WebArchive Extractor

Introduction

WebArchive Extractor is a utility that takes Apple's WebArchive file format, and turns the file into a normal directory structure. This utility's focus is on helping you to create simple HTML pages with images using TextEdit. For example, after you create a document with images in TextEdit, you can save the file as WebArchive, use this utility to convert the file into a directory structure, and then upload the extracted directory structure to a web server. This process can be used to create help files for web applications, help files for desktop applications,s or very simple web sites.

WebArchive files can also be created by saving a web page in Safari (saving all the graphics, css, and images). You can then extract the web page locally using WebArchive Extractor.

For up to date information, please see the WebArchvie Extractor project page, or the maintainer's weblog. If you have questions or comments about WebArchive Extractor, please visit the forum.

Basic Usage

To extract an archive simply drag the web archive file onto the main window area (as seen in the picture below).

The archive file will extract to the directory that contains the web archive, and the new directory name will be the name of the web archive file without the web archive extension. For example, dragging Testfile.webarchive will create a directory named Testfile.

Preferences

There are a few settings you can use to fine tune the extraction. The settings are found by choosing WebArchive Extractor > Preferences... or by pressing ⌘, . The preferences window looks like the following picture, and we will discuss each setting below.

• Index file: The index file setting controls what name the main file will have after extraction. The default is index.html.
• Output type: The output type controls how the HTML will be written in the extracted file. There is very little difference between these settings aside from the inclusion / exclusion of the <?xml ?> processing instruction. If you are including the extracted HTML into a PHP file, you'll want to set the Output type to HTML (otherwise PHP will error when it sees the first <?)
• Asset URL: If you put a URL here, the URL will be added before the images upon extraction. For example, assume you have an image in the document named Logo.gif. If the Asset URL setting is blank, the image tag's source attribute will simply be src="Logo.gif". If, however, you set this setting to http://robrohan.com/images/ the source attribute will be src="http://robrohan.com/images/Logo.gif". This setting is helpful if you are using a framework that requires full paths to images, or you would like to use placeholder images to point to "live" images maintained elsewhere.

• Check for update on startup: This will allow WebArchive Extractor to see if there is a newer version available when the application is run.

Log

There is a simple log that will display errors or messages during an extraction. To view the log select View > Show Log from the menu bar, or press the keys ⌘L. An example of the log window can be seen below.

Getting the Source

To get the WebArchive Extractor source code, you'll need to use the free and open source git version control system. Once you have git installed, you can clone the repository by using the following command:

$ git clone http://robrohan.com/projects/WebArchiveExtractor/repo/WebArchiveExtractor.git

Licenses

Source code: Copyright © 2007 Rob Rohan. All rights reserved.

Source code: Copyright © 2006 Vitaly Davidenko. Apple Public License

Icons: Copyright © Everaldo Coelho. Crystal Project Icons. http://www.everaldo.com GNU GPL

Sparkle Self updater: Copyright (c) 2002, Brent Simmons http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/ MIT Like

Changes

Please note: this section will not be updated, and is only here to show past changes before the code was forked. The WebArchive Extractor source code is in a publicly available source code repository. If you are curious about the changes, please consult the repository (see the Getting the Source section).

Version 0.3  2007-09-18

Forking from the Sourceforge site by Rob Rohan. Mostly just a UI clean up and a re-release. To get the original code with the Automator task see: https://sourceforge.net/projects/webarchivext/

Version 0.2 

Improves stability and addresses a number of other minor issues.

 - crash on releasing of autorelease pool fixed (in NSCoreDragReceiveProc)

 - main resource name changed to webarchive-index.html

 - bundle identifiers changed

Version 0.1

initial release