I'm hoping to create an automator workflow that will delay downloading URLs that I specify until after a specified time in order to take advantage of my ISP's 120gb Off-Peak download limit upon which I almost never make a more than 5gb impression, while my peak downloads run almost to the (40gb) limit every time.
I don't want to pay for a schedule-capable download manager so please don't suggest that - and I'm yet to find a freeware app that does download scheduling - feel free to suggest one of those if you know of one!
Anyway, I'm going to use automator's 'Download URLs' action and specify that it download all the URLs in a particular folder on my hard drive, where I will (HOPEFULLY) save the URLs of things I want to download off-peak, then schedule iCal to run the workflow at the start of the off-peak session. Sounds good, yes?
I'm now looking for a simple, easy way to copy the links of things I want to download as .weblocs to my HD.
I know that you can drag-and-drop the URL of your open safari page onto your desktop/a folder and it will save as a webloc, but to do that means I have to open the links which will start downloading the file - not what I want. Same with Safari's 'save as' option - it needs the link to be open.
The contextual menu item 'Download linked file as' is close but not quite there. For a link which links directly to, say, a zip file, it simply opens a selection window for the location of the file and then saves it as a zip - it does not give me the option of saving it as a URL.
And, 'copy link' simply copies the text of the link. I could use it to create a text file full of the text of URLs but I wouldn't know how to get them to all be opened separately and downloaded from that.
If I knew how to use applescript I guess I would just try and write a new contextual menu item that did what I want, but I'm no scripter.
Any creative solutions? I get the feeling that I must be overlooking something obvious.
I don't want to pay for a schedule-capable download manager so please don't suggest that - and I'm yet to find a freeware app that does download scheduling - feel free to suggest one of those if you know of one!
Anyway, I'm going to use automator's 'Download URLs' action and specify that it download all the URLs in a particular folder on my hard drive, where I will (HOPEFULLY) save the URLs of things I want to download off-peak, then schedule iCal to run the workflow at the start of the off-peak session. Sounds good, yes?
I'm now looking for a simple, easy way to copy the links of things I want to download as .weblocs to my HD.
I know that you can drag-and-drop the URL of your open safari page onto your desktop/a folder and it will save as a webloc, but to do that means I have to open the links which will start downloading the file - not what I want. Same with Safari's 'save as' option - it needs the link to be open.
The contextual menu item 'Download linked file as' is close but not quite there. For a link which links directly to, say, a zip file, it simply opens a selection window for the location of the file and then saves it as a zip - it does not give me the option of saving it as a URL.
And, 'copy link' simply copies the text of the link. I could use it to create a text file full of the text of URLs but I wouldn't know how to get them to all be opened separately and downloaded from that.
If I knew how to use applescript I guess I would just try and write a new contextual menu item that did what I want, but I'm no scripter.
Any creative solutions? I get the feeling that I must be overlooking something obvious.
