Makes a complete archive of imageboard threads including images, HTML, and JSON.
Project description
BASC Archiver
The BASC Archiver is a Python library (packaged with the thread-archiver script) used to archive imageboard threads. It uses the 4chan API with the py4chan wrapper. Developers are free to use the BASC-Archiver library for some interesting third-party applications, as it is licensed under the LGPLv3.
It comes with a CLI interface for archiving threads, the thread-archiver, with a GUI interface under development.
The thread-archiver is designed to archive all content from a 4chan thread:
Download all images and/or thumbnails in given threads.
Download all child threads (threads referred to in a post).
Download a JSON dump of thread comments using the 4chan API.
Download the HTML page.
Convert links in HTML to use the downloaded images.
Download CSS/JS and convert HTML to use them.
Keep downloading until 404 (with a user-set delay).
Can be restarted at any time.
Threaded downloading to download multiple files at the same time.
The thread-archiver replaces the typical “Right-click Save As, Web Page Complete” action, which does not save full-sized images or JSON. It works as a guerilla, static HTML alternative to Fuuka.
Usage
Usage: thread-archiver <url>... [options] thread-archiver -h | --help thread-archiver -v | --version Options: --path=<string> Path to folder where archives will be saved [default: ./archive] --runonce Downloads the thread as it is presently, then exits --thread-check-delay=<float> Delay between checks of the same thread [default: 90] --delay=<float> Delay between file downloads [default: 0] --poll-delay=<float> Delay between thread checks [default: 20] --dl-threads-per-site=<int> Download threads to use per site [default: 5] --dl-thread-wait=<float> Seconds to wait between downloads on each thread [default: 0.1] --nothumbs Don't download thumbnails --thumbsonly Download thumbnails, no images --ssl Download using HTTPS --follow-children Follow threads linked in downloaded threads --follow-to-other-boards Follow linked threads, even if from other boards --silent Suppresses mundane printouts, prints what's important -v --verbose Printout more information than normal -h --help Show help -V --version Show version
Example
thread-archiver http://boards.4chan.org/b/res/423861837 --delay 5 --thumbsonly
Installation
The BASC-Archiver works on both Python 2.x and 3.x, and can be installed on Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X.
New stable releases can be found on our Releases page, or installed with the PyPi package BASC-Archiver.
Linux and OSX
Make sure you have Python installed. Here’s a Mac OS X Installation Guide. Note that almost all Linux distros have Python preinstalled.
Run easy_install basc-archiver
Linux users must run this command as root, or prefix the command with sudo.
Run thread-archiver http://boards.4chan.org/etc/thread/12345
Threads will be saved in ./archive, but you can change that by supplying a directory with the --path= argument.
Windows
Download the latest release from our page.
Open up a command prompt window (cmd.exe), and move to the directory with thread-archiver.exe
Run thread-archiver.exe http://boards.4chan.org/etc/thread/12345
Using the Windows version will become simpler once we finish writing the GUI.
Android (CLI)
Note: This is a temporary solution until we put together some kind of Android GUI app.
Thanks to the QPython interpreter, you can effortlessly run the BASC-Archiver on your Android phone.
Install the QPython app from Google Play.
Open the QPython app, and swipe left to reach the menu.
Tap Package Index. Then scroll down and tap Pip Console.
Run the following commands (after starting the pip_install.py script):
pip install requests pip install basc-archiver
Now you can just open QPython, tap My QPython, tap pip_console, and run the following command with your own thread URL:
thread-archiver --path=/sdcard/ http://boards.4chan.org/qa/thread/23839
To run the script in the background, press the back button, and tap OK at the Run in Background prompt. You can stop the script anytime using Vol Down + C.
Note: On Android (CLI), it is important to set the path to /sdcard/, so the thread dump can be accessed from the /sdcard/archives/4chan/ folder.
Note: To update the BASC-Archiver on Android (CLI), you must open QPython, press the 3-dot menu button, scroll down and tap Reset Private Space. Then just reinstall the BASC-Archiver.
License
Bibliotheca Anonoma Imageboard Thread Archiver (BASC Archiver)
Copyright (C) 2014 Lawrence Wu, Daniel Oaks. Licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.
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