WebWhacker v3.2

What is WebWhacker?

If you've ever tried to download a page off the Internet, something became very apparent. The nice graphics, which accompanied the page on the Internet, were missing after the download process. WebWhacker will mirror image entire pages from the World Wide Web, graphics and all. It allows you to view those pages at any time from your local desktop without having to reconnect to the Internet.

Why do we need WebWhacker?

• Allows classrooms without Internet connectivity access to the information found on the World Wide Web.
• Allows flexible creation and grouping of curriculum topics.
• Eliminates the need to monitor student choices.
• Directs students to desired topics.
• Limits liability by pre-censoring the available sites.

System Requirements (Windows 95)

System Requirements (Macintosh)

A word about copyrights?

Gathering pages from the Internet, for use in the classroom, is permitted under the United State's fair use of copyrighted works clause found in the current copyright laws. This clause permits the fair use of copyrighted materials for criticism, comment, news reporting, research, and teaching. It should be noted that it would be illegal to copy these materials in a business setting. Additional information can be found at http://fairuse.stanford.edu/ 

Quick overview

Whacking a Web site requires 3 steps:

1. Create a group. A group is similar to a folder. Its function is to assist you in organizing your whacked sites. It can consist of the pages from one Web site or pages from several sites that are in the same category.
2. Add an Internet address (URL e.g. http://www.something.com)
3. Click the Whack button.

Toolbar descriptions

• Headlines- When you select this option, WebWhacker creates a temporary Web page with links to all your whacked URLs. Think of this as a ready made Home page for all of your whacked sites.
• Grab- When you select this option, WebWhacker grabs the page currently displayed on your browser and adds it to your URL list.
• Search- You can use this option to search for particular text in either the title or body of a whacked URL.
  • Whack- If you have URLs marked to whack, when you select this option, WebWhacker starts the whacking process.
  • Renew (or update) previously whacked URLs. Automatically update pages that have changed since the last update.
  • Schedule- You can use this option to change your scheduling preferences. These preferences are used to determine which URLs are updated when you select Renew or during the scheduled update process.
  • Props (properties)- Use this option to review and change the properties of individual URLs.
  • Import- This function imports WebWhacker 1.0 group files, Netscape Bookmarks, and WebWhacker Interchange Format files into WebWhacker 3.
  • Export- Use this function to export downloaded FTP files or Web pages. Note that Web pages export in raw HTML format, along with their associated images.

Getting Started

Selecting your Storage Device

1. In Program Manager or Mac HD or Server Volume create a directory to store all your web sites (e.g. d:\schoolweb).
2. Open up Web Whacker.
3. Click and select the WebWhacker Desktop icon
4. On your menu select File-Create Storage.
5. Navigate your way to the desired storage device (hard drive or server volume) and folder (e.g. d:\schoolweb).
6. Type in an appropriate name to describe the content you will be placing in that storage device (School Web Site).

Setting Up Categories

Click on the Storage device underneath WebWhacker Desktop.

From your menu choose Category-Add Category.

Type in an appropriate name to describe the content you will be placing in that category (e.g. Holiday). You can make sub categories by clicking on the menu and choosing Category-Add Category. You can delete categories by clicking on the category and pressing the delete key. You can move categories or make them a sub category of another folder by dragging and dropping. Rename by clicking on the name and typing in a new name.

ADD URL's

Click on a category. From your menu choose URL-Add Type in the URL Choose how many levels of the site you would like to whack.

Enter a User Name or Password if appropriate. Click on Next. Decide and select how often you would like to update the web site. decide and select when you want to start the whack. Click Finish. Click on the Whack button, the toolbar knife, after selecting all the URL's.

Making sense of the many icons

• In general, a red globe indicates a problem with downloading the URL; if the red image is a smaller globe on a piece of paper, that indicates a problem with one of the subordinate files (usually an image that could not be found).
• Remote sites are marked by globe icons. These pages, which have been added or grabbed but not yet whacked, appear in your browser as they currently exist on the Web.
• Local sites are marked by page icons. These pages appear in your browser as they were on the date when last whacked by WebWhacker—that is, in the version of the URL that resides on your hard drive or network.

• One knife indicates you only want to whack one level of the subscribed URL.
  • Two knives indicate you want to whack multiple levels of the subscribed URL.
  • Red icons indicate an error occurred when the URL was whacked.

If a local URL is one that changes frequently, or if you just want to make sure you are viewing the latest version, you may want to rewhack it or use the Renew function to update it. If the URL has a large globe next to it, your browser will navigate to the World Wide Web to display the page. If the URL has a page icon with a small globe inside, your browser will display the page from your desktop instead.

After whacking, pages successfully downloaded show a file symbol instead of the globe, indicating the pages are now local.

Viewing Whacked Sites

Configuring Netscape Navigator for use with WebWhacker

1. Go to Network Preference on the Options menu.

2. Choose the Proxies page.

3. Select the Manual Proxy Configuration radio button. Then select the View button.

4. Enter 127.0.0.1 into the HTTP Proxy edit box and 8080 into the Port: edit box. Click OK.

5. Click OK again. The change takes effect immediately.

If you want to browse remote URLs on the World Wide Web as well as local (downloaded) sites, don't forget to set WebWhacker to allow cache pass through on sites not in its database of cached sites. You do this by selecting WebWhacker Tools menu, the Preferences command, and then the Proxy Server page. In the Local Proxy Cache section, click in the Allow pass through on cache misses check box.

Switching back to your normal network usage:

1. Go to Network Preference on the Options menu.

2. Choose the Proxies page.

3. Select No Proxies.

4. Click OK. The change takes effect immediately.

Configuring Internet Explorer for use with WebWhacker

1. Open the Windows 95 Control Panel folder and double-click the Internet icon.

2. If you are using Internet Explorer version 2, select the Advanced page. Check Use Proxy Server and enter 127.0.0.1:8080 in the Proxy Server text box. Click OK. If you are using Internet Explorer version 3, select the Connections page. Check Connect through a proxy server and click on the Settings button. On the Server type line titled HTTP, enter 127.0.0.1 as the Address of proxy to use and:8080 as the Port.

3. Restart Internet Explorer for the change to take effect.

If you want to browse remote URLs on the World Wide Web as well as local (downloaded) sites, don't forget to set WebWhacker allow pass through on sites not in its database of cached sites. You do this by selecting WebWhacker's Tools menu, the Preferences command, and then the Proxy Server page. In the Local Proxy Cache section, click in the Allow pass through on cache misses check box.

Switching back to normal network usage:

1. Open the Control Panel folder and double-click the Internet icon.

2. If you are using Internet Explorer version 2, select the Advanced page. Uncheck Use Proxy Server. Click OK. If you are using Internet Explorer version 3, select the Connections page. Uncheck Connect through a proxy server. Click OK.

3. Restart Internet Explorer for the change to take effect.

WebWhacker tidbits

• If you try to stop a whack in progress it may take up to 5 minutes for the Whacking to actually stop.
• Pages that have downloaded unsuccessfully will show up in red. Clicking on the red URL will give you the error message. There are several reasons why this could happen. The most frequent reason is a dead link, the page does not exist anymore, or the URL has been changed.
• If the URL is one that changes frequently, set the URL's Update Frequency to rewhack. You may also use the Renew function to update it.
• Unlike v1.0 of Webwhacker, when browsing your whacked pages display with their corresponding World Wide Web URL.
• If you wish to have WebWhacker perform the whack in your absence, you must also set your Phone preferences correctly and have a Dial-Up network connection in place. This connection must be set up so that it will automatically send your user name and password to your Internet Service Provider. If you normally type your user name and password into a dial-up window, the scheduled whack or renewal will not occur. When you leave, be sure your computer is running, plugged into a modem or network card, and has WebWhacker running.
• WebWhacker 3 does not support HTML forms (for example, search forms).
• WebWhacker 3 does not support file, gopher, mail, news, and nntp. When the program encounters references to these protocols in the HTML, the references are skipped.
• WebWhacker 3 does not support CGI-generated scripts and images.

Blue Squirrel has made a sample Classroom Productivity Guide.

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