URL/Web/HTML experts: Help!

Is there a way of copying an entire webpage off the 'web and storing it on a different address? That's what a 'mirror' is, right? How can I do that, and does the 'mirror' stay in existence even if the original page is removed?

Easiest way to do it from your browser is to do a File-->Save, and save it locally on your computer first.

You could then upload this page and its related files (graphics, style sheets, etc.) to another site.

However, you may get in trouble if it is copyrighted work. Just beware that many folk are more aware of this issue today than, say, three years ago...

:D

file -> saveas will do it in ie on windows. then you could, i suppose, mail that page to someone...

otherwise you have to do things like save the source of the page, and all the linked files, etc... there are local cacheing software solutions for that to automate it, but you could do it manually.

CanuckAmok wrote:

Is there a way of copying an entire webpage off the 'web and storing it on a different address? That's what a 'mirror' is, right? How can I do that, and does the 'mirror' stay in existence even if the original page is removed?

Single page or a whole web site or section of a web site?

If the former, one of the "Save Page As..." options should be able to do the job. If the latter, you'll need some sort of a spider tool to crawl and store the site for you. There should be several options out there. The best I've found, so far, might be HTTrack. If you use the Mozilla browser, there's an extension for it called Spiderzilla which serves as a front-end built into the browser for HTTrack.

HTH

COPYRIGHTS, though. If your taking someone else's site, they probably won't like that ;)

Chris

Assuming you do, I would also assume you have the site owner's agreement. You don't just go ahead willy-nilly mirroring sites.

Since you have the owner's permission, you get the original files they uploaded and ftp them to the new location.

file...>> save with images as...>> sometimes works, but there may be links or scripts in there leading to local directories on the server or other things that won't be saved.

Someone's trying to pull a fast one on me, and I just need evidence of claims they make while doing business. I'm just keeping it in case I need it as evidence in Court, if it comes to that.

Probably won't though...I'm just being cautious.

CanuckAmok wrote:

Someone's trying to pull a fast one on me, and I just need evidence of claims they make while doing business.

There's another tool out there which could be at your disposal, if you're lucky, at times like this when you wish to know what the content of a website was at some time in the past. This tool is The WayBack Machine. This is a project by the Alexa people (IIRC) to basically mirror the internet so that snapshots of it at different times are preserved for posterity. So basically, if you have a URL, and Alexa's robot happens to have crawled it at the right time, you should be able to get somewhat of a copy of it from the desired time. The only caveat (besides the fact that you might not get lucky enough to have had the robot crawl what you wanted when you wanted it, by chance alone) is that the robot respects the 'robots.txt' file and will thus not crawl where people don't want it to crawl.

Thought you were thinking of something else. Like setting up a mirror site of what would be copyrighted material.

I'd check with a lawyer on whether or not the pages you save on your drive would be valid as evidence. Nothing stopping you from changing something on there and claiming you didn't. Not a bad idea to have them for your own info, though. And, as someone mentioned, no problem having a copy for your own use.

Someone else mentioned Alexa, and Google caches pages that might have disappeared. They being disinterested third parties would make their pages pretty good evidence if they show what you want.

Saving a screen shot would probably do what you want just as well.

There's nothing wrong with mirroring a site for one's personal use. In fact, unless one turns off caching, it's impossible to browse the web without making a temporary copy of whatever one has been browsing. If someone puts something to make it publicly available, it means just that, that it's public ally available. This doesn't mean one has a right to post the material but one does have a right to have the material (if the author isn't O.K. with that, the author should not have made it available in the first place).

TreasonousBastard wrote:

Assuming you do, I would also assume you have the site owner's agreement. You don't just go ahead willy-nilly mirroring sites.

While I guess it would always be polite to ask for permission before spidering someone's website (particularly if one has a fast connection which could put an excessive load on their server --not an issue with me but it could be an issue with others), this isn't always possible (such as if you're mirroring a dead person's website --yeah, I know, I need a new hobby :P).

And, of course, one shouldn't discount the fact that there's a tradition of activism by mirroring in instances where the "powers that be" (or whoever) conspire to keep information from being available from the general public. This is why, for instance, one can find a lot of information about the "secret" writings of the Church of Scientology (they have a tendency to attack those who expose them for what they are through the, often successful, misuse of copyright law). Often, one could say this falls more under the realm of civil disobedience (so yes, generally, one shouldn't "go ahead willy-nilly mirroring sites" but sometimes somebody has to).