Downloading TEXT file from internet

[IronMan]

I am obtaining several text files from the NOAA weather site. I'm currently using curl from a shell command from within my QB64 app like:

SHELL "curl https://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/zone/ms/msz024.txt >forecast.txt"

to obtain a text file from this site. I however would like to do this within the QB64 itself rather than having to SHELL and run a external application like Curl to fetch the file. I know there is a Download command in QB64, but I'm not understanding how to use it. Does anyone have experience on how to do this? Perhaps a small piece of code for an example?

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.
Kent

[Real2Two]

Try doing some get of GET request of QB64, which I remember seeing code with the GET with QB64, but I forgot about it.

[Real2Two]

Check out how this works https://github.com/FellippeHeitor/Snippets/blob/master/scoreboard.bas

[FellippeHeitor]

QB64 won’t fetch from an https address.

[IronMan]

QB64 won’t fetch from an https address.

Ahhh, didn't know that.

But it will a non-secure FTP or HTTP? I am downloading some images form within QB64 but they're coming off a FTP server.
That must be why I'm having problems when trying to get filed form SSL sites.

[lawsonm1]

I posted a similar question back on 2/6/2020 (Pulling data from a website) https://www.qb64.org/forum/index.php?topic=2158.msg114021#msg114021. wGet was one of the suggestions. That worked out great for what I was doing. I grabbed the website data I wanted, and just parsed out the parts I needed. Mike

[EricE]

This posting is for those finding this thread looking for information about using cURL to download files.

Using curl to automate HTTP jobs
https://curl.haxx.se/docs/httpscripting.html

libcurl - the multiprotocol file transfer library
https://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/

Everything curl - the book
https://curl.haxx.se/book.html

[EricE]

And here is the manual for Wget

GNU Wget 1.20 Manual
https://www.gnu.org/software/wget/manual/wget.html

[IronMan]

Curl is doing exactly what I need since you can't download files from HTTPS sites in QB64.

Example:
SHELL "curl -k https://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/zone/ms/msz024.txt > forecast.txt"

The only thing is, when the SHELL is executed in the program, it opens a black command windows and shows the Curl being ran in it. This is especially isn't good when using inForm in a Windows environment.

Does anyone know if there is a way to not allow the command windows to be shown when SHELL is used?

Thank you.
Kent

[FellippeHeitor]

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. SHELL _HIDE "curl -k https://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/zone/ms/msz024.txt > forecast.txt"
2.  

[IronMan]

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. SHELL _HIDE "curl -k https://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/zone/ms/msz024.txt > forecast.txt"
2.  

That got it.

Thanks

[IronMan]

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. SHELL _HIDE "curl -k https://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/zone/ms/msz024.txt > forecast.txt"
2.  

The SHELL _HIDE fixed the command window from showing up. I'm now getting a "Please Wait" showing up while the application is after about 3-4 seconds once it starts. Not really causing a problem, but I can't find this anywhere in the code so I assume it's in the inForm code somewhere. Any way to avoid this?

[FellippeHeitor]

InForm will show that when execution is halted for too long. It’ll happen when a SHELL call takes too long or when you do a loop somewhere that hogs the input routines. It is by design.

You cannot disable it, but you can set a custom message:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1.  __UI_WaitMessage = "Fetching data"

[Dav]

Here's another method without using SHELL.  Just thought I'd throw it into the mix!  Works for me in Windows 7.  Download from https sites. Uses a built-in Windows Library function.   

- Dav

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. DECLARE DYNAMIC LIBRARY "urlmon"
2.     FUNCTION URLDownloadToFileA% (BYVAL pCaller AS LONG, szURL AS STRING, szFileName AS STRING, BYVAL dwReserved AS LONG, BYVAL lpfnCB AS LONG)
3. END DECLARE
4.  
5. url$ = "https://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/zone/ms/msz024.txt"
6. urlfile$ = "forecast.txt"
7.  
8. a% = URLDownloadToFileA%(0, url$, urlfile$, 0, 0)
9.  
10. SLEEP 5   'pause to allow the download to complete
11.  
12. IF a% = 0 THEN
13.     PRINT "Downloaded!"
14. ELSE
15.     PRINT "NOT Downloaded!"
16. END IF
17.  

[TerryRitchie]

Here's another method without using SHELL.  Just thought I'd throw it into the mix!  Works for me in Windows 7.  Download from https sites. Uses a built-in Windows Library function.   

Dav, the code snippets you post are always great, and this one is no exception. Added to my tool bag. Thank you.