Hi Gary & Co.,
would it be possible to add the option to download an entire thread as a .txt or .pdf file? Since it currently isn't possible to change the number of posts per page*, printing out any given thread (for example, a story hour you want to read in its entirety) is both difficult and consumes a LOT of ink. So - pretty please? :-)
(edit): Also - especially in Story Hour threads - just printing the page will not give text hidden behind the (spoiler) tag.
* or maybe I'm just too dense to find that option.
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Hi Gary & Co.,
would it be possible to add the option to download an entire thread as a .txt or .pdf file?
Or perhaps a way to change the view so that you just get the text of the thread with no artwork on the screen? Then save a text or print to PDF manually? Someone who knows CSS could probably do a firefox plugin that did that with no work on Paizos side.
I wholeheartedly support this idea.
KUDOS to the op for bringing this up!! I too support this idea, of course assuming if it can be done, and will wait for it if need be.
Gary, has any progress been made on an export function? Having recently concluded a game, I'd really like to be able to export it to a campaign journal on my wiki.
Since hitting the servers hard and having to worry about bots is a genuine concern I've seen you mention, I had a thought on how to address this...
Make the export something that only registered users can do and require either password or captcha confirmation to do so. The export would not necessarily need to be immediate, but rather it could be emailed to the user as a zipped HTML file. From there, a user should be able to do whatever they like with it from printing to applying their own CSS, to saving it as a PDF.
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Since hitting the servers hard and having to worry about bots is a genuine concern I've seen you mention, I had a thought on how to address this...Make the export something that only registered users can do and require either password or captcha confirmation to do so. The export would not necessarily need to be immediate, but rather it could be emailed to the user as a zipped HTML file. From there, a user should be able to do whatever they like with it from printing to applying their own CSS, to saving it as a PDF.
Neat idea for load-balancing! They can be batched up and run while the servers are quiet(er).
Your request for an archive of this thread has been received and we expect to send the file by email in XX hours.
Neat idea for load-balancing! They can be batched up and run while the servers are quiet(er).Your request for an archive of this thread has been received and we expect to send the file by email in XX hours.
Nice idea in theory, but judging by the old Wizards forums which did have an export as text option, some longer threads would qualify as a mailbomb for someone on dialup if they got emailed out. I don't even want to think about how large a PDF might be. Putting a zipped text into the requester's downloads for 24 hours might be a better way to go than email.
What is this 'dial up' you speak of?
Joking aside, something like email attachments aren't necessarily a mail bomb. Webmail systems like gmail are easily able to receive large attachments without the user being connected. When the user connects, the attachments don't immediately start downloading to their machine, instead they have to click to download them. Until the user does so, such emails don't really consume any more bandwidth than emails without attachments.
The thought of adding threads to your downloads section is an interesting idea, but if the processing may be delayed for load-balancing purposes, it would be counter productive to have to keep refreshing the site to see when the file appears. Much better to 'set it and forget it' IMO.
Naturally one possible blending of the two would be to receive an email with a download link. At any rate, if such files were placed in the My Download section they would pretty much HAVE to be temporary (or able to be cleared by the user), since threads do update over time and old versions wouldn't be too useful. (Although the ability to specify a range of posts to export could be interesting...)
Since it currently isn't possible to change the number of posts per page
There is an option if you use AutoPager add-on for Firefox
You can just save the whole file as a offline webpage. I did this webpage and it was only about 50 k, much smaller then most pdfs would be with pics.
What is this 'dial up' you speak of?
An archaic means of internet connection which is still used in some in enlightened places in the world. Sadly the choices here are an expensive but fairly fast connection with a drip feed data allowance after expending which costs go yet higher and/or speed is capped, or a cheap, pathetically slow dial up connection, which nonetheless has absolutely no limits to data downloaded. Unfortunately that means getting a large file emailed to me can end up tying up the connection for a couple of hours.
That's pretty unfortunate. Since it sounds like your current mail client will simply auto-download attachments, you might want to consider investigating ones that don't fetch attachments or pics until you tell it to. The web-based version of gmail will not DL attachments until you click them and you have to specifically approve email addresses for which you want it to show pictures/graphics.
Another option (depending on cell coverage in your area) would be to get a Droid or iPhone and simply tether your PC to it for your data connection. That's what I do when the cable goes out and it works rather well. Even with access to fast, unlimited connections, the built-in gmail app on my Droid has become my prefered method of reading mail since it only shows thumbnails of graphics from approved senders rather than sucking down the whole thing.
Anyway, good luck to you with your Interwoes.
There is an option if you use AutoPager add-on for Firefox
This also exists for Chrome, but it's not exactly intuitive to setup, plus you still end up with side bars and other things that are irrelevant to archival purposes. At any rate, if anyone wants to use it as a stop-gap, there are already rules published for both the Paizo forums and store. Here's the XML you would import into your rules for the message boards:
<autopager>
<site>
<urlPattern>http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/*</urlPattern>
<guid>7c285f22-45cf-6310-fc1a-6198-7bad-058f</guid>
<urlIsRegex>true</urlIsRegex>
<owner>Matt Devney</owner>
<contentXPath>//div[@class='post']</contentXPath>
<linkXPath>//a[(text()='next >')]</linkXPath>
<margin>1.00</margin>
<enableJS>false</enableJS>
<quickLoad>true</quickLoad>
<desc>paizo messageboards rule</desc>
</site>
</autopager>
Thanks Laithoron. I wrote that XML :-)
I know it isn't handy for archival, but allows all the posts of a thread to be displayed, depending on how it's set up, which can then be cut n pasted.
Thanks Laithoron. I wrote that XML :-)
I know it isn't handy for archival, but allows all the posts of a thread to be displayed, depending on how it's set up, which can then be cut n pasted.
Then thank you for writing it! Hope you don't mind me pasting it here, but the Chrome version basically requires you to cut/paste from FireFox. Figured I'd save fellow Chrome users that hassle.
As for archival, it's not as nice as the solution most of us are hoping for, but it'll get the job done until Gary has a chance to come up with a built-in tool. :)
More info: