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OK, I am online half of the day and offline the other half using a MacBook Pro. As I am coding primarily on this Mac, I am interested in caching all the websites I visit: especially forums, blogs, technical websites and Apple Documentation.

I would like to browse my cache in an easy and smart way when I am offline.

I would like Safari or another browser to keep trace of my browsing without explicitly having to ask. Is this possible, or do I need another tool for this job?

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  • You've added tags that don't help us know what computer you use. Would you clarify your OS, hardware and perhaps pick a site that you want to browse while offline. Clearly, netflix is going to need different caching than a new york times article. Being specific allows for some chance that you can get a useful answer.
    – bmike
    May 7, 2013 at 14:23
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    This doesn't answer your question completely, but for the developer documentation side of things, it may help to use something like Dash kapeli.com/dash It can cache offline an absolutely massive list of all types of documentation. It is a $19.99 purchase. I am not affiliated in any way, I have just found it very useful.
    – Jason S
    Jan 25, 2014 at 1:54

7 Answers 7

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Safari has a reading list function to save articles for later reading while offline. Have you investigated that option for some of the easier pages that are static and amenable to reading offline.

Xcode has an option to cache various reference libraries for offline viewing and I personally much prefer that interface over a web browser due to search ability and performance. That clearly isn't a good general solution for other developer documentation, though.

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  • I would like Safari or another browser to keep trace of my browsing without explicitly having to ask.
    – Colas
    May 7, 2013 at 15:41
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    I would like that for you as well, but I don't know of a major browser that implements that functionality across the board in a seamless manner. Let's hope someone else has a better answer. I'll watch as you edit in the use case (thanks for that first edit - it helps greatly).
    – bmike
    May 7, 2013 at 15:49
  • I find the Xcode doc browser so slow !! There is a great [app] (fileability.net/ingredients) but I can't make it work on Xcode 4.6.
    – Colas
    May 7, 2013 at 16:16
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For this purpose I use Pocket.

Install the Pocket app and then a browser extension (Chrome, Firefox, Safari).

When you 'Pocket' a page, it will be downloaded and cached on your computer if Pocket is open, and even on your mobile device if Pocket is installed there.

It will reformat most articles to remove the cruft from the pages if possible, otherwise it will simply cache the page as-is.

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  • Hmm - I've edited the question and since the OP seems quite intent on the "browser" doing the caching. Can pocket serve as a primary browser instead of a "save it later" web service like Instapaper, Readability, Pocket and many others?
    – bmike
    May 7, 2013 at 16:22
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+25

I don't believe HistoryHound and Pocket to be appropriate solutions because : HistoryHound will only work for recently visited pages that are present in the cache of the browser. If for some reasons (web developping) you need to reset the cache while offline you'll be doomed… It seems for Pocket to work you need manual actions.

I think it would be a better way to install a proxy like SquidMan http://squidman.net/squidman/ this will allow you better control of your cache, thus data for offline viewing. If needed you'll be able to share it with another device. And on top of it you may still install HistoryHound as suggested or SafariCacheExplorer : http://www.beecubu.com/desktop-apps/SafariCacheExplorer/

Unfortunately there is no easy way to start an "Automator" workflow when a page is loading the idea would have been to save while surfing each pages as a "Web Archive"… You may also opt for "Kiosk Monster" http://bluespark.co.nz/app.php?kioskmonster

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Maybe HistoryHound is what you are looking for:

Find pages in your Bookmarks or History just by typing words you remember from them!

HistoryHound lets you do a fast keyword search on the entire content of all web pages and RSS feeds you've visited recently, plus all those that you've bookmarked. It's a "personal web search." Just type in a few keywords and HistoryHound gives you a list of pages you've viewed recently, ranked by relevance.

Have you ever tried to find something in your browser history or bookmarks, but couldn't quite remember when or where you saw it, or which browser you were using at the time? Or perhaps you've got your bookmarks meticulously organized, but it takes forever to mouse through the menus to get to something you want? HistoryHound will chase down the page for you - fast!

http://www.stclairsoft.com/HistoryHound/index.html

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  • I will try but it seems to be exactly what I am looking for !
    – Colas
    May 9, 2013 at 14:44
  • It helps a lot to browse your history but it doesn't manage the offline-browsing. I will check, I think firefox has this possibility.
    – Colas
    May 9, 2013 at 15:01
  • I would go with HistoryHound, i've tried it myself. Jan 29, 2014 at 12:40
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I use Evernote for this (Clearly plug-in but if you want FULL SITE ACTION... I think http://sitesucker.us/home.html is your only chance.... I also think there's a Windows equivalent but these programs download the entire site to a folder you designate and then you can browse them locally... live ads and other live content won't be available but all the static stuff will be.

Windows type of program for this is here: http://www.httrack.com/

Good Luck!

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Since you are coding for mac anyway. Why not make your own simple browser for this task.

You can use a webviews WebDataSource's webarchive (webarchive docs) & writeToFile on page load or similar notification.

An example Assuming _adataSource & _webView are WebDataSource & webView synthesised properties.

titleString, dateString1 are abstained by code to get the mainframe's title and a time stamp respectively:

_aDataSource =  [[_webView mainFrame]  dataSource]  ;
 NSString * dirPath = [ [NSURL URLWithString:[defaults valueForKey:@"saveDirectory" ] ]path];
        NSString * nameFile =[ NSString  stringWithFormat:@"%@/%@_%@.webArchive",dirPath,titleString,dateString1 ];



        WebArchive *archive1 = [[WebArchive alloc]  initWithMainResource:[_aDataSource mainResource]  subresources:nil  subframeArchives:nil];


        NSError *error = nil;
        if (!    [[archive1 data]  writeToFile: nameFile atomically:YES])
        {
            NSLog(@"Unable to save file: %@", error);
        }
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WWWOFFLE caches HTTP responces, which means you will have to set Safari to use it as a proxy. I believe that WWWOFFLE can be installed by Fink or Homebrew if you do not want to compile it yourself.

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