What
Chanmongler (formerly known as 4cGet) is a tool to automate downloading and searching on *chan-style imageboards. Simply add a list of threads, and Chanmongler will make sure that you've got all the posted images (and the posts themselves). Also, if you know what you're looking for, use the search feature to check all active threads for related posts, image filenames and more.
Even though Chanmongler is aimed at imageboard users, it can be used on regular websites just as easily. Mongler is specifically useful if you're downloading large batches of images, songs or movies. Note that if you're not comfortable with writing your own .chan config files, you might want to use a different tool instead.
Why
Because it's a pain to download loads of images manually, and DownThemAll / not4chan grabber are painfully slow. I needed a better utility (in terms of automatical sorting, higher speeds and simpler/quicker to use), thus Chanmongler was the outcome.
How
The preferred useage is through hotkeys, and having the program itself concealed. This way you won't notice that it's there, except from it simplifying your browsing experience. Once you've started Chanmongler, double-click its tray icon to hide/show it.
Whenever you find a thread that you wish to save, there are a couple of ways to add it. If you are using Opera/Firefox2/IE6/IE7, you may press Alt+1 to add the thread you are currently viewing. In all other cases, you must use a different method. Copy the thread URL (right-click thread link and select "Copy link address"), then press Alt+2.
To check through all threads for new content, you can either hit Alt+4, right-click tray icon and select "Download all", or click the biggest button you can find in Mongler. There's even a hotkey to perform searches, namely Alt+5. The content you want is literally at your fingertips, at any given time.
Thread information
Even though the purpose of Chanmongler is to present a good end result, why not have something to look at while it's downloading? If you click any of the threads in the threadlist, you will be presented with some information about that thread. First and foremost, you will see a thumbnail of the first image in the thread. This is assuming, naturally, that Chanmongler has already downloaded a couple of the images. Furthermore, you will see some statistics. This includes when the thread was added, when it was last checked for new content, when there was any new content downloaded, and finally the total number of images/files in that thread.
Sorting
As you add a bunch of threads, the threadlist can become quite large. Thus finding a specific thread can become quite difficult. New in version 1.0.1 is a sorting feature, as seen in the thumbnail at once. Simply right-click anywhere in the threadlist, hover your mouse above "Sort by", and you will be presented by a couple of ways to sort by. While this is all great during the downloading, I've already mentioned that Chanmongler's aim is to give a good end-result. When it comes down to actual sorting of the downloaded files, I've tried to aid in that, too.
Having some sort of order in your collection can be a hassle. In an attempt to simplify that, Chanmongler can automatically create subfolders for chans, boards and even threads. You can also put prefixes to the image filenames, namely original board and thread ID.
Finally, Chanmongler can also tag the threads that are no longer in the threadlist. Note that this feature only works if each thread is downloaded to a separate folder (the "Create a subfolder for each thread" checkbox must have been checked as the images were downloaded). If you press the button named "Mark active", the "Date Accessed" of all active threads will be set to the current time. If you proceed to open up the download directory and sort by "Date Accessed", the finished threads will be grouped together, while the active threads are easily discernable by their newer dates.
Hotkeys
| Hotkey | Function |
| Alt - 1 | Add thread directly from browser |
| Alt - 2 | Add thread from clipboard |
| Alt - 3 | Check for (and download) new content |
| Alt - 4 | View the search window |