nzz-downloader/README.md

# NZZ Downloader

The [NZZ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neue_Z%C3%BCrcher_Zeitung) is the Swiss
Swiss newspaper of record. Its first issue was all the way back in 1780. Even
better you can download every single issue ever released (if you have a
subscription of course).

This little tool helps with downloading all released issues in a specified time
span.

It was written because the archive website is not very friendly and because it
is not possible to download everything within a specified time span.

![screenshot](screenshot.jpg)

## Installation

You need to be comfortable with the command line to use the nzz downloader and
it has only been tested on *nix systems though it should work fine on Windows or
macOS.

### Prerequisites

- [Firefox](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/download/thanks/)
- [geckodriver](https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver/releases)
- [rust](https://www.rust-lang.org/learn/get-started)

Build the binaries with cargo: `cargo build --release` (they are created as
`target/release/{nzz-cookie,nzz-download}`).

## Usage

### Authentication

The downloader needs an authentication cookie to work. With the binary
`nzz-cookie` (and the huge help of the webdriver api + geckodriver) this can be
generated.

```
Usage: nzz-cookie --username <USERNAME>

Options:
  -u, --username <USERNAME>  Username [env: USERNAME=]
  -h, --help                 Print help
  -V, --version              Print version

Provide the password from stdin.
```

The resulting cookie is printed to stdout.

### Download

```
Usage: nzz-download [OPTIONS] --from <FROM> --to <TO>

Options:
  -f, --from <FROM>              Earliest issue to download (like 1780-12-31) [env: FROM=]
  -t, --to <TO>                  Latest issue to download (like 1780-12-31) [env: TO=]
  -o, --output-dir <OUTPUT_DIR>  Output directory [env: OUTPUT_DIR=] [default: ./nzz]
  -h, --help                     Print help
  -V, --version                  Print version

Provide the authentication cookie from stdin.
```

### Example

Login and use the resulting cookie to download all issues from 2024-06-01 until
2024-06-05 to the default directory "./nzz", reading the password from the file
`pw`:

```
nzz-cookie -u 'myuser@example.com' <pw | nzz-download -f 2024-06-01 -t 2024-06-05
```

## Caveats

There are no retries on a failed download so far, it just crashes. Stemming from
that I would advise not to try and download big ranges at once until that is
fixed.

## License

Licensed as [AGPL-3.0](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html).