Internet users sometimes come upon information on websites that they want to preserve for the future. They might be inclined to bookmark the page but that is only useful for as long as the website exists. Another option would be to print the information or save the page to the local computer system.
The Firefox extension FireMirror uses a similar technique as the last suggestion to download websites to the local hard drive. It basically is a website mirroring software that can automatically download a website based on the user’s parameters. The default setting will for instance download the active page plus every page that is linked from that page. The depth, which is the parameter that defines the number of pages that the website downloader will download, can be configured in the program’s options. The maximum depth is 10 and the minimum 0.
Additional options include configuring the timeout duration, disabling link replacements, enabling reports or configuring filters to include urls with a specific string. The configuration can be saved as a profile to speed up future download runs.
A basic browser is provided in another tab that can be used to browse the website that is being downloaded but it is usually a better idea to load the downloaded pages instead from the hard drive (the browser will retrieve pages that have not been downloaded).
The local pages use relative paths so that the downloaded websites and pages can be moved around without breaking the navigation.
The extension is provided in an early version. There is for instance no stop or cancel button which means the process can only be stopped by clicking on the x button on the extension window. The report is also not working at this time.
FireMirror could become an interesting alternative to desktop software like HTTrack. The add-on is compatible with Firefox 3.6+ and can be downloaded from the Mozilla website.
Update: The Fire Mirror extension is no longer available. We suggest to use HTTrack which is linked above to download entire websites.
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I still use HTTrack. When i see failure in that one then i think of switching to this alternative.
Thanks for the tip.
I think I’ll stay with ScrapBook Plus though.
even i use scrapbook, but you always have to remember to backup the folder whenever you do an OS reinstall or something, which is located deep inside app data folders…painstaking :(
That is truly a smart bookmarking technology :)
Thanks. I’m going to give it a try.
This looks like a handy add-ons.
What’s the depth? I went with the maximum permissible level of 10.. Is it to do with the hierarchy in the webpage?