Downloading from the Wayback Machine

[BobH]

{ Scuttlebutt chosen because I wasn't smart enough to figure out where this post belongs.}

I want to download several snapshots of a web page from The Wayback Machine. I know the URL and even have found several dates when snapshots were taken, but I was stumped on figuring out how to do downloads with that information. The web pages I want to download are for a web site I composed and hosted more than a decade ago and for which I have lost the code due to poor back up and recovery practices. I probably have the code on an HDD but cannot find it on any one currently mounted.

Searches revealed a command line app called wget but I haven't learned how to get it, install it and use it from the web pages I found.

Searches also revealed something called a Ruby Gem. Again, I don't know enough to interpret and understand instructions given for using it. I did learn that Ruby is apparently an app, but I don't know how to find out if it is installed on my machine. It doesn't show up as Ruby in the list of programs but an Everything 1.5 search revealed a pageful of files with Ruby in their names. They are in paths and directories associated with SketchUp which leads me to believe that they might indicate that Ruby is installed; however, I have no clue how to run it and haven't found anything yet that explains it in a way I can understand. I seem to be losing marbles daily.

If anyone has a link to good wiki on downloading from TWM, on wget, or on Ruby Gem, I'd be much obliged . . .

[HansV]

I'll move it to Web Development.

[BobH]

I thought maybe wget and ruby took it outside that since they are apps (I think).

Sorry for the extra work.

[HansV]

Other Software would have been possible too, but it doesn't really matter...

[ChrisGreaves]

I want to download several snapshots of a web page from The Wayback Machine. I know the URL

Hi Bob. I may be missing something here, but if the number of images and/or complete web pages you want are few, why not try:-
Right-Click
SaveAs
?

I just tried it on one of my web pages:-

Untitled.png

I right-clicked where it reads "Continuous-flow ..." and chose saveAs (or "Save Link As")

Untitled2.png

And here is the web page, saved as an HTM file on my RAM disk.
Cheers, Chris

[JoeP]

In Edge, you can use the "web capture" (CTRL+Shift+S) function to capture the page. You can also right-click on the page and select "View page source" (CTRL+U) if you want the source code.

[stuck]

In Edge...

In Firefox:
    https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-save-web-page#
and to see the page source, RIGHT click and choose the relevant option.

Ken

[BobH]

The web pages I want to retrieve exist only in the archives at The Wayback Machine. They cannot be displayed in a browser from there, to my knowledge. If someone can tell me how to display them capturing their source is easy.

As I mentioned in the OP, the only ways I've found to retrieve web pages from The Wayback Machine archives are by using wget or gem, neither of which do I know how to use.

Of course, it's always possible that my old grey cells (note the emphasis on the old) have become too rigid and unused to exercise . . .

[stuck]

The web pages I want to retrieve exist only in the archives at The Wayback Machine. They cannot be displayed in a browser from there, to my knowledge. If someone can tell me how to display them capturing their source is easy...

I must be missing something because I thought the whole point of The Wayback Machine was to view old sites in your browser. For example:
1) Go to: https://web.archive.org/
2) Enter 'eileenslounge.com' (or the actual domain you are interested in) into the search box and press enter
3) You get a page displaying a timeline of all the captures plus the same thing in a calendar layout underneath
4) In the calender, hover over a highlighted date, you get a pop-up giving you the time on that date when a capture was made
5) In the pop-up, click on the time of the capture
6) The page, as captured, loads in your browser.
7) RIGHT click and choose 'Save page as'. NB ensure the 'save as type' is set to 'web page complete'
8) Complete the save, making sure you know which folder you're saving to

Ken

[BobH]

Ken, you are absolutely correct.

I was suffering from a case of concrete brains.

I have now displayed and captured some of the pages of my old web page. Many of the links do not point to content, but I've not yet given up hope.

Thanks for helping through the mental fog.

[ChrisGreaves]

5) In the pop-up, click on the time of the capture

Thanks Ken. I had forgotten about r/c on the time of capture (which serves as a unique identifier).

Untitled.png

Ah! Those were the days ...
Cheers, Chris

[PaulB]

I've never used the Wayback Machine so I followed Ken's instructions above and found the first ever snapshot of 'Eileenslounge.com' captured on March 31, 2010 at 20:44:15.

Registered users online at that time were Alexa [Bot], ChrisGreaves and HansV (surprise, surprise), Mark L, Pat, Rudi (Hi, Rudi) and yours truly. We are all now historical footnotes.

[HansV]

Eileen's Lounge was only 2 months old at that time...

Here's a blast from the past:

Nostalgia.png

[ChrisGreaves]

Eileen's Lounge was only 2 months old at that time...

... and here is some pre-fabricated nostalgia for members of Eileen's Lounge circa 2073

Untitled2.jpg

Cheers Chris

[BobH]

^^^
I'll let you know but until then you'll just have to fend for yourself.

How many petabytes do you suppose the archive already holds?

[Jay Freedman]

The Internet Archive is a unique and valuable resource that depends on donations to survive. To anyone who is able, I'd urge sending some cash their way.

[stuck]

...Here's a blast from the past...

Ooo, those were the days!

Whatever happened to Lex? He never made it here did he?

Ken

[HansV]

Eileen Wharmby had customized the forum software used by Woody's Lounge to animate Lex the Lounge Lizard. It was not feasible to do that in phpBB3 here. And we might have run into problems with Windows Secrets.