Missing Files and .WD3 extensions

Author Message
WarHippy 05/09/2004 07:57 pm
Since upgrading to 3.0, I`ve started having serious problems downloading websites. The window shows the files downloading, but after completion, if I browse the folders, they are empty. If I do as you suggest in another persons post, and export the website, using the "Export" listed under "File" in the top bar, the only extra file that appears is "descr.WD3" in each of the folders. I know that the WD3 extension is actually an advanced file management system file from a 3rd party program probably integrated into OE, and I`ve come to the conclusion that my missing file info is most likely hidden in that little WD3 file. I updaterd to version 3.1 hoping the problem would go away, but it hasn`t. Since it started when I went to version 3.0, I`m left with two choices to pursue: 1> How the file management program inter-reacts with OE has changed with the upgrade.
2> The file management program was added to the new version, and it has a bug
Now, since I`m just a tinkerer, not a pro, I`m expecting you to have a solution, or at least an explanation as to what is taking all the fun out of my downloading experience. I imagine it`s something simple that I would not have discovered at all, but I`d rather feel dumb and have my Offline Explorer working great again. Maybe I`ve come to depend on it too much, ya think?? Thanks for listening to my babbling
Oleg Chernavin 05/10/2004 02:12 pm
In fact, these .wd3 files were since Offline Explorer 1.0. WD3 means Web Downloader 3.0 version - it was a predecessor of Offline Explorer and Offline Explorer is just a new version of Web Downloader - only the user interface has changed, the rest code stays the same.

Offline Explorer 3.0 didn`t change the file management at all, so all downloaded files should be in the corresponding folders.

Do you mean that after the download completes, you cannot find any downloaded file in the download directory. Please tell me, can you browse the downloaded site using Offline Explorer? If yes, then the files are actually there. Descr.wd3 files do not contain downloaded files. All they contain is information about MIME types of each of the downloaded files in a folder and their modification date as reported by the server.

Best regards,
Oleg Chernavin
MP Staff
WarHippy 05/11/2004 04:34 pm
> Do you mean that after the download completes, you cannot find any downloaded file in the download directory. Please tell me, can you browse the downloaded site using Offline Explorer?

After waiting for 4 hours watching the website get downloaded, I tried browsing it with OE, and all I could find were empty folders, so I exported the site using the export command in the file menu, just like you suggested to another user named karen, who posted with a similar problem, the only thing found in the empty folders was the WD3 files, but I noticed when I was exporting, it said there were "0" MB to export, so it seems that whatever happened to the files occurred before I exported.

Now, here`s another new weird twist to the puzzle, that happened on my computer with WIN 2000 Pro installed. I installed OE on another of my computers that`s running WIN XP Pro. I made sure all the parameters were exactly the same as the WIN 2000 comp (folder Options and Properties, AND File Options and Properties). I downloaded the site again, using the XP OS, I was able to browse the site and all the files were in place, and I didn`t even have to export the site, it was already in the default folder on my hard drive. Then, I downloaded another site with both computers, the XP comp produced the files, the 2000 comp produced empty folders once again.

And, again I see two choices:
1> The difference in the coding between XP and 2000 enabled XP`s download and disabled 2000`s download, but that doesn`t seem likely.
2> Something is corrupted in either my WIN 2000 Program or the install of OE was less than perfect. Or, another installed program interfered with the download.

By the way, thanks for sharing the info on WD3 files, my source was a site that sounded like they were selling a program that would implement WD3 files in their already existing software, to make file management easier or more accurate. Does that mean they are selling your copyrighted material?? HMMM!
Oleg Chernavin 05/12/2004 06:25 am
What may happen is that the Project saves the files to a folder that cannot accept files (like because of sucurity restrictions, etc.). Can you open the Options dialog | File Locations section to change the Download directory to some other place (like in your Documents folder)?

Does this help?

Oleg.