RE: "site sucker"

[Bill Burns <BillDB -at- intl -dot- com>]

> Bonjour les experts,
> I need to download an entire site in order to make an offer for the
> French localization of it.
> Which software can I use to ensure a complete download?
> Recommandations and hints?
> 
I wouldn't recommend using the Acrobat web-site capture utility (although
John's intentions were the best). That tool may allow you to get a word
count (although I don't know if there ar utilities to do word counts on
PDF), but it won't allow you to determine how the site has been engineered.
As John Yunker suggested, it may be very difficult, dependning on the back
end, to determine just where everything resides. For you to do a reasonable
localization bid, you more than just the word count. You also a clear idea
of how the pages are being rendered, and that requires you to look at the
source. What you really need is a whole lot more information from your
potential client.

If these are all flat HTML pages, and the graphics have all been developed
so any text can easily be edited and manipulated, then a word count and some
time for layout and graphics work may be fine. However, if all the graphics
were developed in some bitmap editor, and the pages use string functions and
concatenation, or if the site uses ASPs or some other database mechanism for
generating the pages, you may have a lot more re-engineering to do.

I suggest you request the site on a CD-ROM and also ask for a design spec
that describes how the site has been put together. You also need to ask
about source material. Are you going to get a bunch of GIFs and JPGs or some
Illustrator/CorelDraw files? Is the text composed of mostly graphics or of
editable text? It's not just the word count but also the composition of the
site that matters.

Bill Burns - Eccentric Technology Consultant
INT'L.com Design & Development
billdb -at- intl -dot- com
"If I go to sleep, the clowns will eat me."