This is just a very short gripe about the open-source utility JDownloader.

It’s a great tool for downloading all kinds of data from the Internet.   Does much of the “leg work” involved with tedious download tasks.   Very versatile, many plugin capabilities, endless customization.  Almost.

I was disheartened to learn how the modification of the default “User-Agent” string is not available to users.   This setting is one that users easily change in browsers, and many other utilities out there.    While I understand the reasoning behind preventing users from easily modifying it, there are other ways to mitigate the PEBKAC errors.   For instance:

1. If modified then a popup warning could appear at each launch with some stern verbiage about “If it’s not working, you probably broke it… if you’re having trouble, you should restore the default. would you like me to restore the default? Y/N”.  
        -or-
2. Modifications could be session-only, thus auto-remediating at each launch.

 

I guess, rather than rant on my blog about this I should propose it on the official forum.   But as it happens, it’s down at the moment, so here I am.

Also, I’d have to try to act surprised if I saw responses to my proposal such as these:

“if you want to override this yourself, easiest solution is run a proxy and change via the proxy.”  — raztoki (JD Developer)

“but if ppl just start changing UA themselves, guess who they gonna ask for help or complain when plugin breaks/fails.” — jiaz  (JD Developer)

 

The bottom line is, there are plenty of advanced users that don’t want to edit source code and compile, or run a proxy server, to achieve this trivial change.  

 

If any JD developer do happen to read this post, THANKS for your contribution to what has become an incredibly amazing and sophisticated tool.   I know that people don’t take the time to thank the devs for their hard work enough.   How many man hours have been saved as a result we’ll never know!   I hope my comments above can be taken constructively, in order to help an already amazing tool become that much more useful. 

Thanks for reading!