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IGN Media Firefox Extension

This is a little off topic, but given how much people will be using IGN over the next few days for media, I hope it's not disapproved of.

In short, like many others I hate the whole rigmarole that you have to go through to download non-insider videos on IGN. I mean, it takes something ridiculous like three separate pages before you even get to the actual download link.

In order to save all that hassle, I've written a really simple script for use with Greasemonkey in Firefox. The script replaces all links to movies on IGN sites with a direct download link.

If you want to take advantage of this, just do the following:

1) Install Firefox if you haven't already done so
2) Go to http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/ and install the Greasemonkey extension
3) Restart Firefox so Greasemonkey is working
4) Click the following link http://www.sharemation.com/meatpuppet/ignlinks.user.js
5) On the Firefox Toolbar, Click Tools, then select Install User Script
6) Click Ok
7) Result! Now all media links on IGN will let you download direct, instead of forcing you to jump through hoops for minutes

I know that it is nothing major, but I think it's great not to have to faff around any more than absolutely necessary on IGN. Figured I'd share this as others have mentioned they found it annoying in the past.

The code is as follows, if anyone is curious. Apologies for any idiocy inherent:

Code:
// ==UserScript==
// @name          IGNLinks
// @description	  Converts IGN Media Links To Direct Download Links
// @include       http://*.ign.com/*

links = document.getElementsByTagName('A');

for (i=0; i<links.length; i++) {

  link = links[i];
  if (link.href.match("/media/")) {

    link.href = unescape(link.href.replace(/(^http.*=)(.*)/, "$2"));

  }

}

Enjoy!
 
Wow, just ANOTHER reason to use firefox, what an awesome idea
 
Thank you very much! Just yesterday I was downloading some videos from IGN, wondering if anyone had come up with a workaround for the hassle. Awesome!
 
dude, you rock.

on a slightly off topic note: is there a way to use this to get gamespot to stop spazzing out whenever it loads with FF?
 
sp0rsk said:
can you be a dear and write some firefox GAF extensions?

Hmm, i'm not the best at coding but typically I need an idea before I started :D
He probably would like an idea too.. just a guess :)

Pedigree Chum said:
Unfortunately, this doesn't work with all IGN links. Sometimes I just get a HTML download :(

Ah well.

Not to continue to speak on his behalf, but he will probably want examples so perhaps he could expand his script, or someone else could.
 
demon said:
Don't see it.

Sorry about that, not sure why it wouldn't be there. Have you installed Greasemonkey? And restarted Firefox so it can install fully? Sorry to be an ass and ask dumb questions, but I'm not sure why its not there.

Should be:

Tools > Install User Script..

With the latter being the option near the base of the drop down menu.

What version of Firefox are you using?
 
Pedigree Chum said:
Unfortunately, this doesn't work with all IGN links. Sometimes I just get a HTML download :(

Ah well.

If you can give me some examples, I can try and modify the script so that it can handle it. Sorry if it hasn't worked everywhere, I'm just getting started on this sort of thing, and I only tested it on a couple of the IGN media pages. Seemed to work, and I wanted to share before E3 got going with the inevitable media splurge.

EDIT: Just found an example, I'll get cracking on it. Sorry to everyone its not working for, I seem to have jumped the gun in posting it. Should work on all platform exclusive media (its cross linking between the sub-sites that's causing a problem I think), but I'll try to get it to work more universally.
 
I just installed it. Let's see if it works. excited.

can't tell how its working. Maybe cause I'm insider?

can you do one for quicktime.com - it'd be a bit tricky cause all the videos are on different servers but that would be killer.

thanks dude!
 
Meatpuppet said:
If you can give me some examples, I can try and modify the script so that it can handle it. Sorry if it hasn't worked everywhere, I'm just getting started on this sort of thing, and I only tested it on a couple of the IGN media pages. Seemed to work, and I wanted to share before E3 got going with the inevitable media splurge.

No, no, your expention is truly awesome...I'll give you some examples:

http://media.xbox360.ign.com/articles/613/613343/vids_1.html <---the WMV video gives me a HTML link.

http://media.ps2.ign.com/media/696/696714/vids_1.html <---same as above.

Once again, thanks for the awesome extension.
 
You have to be on this page "http://www.sharemation.com/meatpuppet/ignlinks.user.js"

For Install script to show up in the menu.
 
How is this supposed to work? I installed it properly, but when I click on a media page for a game, I still have to go through the same series of windows.
 
Father_Brain said:
How is this supposed to work? I installed it properly, but when I click on a media page for a game, I still have to go through the same series of windows.

It modifies the links on the pages so that you're able to right-click "save link as." Don't left click them. Right click.

And thank you Meatpuppet! This is very helpful.
 
works a treat. :)

guys. for those of you having problems saving - is it because you're trying to access insider content with no insider? I don't think the extension bypasses access rights.
 
Father_Brain said:
Now it just takes a 5K HTML file and saves it with a WMV filename. :(

Same deals here, is there a specific video that you guys KNOW works with this? Every single one seems to be an HTML file for me.
 
I just checked it with Kameo and GR3 lowres video files. Instead of left clicking, simply right click them and save link as...

Very nice.
 
I installed the script but it does not seem to want to work for me. I'll toy with it some.

On a side note, here is another very useful IGN Firefox script which removes all those ads and reformats the page so the news, reviews, ect collums fill their places.

EDIT: Heres a quick screen capture of how it turns out: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/Dalamar86/adlessign.jpg

Code:
/* IGN */
div#leader, div#leaderboardRow, div#rowLeaderboard {
  background-image: none !important;
  height: 15px !important;
}

div#leader div, div#leaderboardRow div, div#colRight div#adHalfpage,
div#colRight div#sweeps, div#colRight div#insider, div#colRight div#fu,
div#colRight div#panelBoxAd, div#colRight div#floodlight, div#minisweeps,
div#colRight img[src$="/images/panelboxad_bottom.gif"] {
  display: none !important;
}

*Go to windows\application data\mozzila\firefox\profiles\<random characters>.<user name>\chrome\
*Open the userContent-example file, replace the examples in there with this code, and then save and rename the file userContent.
*Restart and enjoy.
 
Dalamar86 said:
I installed the script but it does not seem to want to work for me. I'll toy with it some.

On a side note, here is another very useful IGN Firefox script which removes all those ads and reformats the page so the news, reviews, ect collums fill their places.

EDIT: Heres a quick screen capture of how it turns out: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/Dalamar86/adlessign.jpg

Code:
/* IGN */
div#leader, div#leaderboardRow, div#rowLeaderboard {
  background-image: none !important;
  height: 15px !important;
}

div#leader div, div#leaderboardRow div, div#colRight div#adHalfpage,
div#colRight div#sweeps, div#colRight div#insider, div#colRight div#fu,
div#colRight div#panelBoxAd, div#colRight div#floodlight, div#minisweeps,
div#colRight img[src$="/images/panelboxad_bottom.gif"] {
  display: none !important;
}

*Go to windows\application data\mozzila\firefox\profiles\<random characters>.<user name>\chrome\
*Open the userContent-example file, replace the examples in there with this code, and then save and rename the file userContent.
*Restart and enjoy.

Wow! THANK YOU!!!
 
shpankey said:
it's in your 'documents and settings' folder under your 'username' folder.

Yeah, what he said; I forgot its different for XP. I'm stuck with stupid ME until I'm not too lazy to upgrade.
 
Thanks guys. I just browsed through the normal Firefox folders, found one in there, applied the changes... but it didn't do anything. Will now attempt to do the same as suggested above.
 
Mejilan said:
Thanks guys. I just browsed through the normal Firefox folders, found one in there, applied the changes... but it didn't do anything. Will now attempt to do the same as suggested above.

Yeah, it won't work under the set of folders in program files for some reason. I had the same problem innitially. You must use the ones under application data.
 
Thank you! I never used IGN because of all the windows you have to go through but with this, I'll be using IGN more often.
 
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