Westwind.HtmlPackager

HtmlPackager is a tiny standalone Windows Exe or .NET component that allows you to package content from a URL as a self-contained, local HTML file or package of files that can be saved and viewed offline.

The packager can create:

• A single, large self-contained HTML File
• An HTML file with external, local assets
• A Zip package of the latter file and folder assets

This library is provided as a .NET Library, a small Windows .NET 4.5 Cosole executable and a cross-platform .NET SDK Tool:

• Chocolatey
• NuGet
• NuGet .NET SDK Tool

The packager works with:

• Web Urls
• Local HTML Files

There are two packaging modes:

• Package to a single file
  All related resources are downloaded and embedded into the HTML content. CSS is embedded as text while images, scripts and url resources are embedded as base64 data links. The result is one very large HTML document that contains all resources embedded.

• HTML file plus loose Resource Files
  Produces an HTML file plus all CSS, Script, images, fonts as loose files stored in the same folder as the HTML. An option also allows packaging the folder as a Zip file.

.NET Library

The .NET library allows embedding of the packaging functionality into your own applicaitons. It is very small and self-contained and can be easily added to another project with two source files, or you can use NuGet to include the binaries. The library has an external dependency on HtmlAgilityPack for HTML parsing.

Supported .NET Targets:

• .NET 4.5+
• .NET Standard 2.0

Standalone Command Line Tools

There are a also a small Windows .NET 4.5 Cosole executable and as a cross-platform .NET SDK Tool that allow you to run this tool from the command line.

HtmlPackager Windows Console Application

The HTML Packager is available as a self contained Windows Console application (ILMerged single file EXE) in HtmlPackager.exe which you can download and copy as needed.

Alternately you can also use the Chocolatey package:

choco install HtmlPackager

Cross Platform .NET SDK Global Tool

You can also install the cross-platform the dotnet-htmlpackager Nuget package that installs as a .NET SDK Global tool that can be globally executed as htmlpackager once installed on Windows, Mac and Linux as long as you have the .NET SDK 2.1 or later installed.

To install the tool:

dotnet tool install -g dotnet-htmlpackager

To uninstall

dotnet tool uninstall -g dotnet-htmlpackager

Command Line Options

The tool allows for a number of command line options to determine how output is returned from a URL.

Syntax:
-------
HtmlPackager <sourceUrl> -o <outputFile> [-x|-z] -d

Commands:
---------
HELP || /?          This help display           

Options:
--------
sourceUrl           Source Url or local file to an HTML document
-o <outputFile>     Output HTML file or Zip file (-z)
                    (if output file is not provided output is sent to StdOut)                                       
-x                  Create external dependencies in folder of HTML document
-z                  Create zip file with all dependencies included in zip
-d                  Display generated HTML page or Zip file

Examples

The following are a few examples you can try to capture output.

Create a single self-contained HTML document from a URL and display in your browser:

HtmlPackager  https://markdownmonster.west-wind.com  -o c:\temp\mm-output.html -d

Create an HTML file from a URL with all dependencies stored as loose files in the output file's folder (-x) and display in your browser (-d):

HtmlPackager  https://weblog.west-wind.com -o c:\temp\west-wind.html -x -d

Create a self-contained HTML file from a local HTML file:

HtmlPackager  %userprofile%\Documents\myapp\somePage.html -o %TEMP%\app_saved.html

Note that environment variables in paths are autoexpanded - use whatever syntax is appropriate for your OS.

Package to a Zip file:

HtmlPackager  https://github.com -o c:\temp\github-home.zip -z -d

.NET Library and C# Source Code

The packager is also avalailable as a NuGet package you can add to your project.

Installation via NuGet

You can install this library from NuGet:

install-package Westwind.HtmlPackager

or

dotnet add package Westwind.HtmlPackager

Usage

The following are various usage examples for packaging HTML from files or Web URLs into the two package formats.

Capture HTML File to embedded HTML as String

The following captures the HTML to a single file string from a local file on disk:

var inputFile = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), "_MarkdownMonster_Preview.html");
var packager = new HtmlPackager();
string packaged = packager.PackageHtml(inputFile);

string outputFile = InputFile.Replace(".html", "_PACKAGED.html");

File.WriteAllText(outputFile, packaged);

Console.WriteLine(packaged);

Capture HTML File to embedded HTML as File

var inputFile = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), "_MarkdownMonster_Preview.html");
string outputFile = InputFile.Replace(".html", "_PACKAGED.html");

var packager = new HtmlPackager();
string packaged = packager.PackageHtmlToFile(inputFile,outputFile);


// display html in browser
Utils.GoUrl(outputFile);

Capture Web Url to single File

var packager = new HtmlPackager();
string packaged = packager.PackageHtml("https://west-wind.com");

string outputFile = InputFile.Replace(".html", "_PACKAGED.html");
File.WriteAllText(outputFile, packaged);

ShellUtils.GoUrl(outputFile);

Capture File to HTML File + Loose Resources

var packager = new HtmlPackager();
string outputFile = @"c:\temp\GeneratedHtml\Output.html";
bool result = packager.PackageHtmlToFolder(@"c:\temp\tmpFiles\_MarkdownMonster_Preview.html", outputFile,
    null, true);
Assert.IsTrue(result);

// Display html in browser
Utils.GoUrl(outputFile);

Capture Web Url to HTML File + Loose Resources

var packager = new HtmlPackager();
string outputFile = @"c:\temp\GeneratedHtml\Output.html";
bool result = packager.PackageHtmlToFolder("http://west-wind.com/", outputFile, null, true);

ShellUtils.GoUrl(outputFile);

License

The Westwind.HtmlPackager library is license under the MIT License and there's no charge to use, integrate or modify the code for this project. You are free to use it in personal, commercial, government and any other type of application.

All source code is copyright West Wind Technologies, regardless of changes made to them. Any source code modifications must leave the original copyright code headers intact.

It's free as in free beer, but if this saved you some time and you're overflowing with gratitude you can buy me a beer:

Make a Donation with PayPal

Warranty Disclaimer: No Warranty!

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THIS PROGRAM AND DOCUMENTATION, BE LIABLE FOR ANY COMMERCIAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS, EVEN IF YOU OR OTHER PARTIES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.