diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d16a96 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +# Scrawl # + +Scrawl is a simple command line tool for downloading files referenced on websites using [CSS +selectors](http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css_selectors.asp). This application is not meant to be a replacement for +[curl](http://curl.haxx.se/) or [Wget](https://www.gnu.org/software/wget/), but rather a precision tool for grabbing +files when the context in which they are presented is known to. This capability is particularly useful when the path of +the desired file is not known but the URL of the website that links to it is (common for download pages). + +## Installation ## + +If you already have the Go environment and toolchain set up, you can get the latest version by running: + +``` +$ go get github.com/FooSoft/scrawl +``` + +## Example ## + +Let's say we want to create a script to download the latest Debian package of [Anki](http://ankisrs.net/): + +1. We load up the homepage and are presented with a big download button as shown in the screenshot below: + + [![Anki Homepage](img/anki-thumb.png)](img/anki.png) + +2. Let's copy that link so we can download the latest version with wGet or curl from our script at any time! + + Hmm, it looks like the path `http://ankisrs.net/download/mirror/anki-2.0.33.deb` has the version number embedded in + the filename. This means that even after a new version of Anki is released, our script will keep getting version + `2.0.33` (unless of course it gets deleted). + +3. Let's inspect the download link in your favorite browser to see what additional information we can get: + + [![Inspector](img/inspect-thumb.png)](img/inspect.png) + +4. It appears that we can easily create a selector for this element: `#linux > a:nth-child(2)`. + + Note that [Chrome](https://www.google.com/chrome/) provides the option to copy the CSS selector for any element, + making knowledge of web technology optional for this step. + +5. Now let's create a simple download and install script: + + ``` + #!/bin/sh + rm -rf /tmp/anki + mkdir /tmp/anki + scrawl -attr=href -dir=/tmp/anki -verbose http://ankisrs.net/ "#linux > a:nth-child(2)" + sudo dpkg -i /tmp/anki/*.deb + sudo apt-get install -y -f + ``` + + In this script, we prepare an empty download directory and tell Scrawl to scrape `http://ankisrs.net/`, extracting + the `href` property of the download link identified by the CSS selector `#linux > a:nth-child(2)`. We then install + the package and bring in any unsatisfied dependencies. + +## License ## + +MIT