Downloading/viewing website offline

Rikmeister · 3 Apr 2021 at 11:16

Can anyone recommend software that allows you to download websites or sections of websites for later viewing?

How do they handle logins, JavaScript etc?

Donnie Fisher · 3 Apr 2021 at 20:19

Depends on the website really. It used to be easy where there was individual files for each page of content and you could download it like a whole file structure.
Some sites are now more scripted on the fly. You send a request for a page and the server generates it for you on the fly custom to your request parameters drawing info from various databases of content . As a result there may not be a real file structure to download in one.

Colin Anderson · 3 Apr 2021 at 21:28

HTTrack website copier is pretty good

Deleted member 77746 · 3 Apr 2021 at 21:30

Rikmeister said:
Can anyone recommend software that allows you to download websites or sections of websites for later viewing?

How do they handle logins, JavaScript etc?

You can't login to a site that's offline. You can view that page but that's about it. Anything that uses server side stuff you won't get a copy of no matter what software you use to rip the site into offline mode.

Cooler running · 3 Apr 2021 at 23:20

Rikmeister said:
Can anyone recommend software that allows you to download websites or sections of websites for later viewing?

How do they handle logins, JavaScript etc?

Most website's will break in some way when it comes to dynamic content which such as the deep-web behind an account kind of thing, but you can do it for content website like Wikipedia.
Have a nose here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offline_reader

Rikmeister · 5 Apr 2021 at 18:13

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Think I'll give HTTrack a try

this_is_gav · 6 Apr 2021 at 14:24

If it's just a few static pages then Vivaldi browser (Chromium based) can capture entire pages (or parts of them) and save then as images. Of course you could do this manually by stitching screenshots together too, so I'm guessing you're wanting a more something a bit more complex?

I doubt HTTrack will do much unless the website is ancient (eg bog standard HTML and images). It's worth a shot though.