Xanga Backup Conversion Utility

A Story by dw817

This is a utility I wrote to convert the flawed download archives from Xanga so they will display images even after they lose their link with the Xanga server.

-- This message is for Xangan users who have backed up their site with Xanga's Backup Archive feature --

Oh I figured this would get your attention !

Well HELLO there ! Now as you know Xanga has indeed given all the surviving members of the site the ability to BACKUP their work. What they didn't bother to tell you was that the downloaded archives you have so neatly collected WILL NOT display correctly !

You can confirm this by loading up one of the HTM files from your archive in Firefox, for instance, and right-click on it and select, Copy Image Location. Then bring up NOTEPAD and press CTRL-V to paste it to see the URL address.

Yep, sure enough it's linking NOT to the images you downloaded but to Xanga - which according to them will be shutdown July 15th ! So that means once Xanga is gone, your backups will only display text and none of the images you've uploaded !

What to do - what to do - well with a bit of work (and adding my neato fireworks program to boot since it's close to July) what I wrote is a utility to convert those nasty bad and broken HTM files to good really great working HTM ones.

They assume you are unpacking all the directories to their default locations so all your images will be in the current directory and you will have created a single sub-directory from there called XANGA.

Now, what is NOT covered are emoticons, avatars, MINIs - anything you did not download from your archive or is in some way linked to XANGA will not appear in the conversion.

They won't appear anyways after Xanga shuts down, but at least all of your personal images that you downloaded will now appear in their correct locations throughout all converted HTMs.

Obviously, if you have any questions for the usage of this utility, you know where to find me. After July 15th, you should ALSO know where to find me.