I’ve created a very basic downloading tool.
Absolutely, no frills, in the UI . Seriously.
Downloads are all synchronous.
Did I mention it was a no frills, quick and dirty app?
On the plus side, it renames the files to something more friendly than just the session code.
For example: “CL06” becomes “CL06_Networking and Web Services in Silverlight.wmv”
Here’s how it works:
- Pick a directory and the program will download all the PDC sessions listed in this XML file http://www.franksworld.com/Downloads/PDC09Sessions.xml which was screen scraped from http://microsoftpdc.com/Videos
- Click the Start Download Button
- Let simmer for a few hours (or days) depending on your internet connection
- When it’s done, the program will show a dialog box of any errors it encountered.
- If you need to stop it, close the program and delete any unfinished downloads: the program is smart enough to pick up missing files.
I’ll post the source code soon here on franksworld.com
In the meantime, grab the app from: http://www.franksworld.com/Downloads/PDCSessionDownloader.zip [12k zip file]
UPDATE: I'm working on an improved version of the downloader which will give you the choice of downloading slides and a low res version of the talk in as well as the HD version. Stay tuned to Frank's World for details.
If you're impatient and industrious, you can use this XML file for reference when building your own solution: http://www.franksworld.com/Downloads/PDC09Sessionsdata.xml
New version ----> http://franksworld.com/blog/archive/2009/11/24/11793.aspx