Read from URL website to a .txt file

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04-07-2011
Hinken777

Read from URL website to a .txt file

Hi everyone, new on this site, but hope someone can help me solve this problem.

I need to read the text from this URL in to a text file on my computer... but can't figure out how to do it.
URL: http://www.radar4u.com/REAB_groto/downld02.txt

I've tried open it like a regular txt file, figured the program wouldn't notice the difference since it is a .txt file (only it is on the web)
No problems if I download it first and the write it over to another file, but not when I'm trying directly from the URL. If it can't be solved with C code C++ works to, but prefer C.

Please help
04-07-2011
claudiu

Show us what you have tried so far. This is not a homework service.
04-07-2011
Hinken777

This is one of my attempts
Reads the file in to memory and then write it to file, if it would work...
works fine if I change webURL to a file on my computer

Code:

#include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> int main () { FILE * pFile; long lSize; char * buffer; size_t result; pFile = fopen ("http://www.radar4u.com/REAB_groto/downld02.txt" , "rb" ); if (pFile==NULL) {fputs ("File error",stderr); exit (1);} // obtain file size: fseek (pFile , 0 , SEEK_END); lSize = ftell (pFile); rewind (pFile); // allocate memory to contain the whole file: buffer = (char*) malloc (sizeof(char)*lSize); if (buffer == NULL) {fputs ("Memory error",stderr); exit (2);} // copy the file into the buffer: result = fread (buffer,1,lSize,pFile); if (result != lSize) {fputs ("Reading error",stderr); exit (3);} /* the whole file is now loaded in the memory buffer. */ // Print on screen or to file... // printf(": %s", buffer); FILE * wFile; wFile = fopen ("skriv.txt","w"); fputs (buffer,wFile); // terminate fclose (wFile); fclose (pFile); free (buffer); system("PAUSE"); return 0; }
04-07-2011
CommonTater

I think you'll find that communicating on the internet is just a tad more difficult than simply opening a file....

HTTP Made Really Easy
04-07-2011
rags_to_riches

libcurl substitution for fopen
04-07-2011
Hinken777

Quote:

I think you'll find that communicating on the internet is just a tad more difficult than simply opening a file....

HTTP Made Really Easy

__________________
//Tater

Read a bit from your link.
And this may work some how... But this is HTML programing?!, is it possible to implement this in C??

Sample HTTP Exchange

Code:

To retrieve the file at the URL http://www.somehost.com/path/file.html first open a socket to the host www.somehost.com, port 80 (use the default port of 80 because none is specified in the URL). Then, send something like the following through the socket: GET /path/file.html HTTP/1.0 From: [email protected] User-Agent: HTTPTool/1.0 [blank line here] The server should respond with something like the following, sent back through the same socket: HTTP/1.0 200 OK Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 23:59:59 GMT Content-Type: text/html Content-Length: 1354 <html> <body> <h1>Happy New Millennium!</h1> (more file contents) . . . </body> </html> After sending the response, the server closes the socket.
04-07-2011
CommonTater

Yes you can do it in C ... but you'll need a working knowlege of socket (network) programming before you start.

There are a couple of libraries that pretend to make it easier that you might try. But even then it's still some pretty advanced programming.
04-08-2011
Hinken777

I was afraid of this :/ but which librarys are those?? Can see how much of it I understand...
04-08-2011
CommonTater

Guessing you're on windows this should get you started...

Windows Sockets 2 (Windows)

Windows Internet (Windows)

Winsock Programmer’s FAQ: Winsock Programmer's FAQ