transloader3

With Transloader 3 finally publicly available, I’d like to invite you on a tour through the app and its functionality.
In Part IV – the part most readers so far have called the most exciting blog post in the history of blog posts –, we configured Transloader’s preferences and settings to our liking.
In this Part V, we’re taking a look at a brand new feature in Transloader 3: logging in to be able to download files that require authorization.
I’m so glad you’re joining me again – let’s get right into it.

Table of Contents

Part IStarting Downloads Remotely on Macs
Part IIDive Into Transloader’s iOS App
Part IIITransloader Siri Shortcuts on iPhone and iPad
Part IVPreferences and Settings
Part VLogin to Download
Part VILink Actions
Part VIIFile Actions

Part V – Login to Download

For some downloads, you need to log in for them to work. Apple’s Developer Downloads webpage requires a login, some Google Document files require a login to Google, and I’m sure there are at least two more.

For these cases, Transloader 3 comes with a new feature: logging in to websites.
You can log in to websites at any time, either manually beforehand, into sites you anticipate to download repeatedly from, or for specific downloads, after they fail due to missing credentials.
Most importantly: this can be done from any device.

Advance Login

On Mac, you can log in to websites beforehand in Transloader’s Preferences.
Select Login Cookies – Login…, and a browser will open, allowing you to navigate to the website you’d like to log in to.
On iPhone and iPad, it’s just the same:

Here it is in action:

Logging in to redshift3d.com to be able to download the demo subsequently.
By the way, if there’s a “Remember me” checkbox, be sure to select it.

When you click Save Cookies… in the browser, all cookies accumulated during that browsing session will be saved on the device you logged in on, and synced to iCloud.
Thus, when I try to log in to the same website on my iPad, I won’t have to, because I already am:

Wanting to log in to the same website I just logged in to on my Mac, I find I don’t have to, because cookies have already synced to all my devices.

When I assign the demo link to my Mac for download now, it’ll work as expected:

Privacy Policy and Disclaimer

Transloader (or any of my other apps) does not collect or transmit any data to me, or 3rd parties.
What you do with Transloader is between you, your devices, and Apple’s iCloud.
Nevertheless, please use this feature with discretion. If you feel uncomfortable having login cookies synced to iCloud, please refrain from doing so. Additionally, at any time, you can delete all login cookies in Transloader’s preferences.
You can find my privacy policy here.

Login after download fails

Another scenario would be trying to download a file, only to find out you need to be logged in to make it work.
That’s where “Login and Retry” comes in. It’ll allow you to log in to the website in question, after which it will tell the Mac to try the download again.
Here’s how it works from an iPad:

After a download has failed because of missing credentials, I log in to the host website and retry it, which then finishes successfully.
Summary

Now you know how easy it is to download files that require authorization on their websites – either beforehand, or after attempting to download.

I sure hope you’ll join me next time for Part VI, where we’ll take a look at another new feature in Transloader 3: Link Actions. They make it possible to send particular links to other apps or Automator Workflows, instead of downloading them in Transloader. You’ll find them quite handy – I’m sure!

Links

Transloader Website (with a free, 15-day trial for Mac)
Transloader on the Mac App Store ($4.99 / €5.49 for a limited time)
Transloader on the iOS App Store (free)
Transloader Usage Tips

Read more

With Transloader 3 finally publicly available, I’d like to invite you on a tour through the app and its functionality.
In Part III, we built custom download workflows with Transloader’s Siri Shortcuts on iPhone and iPad.
In this Part IV, we’re going to look at all the preferences and settings the app has to offer on both macOS and iOS.

Table of Contents

Part IStarting Downloads Remotely on Macs
Part IIDive Into Transloader’s iOS App
Part IIITransloader Siri Shortcuts on iPhone and iPad
Part IVPreferences and Settings
Part VLogin to Download
Part VILink Actions
Part VIIFile Actions

Part IV – Preferences and Settings

Let’s look at the Mac app first, as it lets you set up everything from download settings, Link- and File Actions, to login data, whereas the iOS companion app only contains a subset of those preferences (logically, because it doesn’t accept downloads, for example).

General
It doesn’t get more “General” than that.

“Launch Transloader at login”
Launches Transloader when you log in to your Mac. And with v3.0.1, it actually works, so, how about that?

“Show menu bar icon”
Transforms Transloader into an app that runs mostly in the background (and in your menu bar), instead of appearing in your Dock. If you’re like me and have it running all the time, this might be a nice preference for you. Plus, it has this animation, so, go ahead. Select, deselect, select, deselect. I know you want to. I’ve been doing it for hours for the video below:

“Prevent Mac from sleeping”
I’d only use this if you have a constant need to download and basically never want your Mac to idle-sleep as long as Transloader is running. It’s there for convenience, but recommend: I would not.

Downloads

“Save downloads in”
Ye olde folder selection, for where downloads should end up.
With a File Action (see Part VII), you can fine-tune this.

“Maximum simultaneous downloads”
‘Default’ means no restrictions by Transloader itself, but macOS might limit in ways it sees fit.

“Download priority”
Here’s what Apple says about the API I’m using for this – perhaps you can make sense of it:
“To provide hints to a host on how to prioritize URL session tasks from your app, specify a priority for each task. Specifying a priority provides only a hint and does not guarantee performance.”

“Open links leading to websites in default browser (…)”
As an alternative to Transloader’s “Login to download”-feature, if this is selected, Transloader sends links that lead to text/html (and such) websites to your browser. Chances are the text/html site is a login page, and if you’re logged in to that site in your browser, the download will start there.
If you deselect it, the download will fail in Transloader, notifying you about it on your devices. In that case, you could use “Login and Retry”, if it’s actually a file the link leads to, requiring a login.

“Prevent Mac from sleeping while downloading”
This prevents your Mac from idle-sleeping while downloads are active. A more sensible alternative to the one before. You know, the one that I’ve put in the app, but couldn’t recommend?

Notifications

Transloader on Mac can show you local and push notifications.
Local notifications for when a local download finishes or fails, push notifications for when a download finishes or fails on another Mac.

Actions, Login Cookies

Those are for stretching this blog series as thin as possible. Nah, I’m just kidding, those are really, really cool, so I thought I’d dedicate one part to each of them.

iCloud

Transloader is powered by iCloud, so basically anything you do runs over it.
If you should ever decide to restart fresh, you can use this button to completely wipe Transloader’s data from iCloud. A blank slate. It came in handy during development, believe you me.

Settings on iPhone and iPad

Transloader on iOS lets you configure your remote notifications (there are no local ones in the iOS companion app, since it doesn’t download itself), your login cookies (see Part V), and delete all your iCloud data.

Summary

As far as preferences go, I think it couldn’t get more exciting than Transloader’s. Wouldn’t you agree? Especially the ones on Mac we didn’t talk about!

Speaking of which, I hope you’ll join me again next time for Part V, where we’ll talk about an awesome new feature of Transloader 3, spanning across the Mac- and iOS versions of the app: “Login to Download”. I’m very happy how that turned out!

Links

Transloader Website (with a free, 15-day trial for Mac)
Transloader on the Mac App Store ($4.99 / €5.49 for a limited time)
Transloader on the iOS App Store (free)
Transloader Usage Tips

Read more

With Transloader 3 finally publicly available, I’d like to invite you on a tour through the app and its functionality.
In Part II, we dove into Transloader’s iOS companion app, but left out Siri Shortcuts.
That’s where this Part III comes in – thank you for joining me again, I’m so happy to see you here!

Table of Contents

Part IStarting Downloads Remotely on Macs
Part IIDive Into Transloader’s iOS App
Part IIITransloader Siri Shortcuts on iPhone and iPad
Part IVPreferences and Settings
Part VLogin to Download
Part VILink Actions
Part VIIFile Actions

Part III – Transloader’s Siri Shortcuts on iPhone and iPad

There are three Siri Shortcuts Transloader offers.

1. Get Status of Transloader on <Mac>
  • The shortcut, with a Mac selected.
  • The shortcut, after being executed, showing that Transloader on the selected Mac is running, and the Mac is turned on.
The shortcut being used in Shortcuts.app

The purpose of this shortcut is simple: to be able to conditionally run subsequent actions, based on its result.
It returns a boolean value (YES or NO), depending on whether Transloader on the selected Mac is running or not, and that the selected Mac is turned on (as in, not sleeping and not turned off).

For example, you could build a “priority” download workflow:
If Transloader on my iMac at home is available, download the link on my clipboard there.
However, if it is not, download it on my MacBook Pro instead.

This is what that looks like in Shortcuts.app:

Which brings us to shortcut number…

2. Download <Link> on <Mac>

As is shown in the screenshot above, this shortcut assigns the passed-in link to the Mac you select for download.
An error is returned if the passed-in link is invalid.

This shortcut is especially useful if you don’t pre-select a Mac, but select “Ask Each Time” instead, which will then let you dynamically choose a Mac whenever you run it. More on that below.

For now, let’s move on to the third shortcut Transloader offers:

3. Save <Link> for Later

If you’d just like to save a link in Transloader so you can assign it at a later time, this is the shortcut to do it.

Shortcuts as Widgets (iOS 14 and newer)

This is more a feature of Shortcuts.app than Transloader, but it’s still nice to know.
Most of the shortcuts you have saved in Shortcuts.app can be saved as a Widget on your Home screen.
I have one titled “Download Link On…”, which retrieves the link on my clipboard and then asks me which Macs I’d like to download it on.
Here it is in action:

I like to use this shortcut with either the iPhone’s back-tap feature, or with Siri:

Shortcuts as Siri Voice Commands

A shortcut’s title is also a voice command for Siri. So when I’m browsing, I’d just copy a link, bring up Siri and tell her to “Download Link on…”, and Siri will ask me to choose a Mac:

Summary

Now you know how to use Transloader’s Siri Shortcuts to your advantage, and build potentially powerful download workflows.

Please do join me next time, when we’ll check out Transloader’s Preferences and Settings.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get more exciting than this!

Links

Transloader Website (with a free, 15-day trial for Mac)
Transloader on the Mac App Store ($4.99 / €5.49 for a limited time)
Transloader on the iOS App Store (free)
Transloader Usage Tips

Read more