Magnet link

For information regarding the technical details of magnet links, see Magnet URI scheme.

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What are Magnet Links

Magnets are a type of [FAQ.P2PLinks URI] (Universal Resource Identifier). They are used to assemble useful information about a thing (most often a file or similar resource) in a clear, extensive format. Most often, they are used to provide information about a file in a way that allows p2p programs to download the file from a p2p network. Shareaza, Limewire, and other Gnutella programs can understand magnet links. Azureus also uses magnet links (in a way Shareaza yet cannot). Kazaa can also use magnet links (in a way Shareaza never will). Magnet is an open project. Its website is http://magnet-uri.sourceforge.net/. There is a Yahoo! discussion group: Yahoo magnet group page.

Using Shareaza to create and export magnet links

For each file in your library, there is a right-click option to copy its URI (see [Manual.Library Manual.Library]). This can be used to copy into the clipboard either a magnet for the file with the file's BitPrint (the SHA1 and TigerTree hash) and File name, or an ed2k link. If you highlight multiple files in your library (by holding down <Shift> or <Ctrl> while selecting the file), there is an option to export more complex URIs to the clipboard, or to a file.

While a file is in the process of being downloaded, it is also possible to copy its URI, but it is not possible to export URIs for multiple files from the downloads windows, like one can from library window.

Using the export URI feature

Please refer to [Manual.Library Manual.Library] page for the process of exporting URI to a file or to the clipboard.

How to include Magnet Links on a WebPage

From the Export URI feature, export the magnets in 'html format' to a file. Add any tags to magnet that you wish to include. The [Manual.Library Manual.Library wiki page] has some preformatted examples of tags you may wish to include.

for example: enter in the export URI dialog box: <a href="magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:[SHA1]&xt=urn:tree:tiger:[TIGER]&xl=[ByteSize]&xt=urn:ed2k:[ED2k]&dn=[NameURI]"> [Name]</a><br>

Save the output to a file, which will look like (the hashes having been altered for ease of viewing: {...} has been added for missing sections): <a href="magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:HA{...}I3&xt=urn:tree:tiger:H7{...}6I&xl=397&xt=urn:ed2k:27{...}3f&dn=test.txt"> test.txt</a><br>

NOTE: be cautious of the use of '&' when including these files in html pages. The use of '&' unescaped (as a delimiter) is correct for URI encoding in this instance, but web pages are also HTML encoded, and so the ampersand, &, should technically be replaced with &. Most browsers or web page servers are not confused if you fail to do this step however.

You may want to include a little icon in your magnet link, before the 'clickable text', so that it looks pretty. There are some examples of icons you may wish to use for the links your webpage at the MagnetURI web page.

example: <a href="magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:{...}&dn=somefile"><img src="RelativeOrAbsolutePathToMyMagnetIcon.gif" align=middle border="0" ALT="error">somefile.file</a>

How to include Magnet Links in the Shareaza forums

Magnet links can be included in posts on the shareaza forums using the [magnet]and[/magnet] tags. They use the format

[magnet=magnet:?xt=urn:bitprint:blahblahblah]yadayadayada[/magnet]

where blahblahblah is the bitprint of the file and yadayadayada is the text displayed as the link

What are some of the tags that can be seen in magnet links

||xt=urn:sha1:sha1-hash|the exact topic (xt) of the sha1 hash urn||xt=urn:tree:tiger:tiger-root|the tiger-tree root hash||xt=urn:bitprint:sha1.tiger-root|the sha1 hash and the tiger tree root hash, separated by a period||xt=urn:ed2k:ed2k-hash|the ed2k hash||xt=urn:ed2khash:ed2k-hash|another way of including the ed2k-hash||xt=urn:kzhash:kazaa hash|kazaa hash not understood by Shareaza||xt=urn:btih:sha1 of info dictionary|bitTorrent info hash this parameter is not yet usable by Shareaza||xl=exact length in bytes|the base10 length of the file in bytes, it is strongly suggested that this parameter be included in magnets, especially if the magnet has ed2k hash||dn=display name|the suggested name for a resource||xs=exact source|an absolute path, such as a url, to the location for a resource. It is suggesting the resource be uniquely identifiable, for instance, its being identified by a hash included in the url. In practice, it can simply be a url to a resource, no matter how it is identified||as=acceptable source|similar to exact source, used when the resource cannot assuredly be what we expect||