Welcome to Jally Manual!
Jally is a free, small (13 Kbytes!) Java window-based program that automatically downloads the files you wish from the Internet: all you have to do is typing a starting URL or document and the extensions of the files to be downloaded!
1. Java
As Jally is written in Java, it can run on all hardware/software platforms that support Java; anyway, Jally is a Java program, not an applet: this means that you cannot run it on a simple Java-enabled web browser, but you need the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) Version 1.1.5 or higher (to work with the Swing graphic interface version, JRE 1.2 is recommended). If you do not have a JRE installed on your computer, follow this link to gather some info on availability and installation.
2. Jally installation
To install Jally, just copy the "Jally.jar" or "JallyOld.jar" file downloaded from this site into the directory "bin" installed by the JRE/JDK (refer to the download page for differences between the two .jar files); as a matter of fact, you can copy it into any directory you wish, but in this case you have to make sure that the above "bin" directory is enclosed in the "PATH" environment variable of your system (this is a little tougher, isn't it?).
3. Jally use
To run Jally you can type:
javaw -jar Jally.jar
or:
javaw -jar JallyOld.jar
at the system prompt from a shell/DOS/terminal (or however your system calls the command line) window: this will give you back the system prompt and show the Jally window.
Anyway, the main advantage of using a .jar compressed file is that with some systems (up to date: Windows 9x, Solaris) the JRE makes it possible to run a Java program simply opening its .jar file from the graphic interface without using the command line (for example, on Windows systems you can simply double-click the "Jally.jar" or JallyOld.jar icon): please refer to the JRE documentation for your system to check if this is your case.
If you are using JallyOld, in some cases and with earlier versions of JRE/JDK you may happen to see a strange jumble of text and buttons instead of the Jally main window: closing and restarting the application should be enough to remove this strange behaviour of the Java graphic manager.The image below is an example of what you could see (with Swing graphic interface):
Interaction with the window is very simple:
- Type the URL or document from which to start your search in the "StartingURL" text field;
- Type the directory of your system in which you want the files to be downloaded in the "Destination dir" text field;
- Check the "Create directory if not existing" box if you typed a directory that does not exists on your system and you want Jally to automatically create it;
- Check the "Do not overwrite files" box if you do not want newly downloaded files to replace already existing files with the same name (note that checking this box is up to date the only way to resume a stopped download without restarting it from the beginning);
- Type all the file types you wish to download in the "File extensions" text field (for example, "jpg, jpeg, gif" for images, "mov, mpeg, mpg,qt rm" for movies, "mp3, ra" for audio/music...); sorry, no wildcards (such as "*" and "?") allowed!
- Type the search depth you want Jally to reach in the "Depth" text field; this parameter deserves some attention:
- if you set it to 0, Jally will download all the files present in the starting URL/document and all the files directly linked from that page (of course, only if they match one of the extensions you require);
- if you set it to 1, Jally will do the same job as for value 0, but will also examine all pages linked by the starting document and download all files present or directly linked from those pages (and so on for increasing values...);
- If you do not want small files to be downloaded (for example, if you do not want thumbnails but only full size pics) you can write in the "Minimum size" text field the minimum size you want for your downloaded files;
- Type in the "Parallel d.loads" text field the number of files you want Jally to download in parallel at the same time: setting this field to a value greater than 1 can speed up the overall download job, but setting it to an excessively high value can lead to congestion - this way some file downloads may abort;
- Press the "Start" button when you have finished entering Jally parameters and want to begin file download;
- If you press the "Stop" button, file download will be aborted;
- Download progress is shown in a text label just below the textfield section;
- A progress bar shows the overall download status;
- Finally, if you want to visit Jally website you can get its address from the textfield at the bottom of the window.
4. Freeware
Jally is a free software (even though protected by Copyright): no charge is due to download, distribute and use it; moreover, your impressions and suggestions can be very useful to improve Jally and make it a tool that better fits your needs: so please send in an e-mail with any change or new feature you would like to be implemented in the software. Thank you!
5. Why "Jally"
"Jally" comes from "Java Jelly": if you are familiar with B-movies, you can think of it as an alien fluid which crawls through the Internet and phagocytizes everything you tell it to (yes, it's creepy, but I hope this won't prevent you from using it!).
6. Jally for President!!!
If you like Jally, then please click on the "Vote!" button below: this helps keeping its ranking high in the Jfind list (visiting this site is not a bad idea, since it has much interesting Java stuff, enjoy it!). Thank you!
Search for files to download directly from here!