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Mac OS X  |    |  Blue Crab

Blue Crab

Blue Crab - 4.9.6

download web sites for offline browsing, and much more

All Time: (4.3)
Version 4.9.6: (4.0)
Selected Version: 4.9.6
Release Date: 2008-04-18
License: Update
Downloads (version 4.9.6): 2,244
Downloads (all versions): 3,177
Price: $25.00

Information Related to Version:

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Product Description:

Blue Crab is a versatile program that you use to copy the contents of a web site to your computer, in whole or in part.

  • Conduct fast offline browsing and searching without an internet connection.
  • Perform batch downloads of URL's
  • Create a snapshot of a website for historical archiving.
  • Collect specific types of resources such as images or email addresses.
  • Search current content more thoroughly than a search engine right on your own computer.
  • Check a site for broken links, or generate an HTML sitemap
  • Create full page images of URL's (JPEG, BMP, TIFF, PNG, PSD, etc.)

With Blue Crab you can download all the content including HTML, PDF, graphics, video, file archives, etc., or use selective filtering to restrict downloads to specific kinds of files. For example, you can choose to save only the JPEG images Blue Crab finds, or just the PDF's.

Blue Crab has a special feature called the "Media Grabber" which you can use to easily download just the images (or movies) on a web site Moreover, you can view a slide show of the images as they are downloaded. You also have the option of "flattening" the images, i.e. putting them all into one folder, or preserving the folder structure on the server (just as when downloading a complete web site for offline viewing.)

Blue Crab is always gentle on the server, processing only one URL at a time. (You can even make it pause between successive downloads so as to not overwhelm the server.)

The demo version you download now is fully functionaly and runs for about ten days.

Major Features:

  • Unique URL extraction algorithms yield very complete downloads compared to other products of this type.
  • You can download web sites either for offline browsing, via re-linking of URL's, or to create virtual copies of them on your hard drive, i.e. backup a web site as-is.
  • Supports both HTTP, HTTPS protocols as well as server realms. Detailed Grabber window shows server HTTP header response fields.
  • Optionally display web pages as they are crawled using either your own web browser or Blue Crabs own web window.
  • You can restrict a crawl to just the initial domain, or allow the program to "stray" into offsite URL's
  • Blue Crab can remap "dynamic" URL's which contain path and search arguments so that resulting disk files are navigable offline.
  • Image URL's into JPEG files (or any other graphic file type supported by Quicktime) to create complete pictures of web pages not possible simply by taking a single screen shot yourself.
  • Blue Crab provides its URL imaging ability as a service menu item available from other applications.
  • URL's can be imaged into files, or onto the clipboard.
  • Built-in directory search displays found files as a hierarchical list, with double-clickable entries.
  • A "batch window" enables you to download your own list of files. Simply drag and drop URL's into the batch window, or import them from an HTML file , or text file.
  • Grabbing in "images-only" mode just downloads image files, optionally "flattening" the results (i.e. putting all images into one folder.)
  • Reusable configuration settings control what is grabbed, saved or crawled:
  • Filter by size, date, file type or even content
  • Filter by filename, extension or path
  • Bookmarks window for storing frequently crawled web sites
  • Supports form submissions to enable you to begin a crawl from a login page.
  • Supports cookies for more accurate downloads.
  • Generate site maps that consist of a hierarchical display of URL's Such maps can be optionally filtered by extension.
  • Find email addresses.
  • Customizable user-agent (spoofing) enables you to download web sites which are platform specific.
  • Optionally receive email notifications of Blue Crab's progress during a lengthy crawl.
  • Dock badging provides visual feedback or progress when the program is in the background.

What's new in this version:

  • Improved the behavior of the batch downloader when importing text files.
  • Fixed a bug that could corrupt memory when the batch download window was closed.

Operating System Requirements:

This product is designed to run on the following operating systems:

  • Mac OS X 10.5 Intel
  • Mac OS X 10.5 PPC
  • Mac OS X 10.4 Intel
  • Mac OS X 10.4 PPC

Additional Requirements:

  • Mac OS X 10.4 and above.

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Feedback Summary:

Version 4.9.6:
Overall Rating: (4.0) Features: (4.0) Support: (5.0)
Ease of Use: (3.0) Quality / Stability: (5.0) Price: (3.0)
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Blue Crab ReviewPain in the neck to configure - Version: 4.9.8, 10/28/2008 11:37AM PST

decadence
I own this and SiteSucker.

Blue Crab always gives me trouble.

SiteSucker always gets the website (doesn't get .flv files, but I don't think Blue Crab does either - I'm not likely to find out as Blue Crab usually crashed on me).
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Blue Crab ReviewBest by Far - Version: 4.9.6, 4/18/2008 03:08PM PST

mac-apples
After trying 3 other programs, only Blue Crab was able to download for off-line viewing of the entire site. It maintained all the links etc Wonderful! It may be a bit unMac-like but that can improve later. It does what it says it will do, that's important!
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Most Recent Replies: View All 1 Replies

Blue Crab ReviewFreakin' AWESOME! - Version: 4.9.0, 6/15/2007 02:05PM PST

jchayes369
Not one, not two, but FIVE different page grabbers in one application. One gives you full control and a detailed progress report as it crawls and grabs as much or as little as you want. One does the same thing but has a simplified display. One grabs only the page or two at the url you give it. One grabs images only, displaying them as they are grabbed. The fifth crawls pages or sites from urls in a text document you import, like a list of downloadable files contained in an email. Easy to use. Even does a thorough job of creating a browser-friendly copy of database-driven websites on your Mac. All that "whatever.php" server-side silliness is no problem. Blue Crab has more useful features than any two other similar apps combined. And to top it all, there's a friendly, responsive, knowledgeable person answering your support emails. Blue Crab is a bargain at twice the price.
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