Importing as web archive does not preserve all images

[vocaro]

I am trying out EagleFiler for the first time. The main attraction for me is its ability to import web pages in Web Archive format simply by dragging and dropping Safari’s address bar icon onto EagleFiler in the dock.

There is a problem, though, in that EagleFiler does not seem to preserve images in the Web Archive. If I import a page into EagleFiler, and disconnect from the Internet, some images on the page are broken when I relaunch EagleFiler.

I know it’s not a problem with the page itself because if I bypass EagleFiler and explicitly save the page to a Web Archive using Safari’s File > Save As command, all images are properly archived.

After doing several tests, I believe I’ve pinpointed the problem. It appears that if the image is a relative link (according to the SRC attribute of its IMG tag), EagleFiler properly archives it, but if the SRC attribute is an absolute link, EagleFiler fails to archive the image.

You can test this using the current Google home page. The SRC for the Google logo is “/intl/en_ALL/images/logo.gif”, and it gets archived properly by EagleFiler, but the source for the Memorial Day ribbon graphic is “http://www.google.com/images/ribbon_memorial_day.gif”, and EagleFiler fails to archive it. Indeed, when I compare the sizes of the two archives, the one created by Safari is 52KB, while the one created by EagleFiler is 40KB (52KB - 40KB = size of ribbon graphic).

I am using the Safari 4 Public Beta on OS X 10.5.7.

Another user reported this problem before.

[Michael_Tsai]

@vocaro

The main attraction for me is its ability to import web pages in Web Archive format simply by dragging and dropping Safari’s address bar icon onto EagleFiler in the dock.

Or, even easier, just press F1.

@vocaro

I know it’s not a problem with the page itself because if I bypass EagleFiler and explicitly save the page to a Web Archive using Safari’s File > Save As command, all images are properly archived.

One thing to keep in mind is that Safari displays Web pages and even Web archives using a cache, whereas EagleFiler shows what’s actually stored within the file. So, to make an accurate comparison you would need to use the same program to display the two Web archives, or else examine their contents directly in a property list editor.

@vocaro

After doing several tests, I believe I’ve pinpointed the problem. It appears that if the image is a relative link (according to the SRC attribute of its IMG tag), EagleFiler properly archives it, but if the SRC attribute is an absolute link, EagleFiler fails to archive the image.

Thanks for the report. This seems to be related to the recent Safari 4 beta. It works correctly for me with Safari 3. I will investigate further and let you know what I find.

@vocaro

Another user reported this problem before.

This was actually a totally different issue, involving a display bug in Safari. The Web archives were saved correctly, and EagleFiler displayed them correctly.

[Michael_Tsai]

It certainly looks like this problem is caused by a bug in the WebKit that’s part of the Safari 4 beta. It also affects other third-party applications that save Web archives. I’ve verified that the images are being loaded, but it isn’t saving them into the Web archive.

[Michael_Tsai]

I believe I’ve worked around the WebKit bug in this pre-release version of EagleFiler.

[Michael_Tsai]

@Michael_Tsai

It certainly looks like this problem is caused by a bug in the WebKit that’s part of the Safari 4 beta.

I’ve added a workaround in EagleFiler 1.4.6.