The Downloader For Reddit – V2.

0
Downloader for Reddit is a GUI application for downloading content submitted to reddit. It has many
advanced features and customizable settings to extract only content that you want and avoid
duplicate downloads (if you so choose).
The main GUI window is based on a similar project, The reddit Data Extractor by NSchrading.

Main Window

• In the main window, you can add lists of users or subreddits to download content from. User
content is always downloaded in order of newest, and subreddit content order may be changed
in the settings located in the file menu.
• The downloader will first attempt to verify that each user or subreddit that is to be downloaded
exists on reddit. Any time a user or subreddit fails verification a dialog will pop up to alert you
as well as ask if you would like to remove the user or subreddit from the list. If the user or
subreddit has a download folder in the current save path (meaning that posts were
downloaded by that user or subreddit before) and you select to remove the user or subreddit,
the download folder will be appended with word 'deleted' after the name so you are aware
when looking in the folder that the user or subreddit no longer exists.

• To add a user or subreddit, you must first add a user or subreddit list. This can be done by
either right clicking the dropdown combo box (displayed above with the words "Default" and
"List Two") or from the lists menu at the top of the window. This will open a dialog box that
allows you to enter the list name. You may make as many different lists as you wish and only
the list displayed at the time the download button is clicked will be downloaded. List may be
deleted by right clicking the list combo box or from the lists menu.

• To add users or subreddits either right click in the user list (left) or the subreddit list (right) and
click "add user/subreddit" or select the option from the list menu at the top of the window. This
will bring up a dialog box allowing you to enter the names of the user or subreddits. The dialog
box has a third option besides ok and cancel which allows you to add multiple users or
subreddits without having to close and open the window. Holding shift + enter is a keyboard
shortcut for this feature. Users or subreddits may be deleted by right clicking the item you wish
to delete or selecting the item then clicking the "-" button under the list.

• The user and subreddit lists can be sorted by name, date added, or number of downloads both
ascending and descending. These sort options are available in the ‘View’ menu in the menu
bar.

• The checkboxes below their respective windows dictate which list will be downloaded when the
program is run. Checking both checkboxes will constrain the user downloads to only the
content which has been posted to the subreddits in the subreddit list.

• Right clicking on a user or subreddit in one of the lists brings up a menu that allows you to
open the individual objects settings, view the objects downloads in an application window, or
open the objects download folder in the default file manager. Double clicking an object will also
open its settings dialog.

• Clicking the download button while the program is running will cancel the current downloads.
Any downloads which have already started (may be as many as the simultaneous download
thread limit (see settings)) will continue downloading after the button has been clicked and
then the download will stop. Content extraction and link download will happen simultaneously.
 If the downloader is stopped, the extraction process will also stop. If the ‘Save undownloaded
content’ checkbox in the settings menu is checked, any content that has been extracted but
not downloaded will be saved and download attempted during the next session. If this
checkbox is unchecked, any undownloaded content will be lost when the program is closed.

• Due to the way extracted links are saved, if a download is stopped after a user or subreddits
links have been extracted, the downloader will not download the link in future runs unless the
links are deleted from the objects saved list or the objects “Avoid Duplicates” attribute is False.

• When download begins, a progress bar will become visible in the lower right hand corner of the
window. The progress bar will then display the progress on content extraction. Each progress
bar step is a user or subreddit for which all available content has been extracted.

• After the first user or subreddit has been extracted, downloading will begin. You will see the
number of downloads status appear in the lower left hand corner of the window. Be aware the
second number (which represents the total number of files that are to be downloaded) will
continue to increase until all extraction has been completed.

• The output box will output information in real time as it happens during operation. It will output
each user or subreddit that is validated and each post that is saved with the full path the file
was saved at. It will also output any posts that fail to extract or download. The output will
specify why the download failed (connection error, extraction error, unsupported domain, etc.)
as well as tell you the post author, post title, the subreddit the post was submitted to, and will
provide the url for the content so that it may be downloaded manually.

• Additionally, under the lists menu there is a selection for 'Failed Downloads.' Clicking this
button will bring up a dialog that displays all failed downloads as well as the information listed
above. The default is for this dialog to open automatically at the end of a download to alert you
to all failed downloads. The auto open feature can be disabled from the dialog.

• Also in the lists menu is an option for 'Last Downloaded Users.' This option opens a dialog box
which contains a list of the users that had content downloaded during the last session and
optionally displays the downloaded content. The user content shown here will only be posts
from the user that were downloaded during the last session.

• Users and subreddit may be added automatically either from subfolder names located in a
master folder or via text file. To access these methods right click the add user or add
subreddit buttons and select the appropriate option. (Names on a text file must each be on a
new line or be separated by a comma. The files extension must be .txt)

• Note: Before any content can be downloaded from Imgur.com you will need to have an
Imgur client-id and client secret.
To obtain this go to https://api.imgur.com/oauth2/addclient.
 The following settings are recommended:
- Application name: DownloaderForReddit
- Authorization type: Anonymous usage without user authorization
- Authorization callback URL: Any valid url can be used here (ex. https://google.com)
- Application website: https://github.com/MalloyDelacroix/DownloaderForReddit
- Email: This is the email the client-id and secret will be sent to
This client-id and client secret will be entered in the 'Imgur Client Information' dialog box
accessed through the settings menu.

• Imgur will allow the application 12,500 api calls per day. If you are using an unusually high
amount of Imgur api calls or many calls at a high rate, Imgur may impose a rate limit on your IP
address. The application does take some steps to efficiently use api calls to avoid server
strain and rate limits, but these can still occur. Certain application features (such as not
avoiding duplicate downloads) will increase the number of Imgur api calls and should be
avoided during high volume use.
• Your remaining Imgur credits, and the time in which user credits reset can be seen in the
Imgur credit dialog accessed through the help menu.

• When extraction errors occur with Imgur in particular, certain information related to the type of
error experienced will be output in the output box when the errors occur. In most of these
cases (except an “unable to locate content” error) the reddit post data will be saved and
extraction attempted again during the next session.

• The total number of downloads that the application has performed on your system can be
viewed either in the main settings dialog, or in the about window (located in the help menu)
Settings Window

• The main settings window controls the universal settings through the entire program.

• From this window, you can:

- Set the program to automatically save on close
- Configure your Imgur client information
- Restrict downloads by post score
 - Set the post score limit and whether to only download posts above or below that score
- Set the way that subreddit posts will be ordered (choosing to sort by top will enable a combo
box to choose the desired top time-period)
- Set the number of posts to download from (Reddit’s api sets the max number at 1000)
- Choose to enforce user date limits*
- Restrict posts to after the specified date
- Choose whether to download videos or images
- Choose whether to include, exclude or only download nsfw content
- Choose whether to avoid downloading duplicate links**
- Set how downloaded subreddit posts are saved and named. The options are:
- Save the posts in a folder named after the subreddit the post was submitted to
- Save the posts in a folder named after the user that submitted the post
- Save the posts in a folder named after the user that submitted the post which is then
located in a folder named after the subreddit
- Save the post in a folder named after the subreddit the post was submitted to which is
then located in a folder named after the user that submitted the post
- Set whether or not downloaded user posts will be named by the name of the post as used on
reddit or by the image or album ID used on the hosting site
- Set the directory where you want posts to be saved to
- Dictate the number of simultaneous downloads (the max number of simultaneous downloads
is determined by the number of processing cores, both real and logical, in your computer) ***
- Determine whether to save un-downloaded content to be tried again during the next session

• The save button must be clicked for these settings to take effect. Saving the settings will also
save any main window changes (i.e. user and subreddit lists). After clicking 'Restore Defaults'
and resetting all settings options, you must still click save for the settings to take effect.

* When content is extracted for a user or subreddit, the user or subreddit ‘last download date’ is set to
the latest post that is extracted from reddit. Selecting this option will restrict post retrieval to after this
date. There is no way to reset the date, although an alternate date may be set with the next option in
the settings window or through each user’s individual settings window. When a ‘custom date limit’ is
set, any post submitted after that date will be retrieved and unless the ‘Do not overwrite these
settings’ checkbox is checked for the user or subreddit, the custom date will be set back to
the user or subreddit last download date when content is extracted.
** Each time an image or video is downloaded from a user or subreddit the url is saved in the users
'downloaded url list.' If this option is checked the downloader will scan the list to make sure a queued
url has not already be downloaded and will remove it from the queue if it has. Disabling this option
does not mean the downloader will not save urls, but just means that it will not search the lists before
attempting to download.

*** If you experience slow download performance, try adjusting the number of download threads. A
higher number here does not automatically equate to increased performance and should be tailored
to your particular processor and network capabilities.
The second page of settings window controls different display options
• The tooltip display options control which reddit object attributes are displayed via tooltip when
the object is hovered over in the main window list. As few or as many of these attributes can
be shown as you would like.
• The gif display options dictate what is shown for a .gif or .webm image type when viewed in
any of the content display views.
User Settings

• User settings is a way to further refine the downloader settings on a user by user basis. Aside
from user settings this window also displays some information about the selected user. It will
display the date and time the user was added to the list, the total number of downloads from
the user, a list of the urls that have been downloaded (this list is also used internally to avoid
duplicate downloads), any saved content for the user, and any saved submissions by the user.
By using the 'Download This User' button at the top of the dialog, you can download only the
selected user without downloading the rest of the users in the list.

• A user’s downloaded links, saved content, and saved submissions can be removed from their
list in order re-download an existing link or to avoid downloading the saved content or
submission item. If the item contains a link, the link can also be opened from this menu in the
default browser. These features are available via context menu from the list box.
 • Through the user settings menu you can also:
- Set a user specific post download limit
- Set how downloaded content is named for the user
- Set a custom save location for the user*
- Choose to avoid downloading images or videos
- Choose whether to include, exclude, or only download nsfw content from the user
- Choose to avoid duplicate downloads for the user
* Every user save path must end with the user’s name. This is not editable. Hover over the path
input line or the user name label to get a tooltip with the full path displayed if it is not visible in the
input line.

• The ‘Do not overwrite these settings' checkbox when checked will not allow the main window
settings to change the custom settings that you have set for individual users.

• The 'Restrict by Date' checkbox restricts downloads to posts submitted after the latest post that
has been downloaded for the user. This date is shown in the calendar box beside the
checkbox. This date can be set to a custom date and time by clicking the calendar box.
Unless the ‘Do not overwrite these settings’ checkbox is checked, the custom date will be
replaced by the post date of the newest content extracted.

• Clicking restore defaults will set all options to the way the options are set in the main window
settings and uncheck the 'Do not overwrite these settings' checkbox for any user that has it
checked. After clicking 'Restore Defaults' you must then click the 'OK' button to accept
the reset changes or they will not be reset.

• Clicking the 'View Downloads' button will display the content currently in the users download
folder in place of the settings options (see below).
Downloads View

• The downloads view shows content that has been downloaded from a user or subreddit if the
content is still in the user or subreddits download folder. This window can be accessed directly
from the main window by right clicking the user or subreddit who’s downloads you want to see
and clicking ‘View Downloads’. It can also be accessed by clicking the ‘View Downloads’
button at the bottom of the user or subreddit settings dialog.

• The downloads view contains two lists. The list on the left contains all the users or subreddits
in the current list and the list on the right displays the content in the download folder of the
selected user or subreddit.
• By right clicking on the user or subreddit name in the left list and then clicking ‘Open Download
Folder’, the download folder for the selected user or subreddit will be opened with the default
file manager.

• Similarly, by right clicking any of the items in the right content display list, a context menu is
opened with further options

• Clicking ‘Open File’ will open the selected image with the default image viewer program.
Double clicking the image will have the same result.

• The other options are used to control the size of the images that are displayed. When the
option ‘Icons Full List Width’ is checked, the images will be expanded to the full width of the
content display list and will be resized as the window is expanded.
Note: If the image is taller than it is wide, the image will not fill the entire width of the list.
Subreddit Settings

• Subreddit settings works identically to the user settings dialog, but with a two more subreddit
specific options. You can determine how to the path for subreddit downloads is built (eg.
path/subreddit name/user name/content) and set the subreddit sort method when downloading
the single subreddit. This option only applies if the 'Download This Subreddit' button is used.
The sort method will not be applied to individual subreddits when the main downloader is run.
User Finder

• The user finder has been removed for version 2.0 for compatibility reasons. A new and
improved user finder will be included in V2.1 coming soon.