a few suggestions for PL Admin + PL users to consider
Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2004 3:02 pm
trial version PL v1.41, WinXP Pro, Pentium 2 GHz, 1 Mbyte RAM, using DSL
Hi
Can I make a few suggestions for PL Admin + PL users to consider. Also posted some questions about using PL in the Assistance forum.
1. Can you allow the System options for Download and Disk free space limit to be set to more than the current maximum of 999 MB. I've installed PL on a different drive to the C: drive, but I'd still like to leave more than 1 GB of free disk space in the event of PL getting carried away + downloading the whole of the internet ! I'm sure more experienced users of PL have their views on these options. I hope to hear more via this forum.
2. When you start a new project, and you are prompted for the Project Root Folder, can you enable PL to accept an entry of a new sub folder under an existing folder, + get PL to prompt you to confirm creating this new folder.
3. Can you please add a date field for the pictures you want to download, so you can revisit a site and download any new pictures, ie. pictures modified after 1.2.2004. I'd want to do this after downloading once and moving pictures out of PL's temporary project / task location and into folders of my choice, without having to reload the already downloaded pics into PL's database.
4. (on the other hand...) If you want to search a site, but think you might already have downloaded some of the files, can you import pics from those you've already downloaded to a folder on your PC and into a PL project database so you can avoid duplicates? How do you do this?
5. Can PL be configured to download video files ?
.avi, .mpg, .mpeg, .rm, .mov, etc.
What setting in Picture filter profile ? (yes I know it's called a "picture retrieving robot", but other downloaders will allow download settings based on filename extension or will just download all files).
6. Can the .jpe filename extension be added to picture profile.
7. when downloading
/folder1/pic001.jpg
/folder1/pic002.jpg
/folder2/pic001.jpg
/folder2/pic002.jpg
you can choose to save as either filename or recreate site's directory structure. But if you choose filename, then duplicate pic001.jpg files can get rejected (this may or may not be true? I'm not sure). Another downloader allows the saved filename to reflect the original site directory structure, ie. _folder1_pic001.jpg so all the downloaded files can be saved in one folder with unique names, which match their original website location.
I did read the post and your reply about the next release supporting a search functon (URL Regular Expressions using Perl or whatever) to cope with sites with this naming structure. I look forward to trialing / buying it.
8. Why can't you delete a project inside PL from the menu options or via the Delete key? You have to find the .plp file from Windows Explorer and delete it.
9. Some of the windows which open in PL allow you to close them with ESC key, eg. Picture - Properties, but others do not, eg. View - System options. Can this be made consistent ? (God, I'm never satisfied am I ? !!!)
10. Can the tabs for Pictures, Search, Report, Option and Monitor be made active, so if you want to change from Option to Monitor, you can use the keyboard's arrow keys, instead of having to click on each tab? (Just too lazy to move the mouse !).
11. I tried the sample project for Wonderful girls + like the pics, so thanks for posting it. The files stored in the photos directory on the host site use random numbers, but PL does extract the name of the Wonderful Girl in the picture in the Notes field. Can this be used (automatically) to rename the downloaded files, instead of saving them as, for example,
00A50C5E77534FEFA0E3568110656F5C.jpg ? (OK, I'm not asking for much a I ? !!!)
12. When you pause a task, can you leave the queue visible so you can more easily edit the filters. Or enable the Queue Browser to opened in a new window so you can copy to clipboard and paste into a filter without having to keep closing and opening the Queue Browser.
13. When choosing folder to copy or move pictures to, provide a field to paste a folder path into, otherwise when selecting a folder or subfolder from the drop down list, PL has to form the whole list which may be hundreds of folders long, which can take some time.
Thanks in advance for your comments on my suggestions. I've just started using PL + I like what it can do. I like the download stats, Queue Browser, search functions, URL expressions, etc. I'll have to start to understand how to use Perl. I appreciate the other forum users posting
their .plp project files to share - Thanks. Also you seem to respond quickly to users posting about bugs or suggested additional features, so it looks like a well supported product.
Some of my comments relate to other downloaders. I won't mention them on your forum in case you don't want "advertising" for competitors products! But I can email you the details if you want.
Thanks again
Chris
Hi
Can I make a few suggestions for PL Admin + PL users to consider. Also posted some questions about using PL in the Assistance forum.
1. Can you allow the System options for Download and Disk free space limit to be set to more than the current maximum of 999 MB. I've installed PL on a different drive to the C: drive, but I'd still like to leave more than 1 GB of free disk space in the event of PL getting carried away + downloading the whole of the internet ! I'm sure more experienced users of PL have their views on these options. I hope to hear more via this forum.
2. When you start a new project, and you are prompted for the Project Root Folder, can you enable PL to accept an entry of a new sub folder under an existing folder, + get PL to prompt you to confirm creating this new folder.
3. Can you please add a date field for the pictures you want to download, so you can revisit a site and download any new pictures, ie. pictures modified after 1.2.2004. I'd want to do this after downloading once and moving pictures out of PL's temporary project / task location and into folders of my choice, without having to reload the already downloaded pics into PL's database.
4. (on the other hand...) If you want to search a site, but think you might already have downloaded some of the files, can you import pics from those you've already downloaded to a folder on your PC and into a PL project database so you can avoid duplicates? How do you do this?
5. Can PL be configured to download video files ?
.avi, .mpg, .mpeg, .rm, .mov, etc.
What setting in Picture filter profile ? (yes I know it's called a "picture retrieving robot", but other downloaders will allow download settings based on filename extension or will just download all files).
6. Can the .jpe filename extension be added to picture profile.
7. when downloading
/folder1/pic001.jpg
/folder1/pic002.jpg
/folder2/pic001.jpg
/folder2/pic002.jpg
you can choose to save as either filename or recreate site's directory structure. But if you choose filename, then duplicate pic001.jpg files can get rejected (this may or may not be true? I'm not sure). Another downloader allows the saved filename to reflect the original site directory structure, ie. _folder1_pic001.jpg so all the downloaded files can be saved in one folder with unique names, which match their original website location.
I did read the post and your reply about the next release supporting a search functon (URL Regular Expressions using Perl or whatever) to cope with sites with this naming structure. I look forward to trialing / buying it.
8. Why can't you delete a project inside PL from the menu options or via the Delete key? You have to find the .plp file from Windows Explorer and delete it.
9. Some of the windows which open in PL allow you to close them with ESC key, eg. Picture - Properties, but others do not, eg. View - System options. Can this be made consistent ? (God, I'm never satisfied am I ? !!!)
10. Can the tabs for Pictures, Search, Report, Option and Monitor be made active, so if you want to change from Option to Monitor, you can use the keyboard's arrow keys, instead of having to click on each tab? (Just too lazy to move the mouse !).
11. I tried the sample project for Wonderful girls + like the pics, so thanks for posting it. The files stored in the photos directory on the host site use random numbers, but PL does extract the name of the Wonderful Girl in the picture in the Notes field. Can this be used (automatically) to rename the downloaded files, instead of saving them as, for example,
00A50C5E77534FEFA0E3568110656F5C.jpg ? (OK, I'm not asking for much a I ? !!!)
12. When you pause a task, can you leave the queue visible so you can more easily edit the filters. Or enable the Queue Browser to opened in a new window so you can copy to clipboard and paste into a filter without having to keep closing and opening the Queue Browser.
13. When choosing folder to copy or move pictures to, provide a field to paste a folder path into, otherwise when selecting a folder or subfolder from the drop down list, PL has to form the whole list which may be hundreds of folders long, which can take some time.
Thanks in advance for your comments on my suggestions. I've just started using PL + I like what it can do. I like the download stats, Queue Browser, search functions, URL expressions, etc. I'll have to start to understand how to use Perl. I appreciate the other forum users posting
their .plp project files to share - Thanks. Also you seem to respond quickly to users posting about bugs or suggested additional features, so it looks like a well supported product.
Some of my comments relate to other downloaders. I won't mention them on your forum in case you don't want "advertising" for competitors products! But I can email you the details if you want.
Thanks again
Chris