Signing in to a site
Some sites give a signed-out visitor almost nothing. For those, a run can open the site's page and wait while you sign in, and then download as you. This page covers when that happens, where the sign-in is kept and what it costs.
When the page opens
For Video Downloader and Gallery Downloader it is Show the page before starting, under Access in the project's settings:
- Never - the page never opens, and the run uses no sign-in from NeoDownloader's browser.
- If the site needs it - the default. The page opens only on a site known to want a sign-in, and only when NeoDownloader has no sign-in for it. On every other site the run does not use the browser's sign-in, whatever is in the browser.
- Always - the page opens once for each site of the project, before that site's addresses are read.
Ticking This site needs me to sign in first on the wizard's last step sets Always for the new project. More in Sites you have to sign in to for Video Downloader and for Gallery Downloader.
Crawler has its own setting, Show the page before a run under Manners, and it opens the page the run starts from: see Pages you look at before a run.
Signing in
The page opens in a window called Sign in on the site. Sign in the way you would in a browser, then click Continue: the run starts and uses that sign-in.
Cancel stops the run. Nothing more is downloaded, and the journal says The page was closed without signing in, so the run stopped. Start the project again when you are ready to sign in.
Where the sign-in is kept
In NeoDownloader's own browser, which has one profile for the whole installation, inside its data folder. It is not your Chrome or Firefox: what you signed in to there, NeoDownloader does not see, and what you sign in to here stays here.
Once a site known to want a sign-in is signed in to, later runs with If the site needs it take that session without asking, and the journal says Using the session from the browser for …. When such a run has no session, the journal says No browser session for … - taking what a signed-out visitor is given.
When a sign-in goes stale
NeoDownloader checks that the site's session cookie is there, not that the site still honours it. An expired sign-in therefore looks like a sign-in: no window opens, and the site answers as it would to a stranger.
Set Show the page before starting to Always and start the project again: the page opens, and you can sign in afresh. There is no way to sign out or to change the account from NeoDownloader yet.
What it costs your account
What downloads after you sign in comes down under your account, and the site counts it as your activity. Sites do block accounts for that. A run signed in to a site is worth keeping small and unhurried; Using what you download says what the program does about pace.
Other ways in
- A cookies file. Gallery Downloader can take the sign-in from a
cookies.txtfile instead of NeoDownloader's browser: see A cookies file. - DeviantArt asks for access once, in the site's own window, and NeoDownloader remembers it: see Access to DeviantArt.