Learn Html for Your Xsitepro Websites with HTTrack
October 31, 2008 by Scott
Filed under Xsitepro Technical
Just because you own Xsitepro
doesn’t mean you can get away without ever learning any html. Html is
the basic coding of any website and although you can read up on how to
use html, there’s nothing like seeing html used in real life.
The wysiwyg editor of Xsitepro works very well, however there are
times when you will need to know some html to get things right…so you
better learn html coding! Below is a post I did in the Xsitepro Forum
hoping to help some of my fellow xsitepro users with a free tool that
will help them study html coding in existing websites.
OK…man, you guys/gals have come up with some really good stuff.
Anybody ever use HTTrack Website Copier?
Before you start thinking this is illegal, remember just about
anything you put online is accessible to anybody….I don’t like it
anymore than the other guy, but and that’s a big but, it depends on how
you use this material.
Bottom line, if you download someone else’s stuff and use it on your
website or sell it then you are a thief…plain and simple, your a thief
just like any other parasite.
However, as a webmaster HTTrack can do many things for you.
First let me tell you what it does. Basically it downloads the entire website to your desktop, complete with folders files ect.
This is from their website:
It allows you to download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to
a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML,
images, and other files from the server to your computer. HTTrack
arranges the original site’s relative link-structure. Simply open a
page of the “mirrored” website in your browser, and you can browse the
site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. HTTrack can
also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted
downloads. HTTrack is fully configurable, and has an integrated help
system.
There are a number of ways you can use this tool. For instance if
you are working with a person who has a website up and there has been
an argument between the domain owner and the webmaster, and the domain
owner hired you to redo his site….You can download almost everything on
the server.
I almost hesitate sharing this tool because I know there will be
some that will use it in an unscrupulous way. Please don’t think you
can download someones site and steal their content, images and site
structure…..that would make you a real jerk!
Once I had a client that was a doctor and they wanted to put 100’s
of pdf’s directly on their site that came from another doctor. The
other doctor gave their permission and I was able to use HTTrack to
grab the needed files.
Basically, I use the tool to grab a website and plug it into
dreamweaver and study how the site was put together. I’ve learned a lot
of tricks and I’ve been able to duplicate affects that I would have
never figured out on my own. So….in essence for me, it is a great
learning and teaching tool.
You can configure the program to only download certain sections of a
website. I would highly recommend only downloading what you need.
Remember if you snag someone’s site that is huge, you’ll be taking
bandwidth from them.
The tool has been around for a while, many people use it. Just
remember to use it wisely and if you think you are going to use
anything you download….please, please get permission first.
To get your free copy of HTTrack….just go to http://www.httrack.com
For some of you guys who are new to building websites, it’s a great
way to learn html. You’ll be able to learn certain effects and transfer
those effects to your Xsitepro websites.
When you see a site with something really cool and it doesn’t show up
on “view source code”, you can give httrack a try. By the way, this
tool isn’t foolproof and will not grab everything, but you will get
more than is available with “view source code”…..plus you can see how a
site is structured.
Most will pass this by, but perfection involves understanding. Even
though you use Xsitepro, at some point you need to start learning
html…unless you are building only one site in your lifetime.
I’m constantly amazed at the number of people who bitch and complain
the xsitepro won’t do this or that…when in the long run, some basic
understanding of html and css would prove invaluable in the development
of your sites.
Oh well….I better stop before I say something that gets me in trouble 
Best Wishes to All!
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I don’t get the link between httrack and html, if you want to find out more about html, its a lot easier to right click, then view source, than spend hours downloading a complete website.
Right click not allowed?
Go to view, scroll down to source.
Pete….you’re correct regarding viewing the html of any page. The quickest way to see how a page is put together is by viewing the source code for the page through your browser, whether it be firefox, IE or any of the others.
Often times when viewing the source code with your browser, certain elements can be left out. Also the structure of the page could be questionable. I use “view sourcecode” probably 98% of the time, however there are times when viewing the source code just won’t give you the details needed to understand how a website has been constructed. So….for me I will use HTTrack to dump a small website or directory within a website. ONe of the features of HTTrack is that you can control what you want downloaded. It would be really rude to download a 1000 page site if you were only interested in a few pages. Bottom line is that I can get an entire site to study if I need to, you can’t do that when viewing the source code through a browser.
One time I had a client that was given permission to copy of another website. There were 100′s of pages of content to duplicate. I could have done it by using the provided wordpress documents….that would have taken me a week of mindless work. Using HTTrack allowed me to simply download the pages with the appropriate folders and then upload to the new site. Keep in mind, neither my client nor the client’s friend had any idea how the pages were formed thus couldn’t send me copies….again, Httrack was of immense help. I can’t say this enough….never copy a website and use the contents without written permission….doing so without permission will create BIG problems for you….and rightly so!
As you probably already know, Xsitepro has it’s problems when trying to share a website. The xse files are only readable by Xsitepro. There are countless reasons to download the entire Xsitepro site for either study or recreation. For instance, your Xsitepro client has lost access to their server and has lost either control of or access to the .xse file for the entire website. At least with HTTrack you can download the entire site……that means everything that’s on the server. If you do work for others, this free tool, just could end up making you look like some sort of super duper webmaster
Hope that answers your question….
Scott