organized by copying the links, and the links are organized by broad topic. Is there a way to copy the entire contents of a thread (and paste into a WP)?  I know that I can copy/paste each individual post, but that is a real drag. Any thoughts?

 

-Larry

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, Larry said:

There are several threads here that have some really valuable technical information that I'd like to have handy.  I currently (sort of) have them organized by copying the links, and the links are organized by broad topic. Is there a way to copy the entire contents of a thread (and paste into a WP)?  I know that I can copy/paste each individual post, but that is a real drag. Any thoughts?

There used to be a method of archiving PM threads as PDFs; I'm not sure if this functionality still exists, but I found it useful. Not sure either if this was ever possible with public threads, but such a facility would be handy.

 

Might be worth posting some suggestions in the forum feedback sub-forum.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

First thought I had was "Reader View" from Firefox but it seems to be for narration and doesn't even look to work properly.

 

Possibly other browsers might have something to offer, or maybe there's a browser extension that can do it.

 

But one thing that could work is to just quote everything on a page then block copy it to your Word document.  A bit dirty but might be sufficient.

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

"But one thing that could work is to just quote everything on a page then block copy it to your Word document.  A bit dirty but might be sufficient."

 

That's a good idea!  And that way, I can easily edit out OT replies. I didn't know you could do multiple quotes.

 

Had not heard of HTTrack.  I'll check that out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi!

1 hour ago, Larry said:

"But one thing that could work is to just quote everything on a page then block copy it to your Word document.  A bit dirty but might be sufficient."

 

That's a good idea!  And that way, I can easily edit out OT replies. I didn't know you could do multiple quotes.

 

Had not heard of HTTrack.  I'll check that out.

 

You could cleanup the HTML before copy or print the content, for example, if you type this in the JavaScript console in Chrome (CONTROL-SHIFT-J) or Firefox (CONTROL-SHIFT-K), you only get the posts and author names:

 

h=''; document.querySelectorAll('article.cPost').forEach((n) => h=h+n.outerHTML); document.body.innerHTML = h; document.querySelectorAll('.ipsItemControls, ul.cAuthorPane_info').forEach((n)=>n.outerHTML='');

 

The above select from the page all "articles.cPost" elements, then makes a new page with only that content and then selects the ".ipsItemControls" (the "+" and "QUOTE" at the end of each post) and the "ul.cAuthorPane_info" (the photo and information of the authors) and removes that.

 

The result is a much cleaner page to save or print.

 

Note than in Firefox you have to first type "allow pasting" before you can actually past any code.

 

Have Fun!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Mclaneinc said:

HHTrack is a web site copier and very good but if you use it make sure you turn off external links otherwise it will copy any linked sites too...

^^^ or limit the depth that it will crawl. I'm not sure that I've ever tried on the entire file, but it may be possible to download the thread with HHTrack and print to a PDF file?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yup, that is the phrase I could not remember, not sure the software will make a PDF but obviously its possible manually..

 

Tried to do Atarimania about 10yrs ago, damn robot protection on there :)

 

One day Atari Frog will do an all in one zip file for the software...I'll keep moaning at him for it :)   (and he will keep saying no) :) But I'll wear him down :)

Edited by Mclaneinc
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tried a couple of alternatives...

 

I've got Foxit PDF Creator, it does a reasonable job of converting a saved page from Firefox (using page 2 of the C64 Keystone Kapers thread as a test case) - some rendering errors.

 

Firefox extension "Save PDF" - white background and not great rendering but readble.

 

There's online converters also, this one did a good job though since it's accessing the page without being logged in you're getting the default theme and possibly missing other things https://www.web2pdfconvert.com/

The other disadvantage is that it's really slow though saving then locally converting a page at a time would probably take just as long.

 

Warning about online PDF converters - some dodgy ones around that have popups and nasties.

Edited by Rybags
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Perhaps you can put together something using Selenium and HTMLUnit driver to harvest a topic.

The trouble is writing it in a way that is resistant enough to changes.

Of course, functionality integrated in the forum code would be great. But that costs development efforts and thus ... currency too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...