Get the NASA Pic of the Day with NASA's API!

[SpriggsySpriggs]

NASA has some pretty awesome photographs and I'm sure you all would like to see them. Below is some code that will allow you to grab the pic of the day from NASA! Could be good for someone's screensaver application written in QB64. Here is a screenshot:
 

And here is the code using their DEMO API key which is good for 30 requests per hour per IP address:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. OPTION _EXPLICIT
2. _TITLE "NASA Pic of the Day API"
3.  
4. DIM i&
5.  
6. i& = NASApod
7.  
8. IF i& <> 0 THEN
9.     SCREEN i&
10. END IF
11.  
12. FUNCTION NASApod&
13.     DIM URL AS STRING
14.     DIM URLFile AS STRING
15.     DIM nasapic AS STRING
16.     DIM a%
17.     URLFile = "nasapod"
18.     URL = "https://api.nasa.gov/planetary/apod?api_key=DEMO_KEY"
19.     a% = API_request(URL, URLFile)
20.     DIM U AS INTEGER
21.     U = FREEFILE
22.     OPEN URLFile FOR BINARY AS #U
23.     IF LOF(U) <> 0 THEN
24.         nasapic = SPACE$(LOF(U))
25.         GET #U, , nasapic
26.     ELSE
27.         CLOSE #U
28.         KILL URLFile
29.         NASApod = 0
30.         EXIT FUNCTION
31.     END IF
32.     CLOSE #U
33.     KILL URLFile
34.     nasapic = MID$(nasapic, INSTR(nasapic, CHR$(34) + "url" + CHR$(34) + ":") + 7)
35.     nasapic = LEFT$(nasapic, LEN(nasapic) - 3)
36.     URLFile = "nasapod.jpg"
37.     URL = nasapic
38.     a% = API_request(URL, URLFile)
39.     OPEN URLFile FOR BINARY AS #U
40.     IF LOF(U) <> 0 THEN
41.         NASApod = _LOADIMAGE(URLFile, 32)
42.     ELSE
43.         CLOSE #U
44.         KILL URLFile
45.         NASApod = 0
46.     END IF
47.     CLOSE #U
48.     KILL URLFile
49. END FUNCTION
50.  
51.  
52. DECLARE DYNAMIC LIBRARY "urlmon"
53.     FUNCTION URLDownloadToFileA (BYVAL pCaller AS LONG, szURL AS STRING, szFileName AS STRING, BYVAL dwReserved AS LONG, BYVAL lpfnCB AS LONG)
54. END DECLARE
55.  
56. FUNCTION API_request (URL AS STRING, File AS STRING)
57.     API_request = URLDownloadToFileA(0, URL + CHR$(0), File + CHR$(0), 0, 0)
58. END FUNCTION

[luke]

Perhaps you could keep all these API demos in the one thread? It's just the same code over and over with slight variations.

[SierraKen]

This is awesome! But I suggest putting an Inkey$ loop at the end so it doesn't say to press any key to continue, which takes away part of the picture. In the _TITLE you can say "Press Esc to end." or something like that. Great job though!

[SpriggsySpriggs]

Perhaps you could keep all these API demos in the one thread? It's just the same code over and over with slight variations.

@luke What one thread? I'm unaware of any specific place to put these. And yes, they are largely the same code over and over because I'm reusing the same functions over and over but each API has different requirements for Headers and different response types that have to be handled differently.

[bplus]

This is awesome! But I suggest putting an Inkey$ loop at the end so it doesn't say to press any key to continue, which takes away part of the picture. In the _TITLE you can say "Press Esc to end." or something like that. Great job though!

SLEEP is perfect for that, then you might say "Press any to end." in title or you could give SLEEP an argument to stop sleeping (and shut down) after so many seconds.

[SpriggsySpriggs]

This is awesome! But I suggest putting an Inkey$ loop at the end so it doesn't say to press any key to continue, which takes away part of the picture. In the _TITLE you can say "Press Esc to end." or something like that. Great job though!

@SierraKen I figured that if anyone wanted to they could edit as they pleased. I was just giving the absolute most basic example I could.

[luke]

You can put them in a thread called "Calling random API services" or similar. I'm sure you can come up with a name.

[Qwerkey]

You can put them in a thread called "Calling random API services" or similar. I'm sure you can come up with a name.

@luke @SpriggsySpriggs @bplus bplus has suggested that these API posts of Spriggsy could be in the Library (Informatics), and I have these on my ToDoList as possibles.  I could create a post there with the URL references to all of these posts.  Is this a solution that people would favour?

[SpriggsySpriggs]

Here is code for a screensaver using this API and my new JSON parsing function. Change the extension from exe to scr, right click, and press Install. Then change the settings in the screensaver settings menu in Windows to whatever timeout you want. Enjoy!

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. $CHECKING:OFF
2. OPTION _EXPLICIT
3.  
4. _TITLE "NASA Pic of the Day"
5.  
6. DIM i&
7. SCREEN _NEWIMAGE(_DESKTOPWIDTH, _DESKTOPHEIGHT, 32)
8. _SCREENSHOW
9. _FULLSCREEN
10. i& = NASApod
11. IF i& <> 0 THEN
12.     _PUTIMAGE , i&, 0
13.     _ICON _DISPLAY
14. END IF
15. 'day = 86399
16. DIM start AS LONG
17. DO
18.     start = TIMER
19.     IF start = 18000 THEN
20.         i& = NASApod
21.         IF i& <> 0 THEN
22.             _PUTIMAGE , i&, 0
23.             _ICON _DISPLAY
24.         END IF
25.         _DELAY 1
26.     END IF
27.     _LIMIT 30
28. LOOP UNTIL INKEY$ <> ""
29. SYSTEM
30.  
31. FUNCTION NASApod&
32.     DIM URL AS STRING
33.     DIM URLFile AS STRING
34.     DIM nasapic AS STRING
35.     DIM picdate AS STRING
36.     DIM a%
37.     picdate = MID$(DATE$, 7) + "-" + MID$(DATE$, 1, 2) + "-" + MID$(DATE$, 4, 2)
38.     URLFile = "nasapod.json"
39.     URL = "https://api.nasa.gov/planetary/apod?date=" + picdate + "&api_key=DEMO_KEY"
40.     a% = API_request(URL, URLFile)
41.     DIM U AS INTEGER
42.     U = FREEFILE
43.     OPEN URLFile FOR BINARY AS #U
44.     IF LOF(U) <> 0 THEN
45.         nasapic = SPACE$(LOF(U))
46.         GET #U, , nasapic
47.     ELSE
48.         CLOSE #U
49.         KILL URLFile
50.         NASApod = 0
51.         EXIT FUNCTION
52.     END IF
53.     CLOSE #U
54.     KILL URLFile
55.     nasapic = GetKey("hdurl", nasapic)
56.     URLFile = "nasapod.jpg"
57.     URL = nasapic
58.     a% = API_request(URL, URLFile)
59.     OPEN URLFile FOR BINARY AS #U
60.     IF LOF(U) <> 0 THEN
61.         NASApod = _LOADIMAGE(URLFile, 32)
62.     ELSE
63.         CLOSE #U
64.         KILL URLFile
65.         NASApod = 0
66.     END IF
67.     CLOSE #U
68.     KILL URLFile
69. END FUNCTION
70.  
71.  
72. DECLARE DYNAMIC LIBRARY "urlmon"
73.     FUNCTION URLDownloadToFileA (BYVAL pCaller AS LONG, szURL AS STRING, szFileName AS STRING, BYVAL dwReserved AS LONG, BYVAL lpfnCB AS LONG)
74. END DECLARE
75.  
76. FUNCTION API_request (URL AS STRING, File AS STRING)
77.     API_request = URLDownloadToFileA(0, URL + CHR$(0), File + CHR$(0), 0, 0)
78. END FUNCTION
79.  
80. FUNCTION GetKey$ (keyname AS STRING, JSON AS STRING)
81.     DIM jkey AS STRING
82.     IF INSTR(JSON, CHR$(34) + keyname + CHR$(34)) THEN
83.         jkey = MID$(JSON, INSTR(JSON, CHR$(34) + keyname + CHR$(34)) + LEN(keyname))
84.         jkey = MID$(jkey, INSTR(jkey, ":") + 1)
85.         IF MID$(jkey, 1, 1) = CHR$(34) THEN
86.             jkey = MID$(jkey, 2)
87.         END IF
88.         jkey = MID$(jkey, 1, INSTR(jkey, CHR$(34)) - 1)
89.         IF RIGHT$(jkey, 1) = "," THEN
90.             jkey = MID$(jkey, 1, LEN(jkey) - 1)
91.         END IF
92.     ELSE
93.         GetKey = ""
94.     END IF
95.     GetKey = jkey
96. END FUNCTION
97.  
98. SUB GetAllKey (keyname AS STRING, JSON AS STRING, ParseKey() AS STRING)
99.     DIM jkey AS STRING
100.     DIM x
101.     DO
102.         IF INSTR(JSON, CHR$(34) + keyname + CHR$(34)) THEN
103.             x = x + 1
104.             REDIM _PRESERVE ParseKey(x) AS STRING
105.             JSON = MID$(JSON, INSTR(JSON, CHR$(34) + keyname + CHR$(34)) + LEN(keyname))
106.             jkey = JSON
107.             jkey = MID$(jkey, INSTR(jkey, ":") + 1)
108.             IF MID$(jkey, 1, 1) = CHR$(34) THEN
109.                 jkey = MID$(jkey, 2)
110.             END IF
111.             jkey = MID$(jkey, 1, INSTR(jkey, CHR$(34)) - 1)
112.             IF RIGHT$(jkey, 1) = "," THEN
113.                 jkey = MID$(jkey, 1, LEN(jkey) - 1)
114.             END IF
115.             ParseKey(x) = jkey
116.         END IF
117.     LOOP UNTIL INSTR(JSON, CHR$(34) + keyname + CHR$(34)) = 0
118. END SUB