Crawl-n-Create Web Diagram
 

Couple of questions:

1…Does OmniGraffle have the ability to "crawl" an existing web site and create a diagram of the site?

2…If not, I know at one time I had bumped into an AppleScript someone wrote the accomplished the task, but it didn't work (older version of OmniGraffle). Has anyone attempted to do such a thing lately?

I tried using Visio Pro, but it's diagrams are aweful. Also, just like every other diagram tool I've tried, it does not do [I]every[/I] connection. For example, I would want it to draw flow lines from every link to every other link: if I have a footer on every page with a link, then every page should have a line to the page that link goes to. Need this for QA purposes.

I found one interation of the script, but it won't compile. [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost.php?p=12059&postcount=10"]It's in this thread here in the Omni forums.[/URL]

[QUOTE=pocketbikeMike;74095]Thanks for the link! It was able to provide me with some useful information. [/QUOTE]
Didn't help me much though…I take it OmniGraffle isn't going to be the tool to help me out of this predicament? :(

The script above appears to work just fine if you use OmniGraffle 4. Save the script as an application, then drag your sitemap file to that application on the desktop and OmniGraffle will draw your map. You can download a copy of OmniGraffle 4 from the Omni website if you don't have it, and either use it in demo mode or ask Omni to generate you a key if you've got an OmniGraffle 5 license already.

If the issue is that you need a tool to actually generate the sitemap file, I can't really offer you any assistance there without doing the same research that you could do :-) For my test, I just copied and pasted the one shown at [url]http://www.freesitemapgenerator.com/example-sitemap.html[/url]

Ah, I was looking for something that did the crawling and mapping together given a URL, like Visio Pro does.

I don't know anything about these XML techniques or who to trust isn't setting me up for a scam. The link you presented, for example, requires account creation (which sets off red flags for me). "Free" means "just do it without an account." ;)

Just need something with the intelligence to crawl-around the site, establish the relationships, and spit-back a diagram, with some level of customization.

Having a hard time believing Visio is the only "streamlined" tool—the world of Web Design isn't THAT new for crying out loud. ;p

Yeah, no representation of that site as anything more than a site that happened to have a sitemap file that I could copy and paste was intended!

I'm not convinced that a diagramming tool ought to have built-in code to spider websites as core functionality, though Omni has opened the door to such requests by making OmniGraffle diagram disk structures and so on. But if you think it should, send in your feature request with Help->Send Feedback or email [email]omnigraffle@omnigroup.com[/email] and they'll take it into consideration when deciding what to do next.

Oh, I'm not suggesting the Omni Group tackle it directly (unless they want to, I won't argue…), was just wondering if someone else had taken advantage of what I hear is OmniGraffle's excellent AppleScript abilities to use OG as the "diagram drawer" for a site-crawling AppleScript.

I happen to agree that going through alot of trouble to make that a core feature is a bit much. I'm just shocked, repeatedly, that there seems to be this void in web tools for this functionality. I was looking to see if anyone else had become more frustrated than me and taken care of it already.

I asked a web developer about the XML technique mentioned above, but he said more often than not, even the XML outputs from those need alot of work. As far as anyone I talk to knows, Visio is the only software that even attempts to crawl-n-draw (and after using it, it's obvious they tried a little *too* hard).

I'd pay money for software or a script if it worked like I needed it to. About *this* close to seeing if I can manage it myself. I'm already digging around to get ideas how to tackle this and see how far over my head it is… ;)

[I]"It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife…" —Alanis Morissette[/I]

Here is an open source sitemap generator from Google:

[url]http://code.google.com/p/googlesitemapgenerator/[/url]

Also, if you just search for "Sitemap Generator," there's a ton out there. Many are free for smaller websites and inexpensive for larger ones. Most CMS software can generate its own sitemap, too.

You can find a new version of the XML -> OmniGraffle script on my site at [url]http://nik.me/crappysoftware[/url] .