Cannot share webarchives to DTTG

DEVONthink To Go
1

I seem to have done this with the former version, but with DTTG 3.x it seems impossible to share webarchives to DTTG!

When I use the share button in Safari, select Options and then “webarchive” (instead of “Automatic” or “PDF”), DTTG simply vanishes from the sheet!

As if it did not know about webarchives.

Sadly, webarchives are what i use DTTG mostly for!
To archive websites for later research.

Is this a bug?
On my side or in DTTG?
A change in iOS / iPadOS?

I still can select webarchives later, from the share sheet of DTTG.

But still, I seem to remember, that the webarchive generated from Safari itself sometimes is “better” and therefor, I used this option with DTTG 2.x

Any idea?

2

This is the first report we’ve had of someone using the option you’re using.
I have confirmed it but we’ll have to investigate.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.

1 Like
3

Many thanks!

I tried a more complicated way and downloaded the webarchive from Safari to local storage and then tried to share the file in the Files App to DTTG - this is possible and DTTG is available as share target.

Very strange :open_mouth:

I will try to make some comparisions between the two methods for webarchive creation and I also found the above workaround, but still, I would be happy if you would find the cause and a solution :slight_smile: It’s much more conventient to just share from Safari

Thanks again!

4

You’re welcome.
I filed an issue on it.
Cheers!

1 Like
5

I’m glad already :slight_smile:

In case you are interested, I made webarchives from exactly this website on the forum with both methods and the Safari-created webarchive is MUCH larger.

image
image750×598 58.6 KB

This at least confirms that the versions differ!

The DTTG webarchive is just some text-version, it seems, while the Safari webarchive is what I need, exactly the website how it is visible:

image
image2732×2048 519 KB

image
image2732×2048 524 KB

This explains why I always prefered the Safari webarchives … was not even sure anymore, but this test shows the difference.

Thanks for the filed issue!

6

Needed to add this:

The DTTG created webarchive … is not a really a webarchive at all.
It is more similar to a MarkDown archive, it seems.

7

Haha! I did the same test… on the same page! :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for confirming what I found… or I confirmed what you found :wink:

1 Like
8

Not sure what you mean when you say that the DTTG created web archive is not really a web archive?

To import a Safari generated web archive into DTTG, share it to the Files app (Save to Files) and select a location from the DEVONthink To Go folder

IMG_EE0C31E5909F-1 2
IMG_EE0C31E5909F-1 21408×1019 105 KB

9

Two points:

  1. I mentioned this workaround above!

It is possible to first select “webarchive” in Safari and save the result to the Files App. And then, share this webarchive to DTTG.

But why can’t those webarchives not directly be shared from Safari to DTTG?
As soon as I select “webarchive” in Safari, DTTG vanishes from the share sheet.

That’s the questior, problem or bug.

  1. You can see above in the screenshots, that the webarchive that gets generated by DTTG (after sharing the URL to DTTG and selecting “webarchive” within the DTTG share sheet) is simply NOT an archive of the website!

Just have a look at the screenshots.

The DTTG webarchive looks more like a MarkDown version, it is stripped down to text-only.

More clear now?

10

The webarchive file format is an Apple format, and as such does not have a publicly available specification. DTTG provides a best estimation of this format however it does not support all the features that a Safari generated web archive does such as embedded web archives. As such depending on the web site there may be minor differences in the generated web archives.

11

Those are not minor differences!

The two webarchive versions are totally different.

I again beg you to compare the 2 screenshots from Cannot share webarchives to DTTG - #5 by tja

The DTTG version does not even how the user avatar pictures.

Anyway, the solution would be to enable direct sharing of the Safari webarchive to DTTG…

12

DEVONthink & DEVONthink To Go capture the print version of our forum.

13

Ah, that could explain why I always used the Safari webarchive.

I did think that the Print version was used for the “clutter free” webarchive.

So, a “real” webarchive (including all pictures and the whole layout) is not possible when using the DTTG share sheet…

The more it would be great to be able to share the full Safari webarchives directly to DTTG.

Thanks

14

Only in case of our forum.

15

I’m pretty sure that I noticed similar differences on other webpages too :wink:
They were not as big as in this case on this forum …

16

We are investigating this but Safari definitely has its own underlying mechanism. It’s unclear if we can access it, but we’re looking.

17

Many thanks!

But no stress on this, I am perfectly fine with selecting webarchive in Safari… but as as said, it would be great to then directly share to DTTG without the need to save it first and then share again from the Files App.

But of course, if DTTG would have a “Safari webarchive” as option in it’s own share sheet, that would solve the problem too :hugs:

18

Thanks!

1 Like