How do i go about downloading every wallpaper from interfaceLIFT? I have Ubuntu/and can use scripts(but don't know how to write them)

September 11, 2008 4:04 PM

Hey guys. I love the wallpapers on InterfaceLift but i find their download process really annoying. Now that i have a program to switch my wallpapers randomly from a folder I was wondering if there is a way to mass download all the wallpapers from interfacelift. Maybe a script or download? I am using Ubuntu but am only a intermediatish at it so I am not sure how to write my own scripts yet. Thanks!
posted by Javed_Ahamed to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)

It looks like everything is stored "http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/downloads/" as
ID_name_resolution.jpg. A light bit of scripting would be all it takes to grab everything with a utility like curl.
posted by wongcorgi at 4:14 PM on September 11, 2008

Go to one of the download pages, e.g. http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1920x1200/ and pipe that URL into this snippet ...

wget -q -O - http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1920x1200/ | perl -ne 'if (m#(/dl/wallpaper/\w+)#) { print qq-wget http://interfacelift.com$1\n-} ;'

If you think you like the output, then run it again, but piped into | sh -x
posted by devbrain at 4:39 PM on September 11, 2008

Ah, scratch that. You need a m#(/dl/wallpaper/\w+.jpg)# in the regex and the download gets tripped by their anti-script measures.... back to the drawing board.....
posted by devbrain at 4:41 PM on September 11, 2008

Try this one:

Run it first to check, then the second time with "| sh -x" to execute each command.

Purely from quick observation -- the download page lists /dl/wallpaper/ but the link is /wallpaper/download/ and the four digit code gets translated to a five digit code with leading zero (you might need to smarten that up if you get any three or five digit codes on the first page) .....



wget -q -O - http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1920x1200/ | perl -ne 'if (m#/dl/wallpaper/(\w+.jpg)#) { print qq#wget --referer=http://interfacelift.com/ http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/downloads/0$1\n#} ;' | sh -x

posted by devbrain at 4:45 PM on September 11, 2008

I have no idea what the answer to your question is, but I'm so glad you mentioned that site!
posted by dpx.mfx at 4:58 PM on September 11, 2008

Response by poster: uh devbrain when i run that script (which i do not understand, but thats another matter) i get output such as

wget --referer=http://interfacelift.com/ http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/downloads/01673_meerkatwatch_1920x1200.jpg
wget --referer=http://interfacelift.com/ http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/downloads/01672_rangitoto_1920x1200.jpg
wget --referer=http://interfacelift.com/ http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/downloads/01671_goldsky_1920x1200.jpg

I am not sure what this means but i realize that its only referencing the wallpapers from the front page. Is there a way to get it to reference all the wallpapers in its collection of say a specific resolution 1280x800?

Also, Ive only used the wget command once and dont you have to give it a location to download the pictures to?


And dpx.mfx yeah interfacelift is a great site. That and Vlad Studio and desktopography are the main wallpaper sites that i use.
posted by Javed_Ahamed at 5:26 PM on September 11, 2008

Try this (extension of devbrain's script):

-----------------------
#!/bin/bash

for ((i=1;i<=150;i+=1)); do
wget -q -O - http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1920x1200/index$i.html | perl -ne 'if (m#/dl/wallpaper/(\w+.jpg)#) { print qq#wget --referer=http://interfacelift.com/ http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/downloads/0$1\n#} ;' | sh -x
sleep 1
done

-----------------------

Paste to a file called download.sh and make it executable (chmod 700 download.sh). Change 1920x1200 to 1280x800 to get a different size. If there are more than 150 changes, change i<=150 to something larger.
posted by null terminated at 5:51 PM on September 11, 2008

The above script loops over every page of wallpaper, ie:
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1920x1200/index1.html
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1920x1200/index2.html
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1920x1200/index3.html

Then it uses devbrain's script to pull out the wallpaper URLs from the current page. These URLs are fed into wget and downloaded.
posted by null terminated at 5:53 PM on September 11, 2008

Also, here's a complete list of 1280x800 wallpapers:
http://rafb.net/p/Leyttl62.html
posted by null terminated at 6:08 PM on September 11, 2008

Response by poster: If there are more than 150 changes, change i<=150 to something larger? What does that mean and where are these pictures being downloaded too? I am the noob :D
posted by Javed_Ahamed at 7:47 PM on September 11, 2008

Response by poster: Oh i see Its dloading them all to the folder i have the script in. Thanks! I still do not get the 150 changes part though!
posted by Javed_Ahamed at 7:49 PM on September 11, 2008

for ((i=1;i<>
is a command that says to set the variable i to 1 (i=1) and then increment it by one (i+=1) as long as i is less than or equal to 150 (i<>
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1920x1200/index$i.html

is replaced by:

http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1920x1200/index1.html
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1920x1200/index2.html
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1920x1200/index3.html
...
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1920x1200/index150.html
etc

If there were 170 pages, you'd need to change i<> http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1920x1200/index170.html
posted by null terminated at 8:02 PM on September 11, 2008

...that formatting got screwed up.

The first line should refer say:

for ((i=1;i<=150;i+=1)); do

and the last should say:

If there were 170 pages, you'd need to change i<=150 to i<=170, so the script would loop 170 times and access the URL:
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1920x1200/index170.html
posted by null terminated at 8:06 PM on September 11, 2008

Response by poster: Ah ok thank you i get it now! Again thank you so much null and devbrain for the script it works great! Saved me hours too!
posted by Javed_Ahamed at 8:16 PM on September 11, 2008

Best answer: btw if anyone is looking at this thread for future reference here is the code for you to make a bash script from:

#!/bin/bash

for ((i=1;i<> wget -q -O - http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/widescreen/1280x1024/index$i.html | perl -ne 'if (m#/dl/wallpaper/(\w+.jpg)#) { print qq#wget --referer=http://interfacelift.com/ http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/downloads/0$1\n#} ;' | sh -x
sleep 1
done
posted by Javed_Ahamed at 8:10 AM on September 28, 2008