Fetch Softworks

file size much larger after I download (9 posts)

• Started 18 years ago by steve41
• Latest reply 18 years ago from steve41

• steve41 Member

  Hello, I am new to fetch 5 and to this board so apologies if this is a faq.

  I maintain a web server, so I need to upload html files (which are text files). I noticed that when I download such a file that I have just put up the file is _much_ larger. For example I put up a file that was 5698 bytes. I do a remote > get info on it and 5698 bytes. I "get" it and it is 42352 bytes. Yet if I open it in bbedit and count characters it is identical in my original and the "gotten" version. any clues?

  thanks

  -steve

  Posted 18 years ago #

• Jim Matthews Administrator

  Fetch adds a custom icon to the file to ensure that it will open in the application specified in the "Open files like this in:" menu in the Get Info window. The custom icon is in the resource fork, and is ignored by most applications (such as BBEdit). You can generally ignore it as well.

  You can see the same effect if you select a file in the Finder and then set it to open in a different application -- it will gain about 40KB of resources.

  Thanks,

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 18 years ago #

• steve41 Member

  Hi jim, thanks for the reply. I am inferring that fetch is adding this fork at the time of downloading the file, not uploading or when the file is sitting on the server; that the preferences I specify for what to open the file in (and the corresponding icon shown in the fetch window) take effect only when I download the file and do not apply to others who access the file, especially to those who look at the file in a browser. Can you confirm?

  What about colleagues who have permission to download the files from the server? Does my having designated that my preferred application for the file is thus and such affect their downloading and viewing of the file. I would doubt that is the case and certainly hope not. Again, can you please confirm.

  More relevant to fetch, is there a way for me to tell fetch to designate a particular file that when I download it, I want it downloaded as a text file, either without a resource fork or with the resource fork designating it as a text file? This is what I would really want.

  thanks.

  -steve

  Posted 18 years ago #

• Jim Matthews Administrator

  Yes, the "open with" information (including the custom icon) is added when Fetch downloads the file, and is not on the server, and does not affect anyone else's use of the file on the server.

  I'm not exactly sure what you mean by your request. Could you give a specific example of when you'd use this feature, and why?

  Thanks,

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 18 years ago #

• steve41 Member

  hi again jim, and thanks again.

  and I really like the responsive help service on this board.

  what I _really_ would like is a MAC-OS9 like feature that I think is disabled in OSX but maybe you can offer some ideas.

  I do most of my text processing (and for that matter word processing) in Word 5.a for the mac, the best word processing program ever devised, IMHO. (Of course that forces me to work in classic, generally not a problem; I am a kind of a classic guy). So what I would like would be downloading the file into a generic text file that I could drag into the icon for Word 5.1 and it would open as a text file in Word 5.1a (after a dialog that asks if I wish to open as text), as it did in OS9.

  As far as I can tell, maybe you can help, in the finder in OSX, word 5.1 will not recognize a file unless it is designated as a word file; I could tell fetch to make all text files to open in word, and then it will recognize the file, but it comes with the resource fork, which I guess is not a problem if I dont mind the file size growing by some 40K.

  Alternatively, I can designate, say, TextEdit as the file open the file back on my machine. Then I can open the document in word 51a, and do a save as (which preserves the text format), and which evidently gets rid of the resource fork, but preserves the word icon and the ability to open in word 51a by double clicking or dragging into the word 51a icon. So it is then a text file that belongs to word51a, opens in 51a, but does not have the resource fork. that is what I would really like.

  hope that is clear.

  thanks again

  -steve

  Posted 18 years ago #

• Jim Matthews Administrator

  If you select a file on the server, click Get Info, and set the Open files like this in: menu to Word 5.1, and then download the file, does it open in Word when double-clicked? Does it have a resource fork?

  Thanks,

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 18 years ago #

• steve41 Member

  hello again jim, the plot thickens.

  If I designate in fetch that .html documents should belong to TextEdit, then when I drag onto my macos 10.3 hard drive a file that was, on the server, 2697 bytes, becomes 48748 bytes. So I guess it has a resource fork. yes?

  Ok on my macos I do a command-I to get info and tell it to open with word 51a, the size goes to 39351 bytes and the icon goes to a white page with a bent corner.

  If I hit change all, I get a dialog: Are you sure you want to change all yor Microsoft Word 5.1a documents to open with the application Microsoft Word 5.1a? and then in the small print tells me that this change will apply to all Microsoft Word 5.1a documents with the extension ".html".

  Well, that would be great. so I hit continue.

  still the generic blank icon.

  size is now down to 2983 bytes, almost where I started.

  double click and it opens in Microsoft Word 5.1a.

  BUT

  I had another such file (in the same folder in fact) and its icon remained TextEdit. And its size remained 50870 bytes despite having been 4819 bytes on the server.

  So it doesnt seem that the solution you suggest is all that workable.

  Of course I can do a command-I and change the application for every file, but that is a big nuissance. One thing I love about the mac (or used to love) is that it was nuissance free.

  suggestions?

  thanks again

  -steve

  Posted 18 years ago #

• Jim Matthews Administrator

  I would try selecting a .html file in Fetch's file list and clicking Fetch's Get Info icon. Then set the Open files like this with: menu to Word 5.1a (it may not be listed in the menu, so you may need to choose Other... from the menu and choose Word manually). I am wondering whether .html files downloaded from then on will have the resources.

  I'm sorry that making the Finder change does not affect other already-downloaded files.

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 18 years ago #

• steve41 Member

  thanks again jim, but I am afraid this discussion is now starting to go in circles.

  I thought I had indicated that this is what I did first. It seemed the obvious solution. But when I download the file so designated it comes with a resource fork of about 40K attached to it. It is still a text file. It indeed opens in word (5.1a). But what I want is to tell the file when downloaded to come back to me as a text file with no resource fork attached; same exact file size as when I put it on the server.

  It would be nice if it were also identified as word (5.1a), as it was when I put it up, but I guess this is not possible. So I will settle for specifying that when I download it, I get it back as a straight generic text file, same size as on the server, foregoing the double click to open in word option, as that seems the best I can ask for. So my question would be how to do this.

  I guess I would have thought this is a solved problem; that we are not breaking new ground here.

  thanks again.

  -steve

  Posted 18 years ago #