Automate the download of a list of URLs/links

Posted by Leniel Macaferi on 7/28/2010 01:31:00 AM 

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I just wanted to automate the process of downloading a list of URLs/links. I thought about asking a question at SuperUser. So I did that and got a few answers. One of those answers pointed to the piece of software that does exactly what I wanted. The software is a Firefox add-on that I had used a long time ago but couldn’t think about it for this task. Its name is DownThemAll!. Yes with an exclamation mark at the end. I think this has to do with a relief felling you feel when you’re using it.

In this post I’ll walk you through the steps necessary to get your downloads going in a really fast way (fasten your seat belt). No more downloading and saving file by file. Phew!

I’m going to use the same list of URLs I posted on my question at SuperUser.

Suppose you have a list of URLs as this one:

http://creamteam.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/10-Chinatown.mp3
http://mp3muffin.com/train/burbs.mp3
http://www.knoxroad.com/wp-content/music/May/01%20World%20Sick.mp3
http://indierockcafe.com/mp3s/2010/may/5-18/bandofhorses_factory1.mp3
http://www.strangefamousrecords.com/sfr-audio/_common/sagefrancis_slowman.mp3
http://dangerbirdrecords.com/public/theoneamradio/crediblethreats.mp3
http://www.beggarsgroupusa.com/mp3/HolyFuck_LatinAmerica.mp3
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4746099/05%20Choices%201.mp3
http://subpop-public.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/audio/6801.mp3
http://gvsbchris.com/01%20Sleep%20Paralysist.mp3
http://bantermm.com/tracks/Annuals-Loxtep.mp3
http://downloads.pitchforkmedia.com/The%20National%20-%20Bloodbuzz%20Ohio.mp3
http://stereogum.com/mp3/the%20morning%20benders%20-%20Excuses.mp3

Save this list in a text file [ .txt ] extension and name it MP3s.txt.

Now let’s get DownThemAll! and do the real thing…

1 - Install DownThemAll! add-on for Firefox. After installing restart Firefox.

2 - Go to Firefox menu and select Tools - DownThemAll! Tools - Manager... Right-click inside DownThemAll! screen.

3 - Select context menu Misc - Import from file.

4 - On Import downloads dialog window make sure you select Text Files in the dropdown list.

5 - Point to the text file MP3s.txt that contains the URLs. Click Open button.

6 - On Make your selection dialog window, DownThemAll! will load each link it finds in the text file allowing you to select which ones you want to download and the folder where you want the files to be saved as well.

7 - Make your selections, click Start button.

Here's a screenshot of it just doing the "Downloading" part:

Figure 1 - DownThemAll! downloading the list of URLs from my question at SuperUser

Oh… and this is the feature request on DownThemAll! trac opened 3 years ago.

Nice to see this implemented and working so well.

Congrats to DownThemAll! developers and users. Fantastic add-on.