Site Import tool

[TonyK]

Here we go again. WebAssist has a Dreamweaver extension that lets you import a site with Dreamweaver and you can copy the anything you please so much for your hard work. Time to ban webassist from all my sites.

http://www.webassist.com/Products/ProductDetails.asp?PID=68&CouponID=aycsra&RID=403& LID=Header

[toddharr]

Originally Posted by TonyK

Time to ban webassist from all my sites.

Like other site sucking automation tools, I think it is software that just runs at the users end. All you see at your site is ordinary page url requests, so how would you ban it?

It would be nice to make this difficult for people, if they are going to take my look, feel, and structure the should at least have to steal it one piece at a time!

[generic]

dont be too paranoid.

you can do the came thing with view source or any other site copying script or even frontpages import web option...

it will not pull in your dynamic data like your database password and configuration info as long as you have it in an .asp or .php page (good reason not to have them in a page named .inc, or .txt, etc.), nor will it import pre processed data in .asp or php code. It imorts web pages using http which will process the pages before it imports them.

[TonyK]

Well now tracewebspace read this:
http://www.webassist.com/Products/Pr...ils.asp?PID=68

WA Site Import works its magic with all kinds of Web sites - including those developed with ASP, ColdFusion, PHP or even .NET. WA Site Import stores the browser representation of any dynamic page, re-writing file names and URLs to maintain links and site structure.

[bootNumlock]

well heck... you can go to the file menu and save as in freakin' internet explorer for most sites... this is how we start interactive demo/mock sites for clients that have developers that do not create bogus test user accounts

i can definitely see the frustration with a product that encourages site sucking and copying, but i firmly believe that teams or people that operate that way are living on borrowed time anyway...

if YOU are true to yourself and your clients, in the long run, everyone will see that -- you just need to ride out all the crap storms from all the not so true people out there

[ferretman]

TonyK, the quote you supplied says it all...

Originally Posted by TonyK

WA Site Import stores the browser representation of...

This means that the tool only saves what a browser would normally see.

The reason this tool claims that is works with dynamic content is because they rename files and the links to those files so dynamic pages with extensions like .pl, .php, and .asp (to name a few) can be viewed on a desktop machine that isn't running the web server software necessary to render dynamic content.

However, the pages it saves will not be "dynamic" they will be a static representation of the dynamic pages your site served up when they ran the importer.

A user could get the same results by just doing a file->save or by viewing the source. A user could also just pull the files out of their cache or use one of the thousands of other site importers.

While this tool goes a step further by pulling the import into Dreamweaver, I don't think it is anything to worry about.

[generic]

Exactly its right there in your quote:

"WA Site Import stores the browser representation" of any dynamic page, re-writing file names and URLs to maintain links and site structure.

It stores what you see in the browser, not what's on the server.

So they will get a replica of your site, but not your confidential includes, config files, etc.


edit*** I see ferretman beat me to the punch, guess i type too slow.

[ferretman]

Nice ferret. Mine like to type with me too. Usually slows down the programming. I also called a large bet in online poker with nothing thanks to one of my ferrets.