Preview Downloader - user manual

Preview Downloader - user manual

Added: 2019-05-21
Last update: 2019-10-19
Author:  
Table of Contents
  1. About
  2. Installation
    1. Welcome screen
    2. License terms
    3. Destination path
    4. Start menu shortcut
    5. Desktop shortcut
    6. Summary
    7. Additional step
  3. Uninstall
  4. GUI
  5. Requirements and additional information
    1. Windows operating system
    2. iStripper installed
    3. Diacritics and special characters
    4. Moving the collection to a new directory
    5. Quick edit mode in Windows console
    6. Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Tools Add-on
  6. User manual
    1. Automatic download of free previews
    2. Download progress
    3. Pause and resume downloading
    4. Finalizing the download
    5. Downloading selected previews
    6. Resuming the previous session
    7. Changing the amount of disk space for previews
    8. Settings
    9. Logs
  7. Troubleshooting and known bugs
    1. Cannot install Preview Downloader
    2. Buttons in the script are not clickable
    3. Download process is started, but no files are saved
    4. The download takes a very long time
    5. Pausing downloads doesn't work
    6. Closing the script and console window after the download has finished does not work

6. User manual

In short, launching the download process comes down to specifying the range of previews to be downloaded and clicking the Start now button. Things like setting the target directory or selecting the quality of the downloaded previews are done automatically based on the iStripper settings and information stored in the system registry. User will be asked to manually enter the destination path to the models directory only if none of the default paths are found (eg when the directory has been deleted or the external drive has been disconnected).

6.1. Automatic download of free previews

Due to the fact that the first three functions of the script are similar in both functioning and handling, they have been described in one chapter. These functions are: Update previews of purchased shows, Update previews of non purchased shows and Update previews of all shows.

All three functions are used to automatically download free previews. The difference between them is that each downloads a different set of previews.

  • Update previews of purchased shows - This function is used to download free previews of only those shows that are in the user's collection (they were purchased by the user). The previews of the other shows will be skipped.
  • Update previews of non purchased shows - This function is used to download free previews only of those shows that are not in the user's collection (full shows have not been purchased). The previews of the other shows will be skipped.
  • Update previews of all shows - This function is used to download free previews of all shows, regardless of whether they are in the user's collection or not.

Depending on which set of previews you are interested in, click one of the first three options in the main menu (or press 1, 2 or 3):

[1] Update previews of purchased shows
[2] Update previews of non purchased shows
[3] Update previews of all shows

You will be taken to the second (and last) step, where you will be able to set additional download parameters.

In the What to download section, you can specify whether to download only missing files or to download all files overwriting existing ones. If you want to download only the missing previews, click Only missing previews (or press 1). If you want to download all previews overwriting existing ones, click All previews (overwrite) option (or press the 2 key). The selected option will be marked with a green box.

In the Collections section, you can specify which collections should be included when downloading previews. Six collections are available:

  • iStripper - "e" series shows,
  • iStripper XXX - "f" series shows,
  • iStripper Classic - formerly VirtuaGirl HD, "a" series shows,
  • iStripper Classic XXX - formerly DeskBabes, "c" series shows,
  • VirtuaGirl Classic - formerly VirtuaGirl 2, "d" series shows,
  • VirtuaGuy HD - "b" series shows.

You can choose several collections simultaneously by clicking on the collection of your choice or by pressing the corresponding key. Selected collections will be marked with a green box.

If you are ready to start the download, click Start now! button (or press the Enter key). The download process will start.

6.2. Download progress

The download progress is displayed while downloading the previews. The screen looks like this:

When downloading previews, the following informations are displayed:

  • Card - information about the card, including the card number, model name and title of the show (taken from the names.xml file),
  • Folder - the number of the currently updated folder and the total number of all folders to be updated,
  • File - the number of the currently downloaded file and the number of all files included in the currently downloaded preview,
  • Path - the target path where the preview is saved,
  • Status - current status,
  • Speed - approximate download speed,
  • Current - progress bar of the current preview,
  • Overall - progress bar of the entire process.

Information displayed in the Status field:

  • fetching file size - displayed immediately before downloading each subsequent preview. When this message is displayed, the script downloads a list of files included in the preview and information about their total size,
  • downloading 00.0/00.0 MB - displayed while downloading the preview. It shows the downloaded amount of data and the total size of files to be downloaded,
  • already downloaded, skipping - displayed when option Only missing previews was selected. The preview already exists on the hard disk and will be skipped,
  • not in collection, skipping - displayed when option 1 (Update previews of purchased shows) was selected. The currently processed show is not in the user's collection and will be skipped,
  • in collection, skipping - displayed when option 2 (Update previews of non purchased shows) was selected. The currently processed show is in the user's collection and will be skipped,
  • preview not exist, skipping - displayed when the preview of the processed show doesn't exist (eg. the collection of files included in the preview is empty, the show with the given
  • identifier does not exist, the show has been removed from the store, the show is not yet available in the store),
  • paused - displayed when user has paused downloading.

If you lose connection with the server, Preview Downloader will take three attempts to reconnect. The first attempt will occur after 10 seconds from the loss of connection, the second attempt after the next 20 seconds, the third attempt after the next 30 seconds. If the connection can not be reestablished in any of the attempts, the script will proceed to the next preview in the queue. After the download process is complete, user will be informed that some of the previews have not been downloaded due to loss of connection. In addition, the information about lost connection will be recorded in logs (more on the logs: 6.9. Logs).

6.3. Pause and resume downloading

Preview Downloader allows you to pause downloads. To pause the download, press the P key on the keyboard. Pausing the download will not take place immediately. Sometimes it may have a delay of a few seconds. This is the normal behavior of the script. After the download has been paused, the buttons will allow you to safely cancel the download (Back button), safely close the script (Quit button) and resume downloading (Resume button). The "paused" text will be displayed in the Status field.

NOTE: The pause function may not work on some Windows XP systems, while on slower computers the delay after pressing the P key may be longer. If the pause function does not work, you can workaround the problem by pausing execution of the script. The effect will be similar - the download will be paused. To pause the execution of the script, press the Pause key or the Ctrl+S combination on the keyboard. No additional buttons will be displayed, and the status in the Status field will not change, but this solution should be good enough if you want to stop downloading for some time. To resume the script, press any key on the keyboard.

6.4. Finalizing the download

Once the download is complete, it will be necessary to refresh the models.lst file so that iStripper can "see" new files. The models.lst file is located in the data folder. Preview Downloader is not able to refresh the contents of the models.lst file, but is able to force the iStripper program to do it. Refreshing the file involves deleting the old copy so that iStripper is forced to recreate the file. In order for the Preview Downloader to delete the models.lst file, iStripper must be shut down for a moment. If Preview Downloader detects an iStripper running, it will inform the user about that and ask user to close iStripper. The following message will be displayed:

At this point, it will be necessary to close the iStripper program. Please note that closing iStripper by hiding it in the system tray is not enough. To close iStripper, right-click the "S" icon in the system tray and select Quit.

Preview Downloader will detect that iStripper has been closed. It will then delete the models.lst file and display the message that the download process has finished.

NOTE: The message about running iStripper will not be displayed if user has selected additional action after completion of the download process. Additional actions are available on Settings page, in the When completed section. These actions are: Close application, Log off user, Shut down computer. If one of the above options is active, Preview Downloader will force the iStripper to close, then delete the models.lst file and perform the action selected by user (it will close itself, log off the user or turn off the computer). Additional actions are described here: 6.8. Settings.

6.5. Downloading selected previews

Thanks to the Preview Downloader, it is possible to download a set of previews defined by the user. In order to use this function, a list of shows must be prepared in advance. The list should be saved as a text file with .txt extension. The list should contain card identifiers separated by commas, semicolons, spaces or a newline characters (one ID per line). An example of such list created in Notepad is shown in the figure below.

Having the list of shows prepared, launch Preview Downloader and select option 4 in the main menu:

[4] Update previews of selected shows

You will be asked to provide the path to your list. Click the Load button (or press the L key) and find your text file in the file selection window. Select your file and click Open. In the What to download section, you can specify whether to download only missing files or to download all files overwriting existing ones. If you want to download only the missing previews, click Only missing previews (or press the 1 key). If you want to download all previews overwriting existing ones, click All previews (overwrite) (or press the 2 key). The selected option will be marked with a green box.

If you're ready to start the download, click the Start now! button (or press the Enter key). The script will process the list and check if given identifiers are correct. Wrong identifiers will be removed from queue. The download process will start.

The download progress will look as described in section 6.2. Download progress. When the download is completed, the process will be finalized as described in section 6.4. Finalizing the download.

TRIVIA: With the option of defining your custom list of IDs, it becomes possible to download previews of exclusive shows, so-called Special Event Card (current version of the iStripper program does not allow this). In addition, you can download previews of upcoming shows that have not yet been released (if they already exist on iStripper server).

6.6. Resuming the previous session

A session is any separate download process. Preview Downloader saves information about the state of the session on an ongoing basis. Thanks to those informations, it is possible to resume the download process in case of unexpected interruption. The resumed process uses the same settings that were selected in the previous session. Download process starts from the show where the previous download was interrupted.

To resume interrupted download, select option 5 in the main menu:

[5] Continue previous session

The information about settings selected in the previous session will be displayed. Click the Continue button (or press the Enter key) to continue downloading.

If the previous session wasn't finished and user tried to start a new download process (new session), a warning about incomplete session will be displayed. Click the Continue button (or press the Enter key) to continue the unfinished download. If you want to discard the previous session and start a new download, click the Discard button (or press the key).

6.7. Changing the amount of disk space for previews

The iStripper program has a built-in mechanism that controls the amount of space occupied by free previews. Free previews downloaded by iStripper, like any other files, take up a certain amount of disk space. When the total size of all downloaded previews exceeds a certain value, iStripper removes all previews and frees up disk space. All previews of the shows that were purchased and are in user's collection will also be removed. The default disk space for previews is initially unknown because iStripper does not display it anywhere. In addition, iStripper doesn't provide an option to change this value.

The Preview Downloader comes to help. It has a function that allows you to easily change the amount of disk space reserved for previews. If you don't want iStripper to delete free previews without your knowledge and without your permission, this is a useful feature for you.

To change the amount of disk space for previews, select option 6 in the main menu:

[6] Set the disc space for previews

In the next screen you will be able to change this setting.

The value in the Disk space field is an integer expressed in gigabytes (GB). The minimum value that can be set is 1 GB, and the maximum is 9999 GB (over 9 TB). Use the + (plus) and - (minus) buttons to change the value. You can also use the keys on the keyboard to change the value:

  • Arrow Up / Arrow Down - increase / decrease the value by 1,
  • Page Up / Page Down - increase / decrease the value by 10,
  • Home / End - increase / decrease the value by 100.

To save the new value, click the Save button (or press the Enter key). The new value will be saved in the system's registry, and confirmation will be displayed.

TIP: If you don't want iStripper to delete the preview without your permission, set a value that exceeds the capacity of your hard drive. You can also set the maximum available value (9999 GB). Currently, the total size of all free previews available on iStripper server (in the highest available quality) is about 115 gigabytes (data as of May 12, 2019). Remember that the total size of all previews will increase with the new shows coming to iStripper store.

6.8. Settings

Preview Downloader has several options to control the behavior of the script. Click the Settings button in the upper right corner of the window (or press the S key) to display the settings page.

Available options:

  • Delay between downloads - allows you to set a delay of a few minutes between downloads. The script waits the specified time before downloading each subsequent preview. The value is expressed in minutes. The minimum value that can be set is 0 (no delay), the maximum is 10 minutes. The default value is 0 (no delay). Change the delay value by clicking the + (plus) and - (minus) buttons or by pressing the Arrow Up / Arrow Down keys.
  • When completed - allows you to set the action after the download process is completed. This setting is saved only for the current window. If the script will be closed and restarted, this setting will be reset. The possible actions are: Do nothing - no additional action, Close application - closes the console window, Log off user - logs out the current user, Shut down computer - closes the system and turns off the computer. Select an action by clicking the option of your choice or by pressing the 1, 2, 3 or 4 key.

To save changes, click the Save button (or press the Enter key).

6.9. Logs

Information about the most important actions, warnings and information about errors are saved in log files. Preview Downloader saves logs in two files: session.log and session.html. Both files contain the same information. The difference between them lies in their readability. The session.log file is saved as plain text, which can be opened using, for example, Notepad. The session.html file contains an integrated CSS style. The html logs are more legible. The session.html file can be opened in any web browser.

Both log files are saved in the installation directory of the Preview Downloader script.





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