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Re: Function to download a URL and return it as a string
From: |
Pascal J. Bourguignon |
Subject: |
Re: Function to download a URL and return it as a string |
Date: |
Sun, 09 Dec 2012 14:12:29 +0100 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.2 (gnu/linux) |
Sean McAfee <eefacm@gmail.com> writes:
> I recently wanted to be able to download a document from a URL and
> return it as a string. I couldn't find a function that did that
> precisely, but I was able to construct my own:
>
> (defun download (url)
> (with-current-buffer (url-retrieve-synchronously url)
> (prog2
> (when (not (search-forward-regexp "^$" nil t))
> (error "Unable to locate downloaded data"))
> (buffer-substring (1+ (point)) (point-max))
> (kill-buffer))))
>
> This seems rather busy for such a basic-seeming operation--in
> particular, having to take care to delete the buffer created by
> url-retrieve-synchronously. Is there a better way to do it?
>
> (On the other hand, this way I get to use prog2, which I almost never
> do.)
Notice that you cannot just receive the bytes of the ressource. At the
very least, you also need the Content-Type:. So don't feel this header
is a bad thing.
I would have used (search-forward "\n\n"):
(defun download (url)
(with-current-buffer (url-retrieve-synchronously url)
(prog1 (buffer-substring (or (search-forward "\n\n" nil t) (point-min))
(point-max))
(kill-buffer))))
--
__Pascal Bourguignon__ http://www.informatimago.com/
A bad day in () is better than a good day in {}.