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Http_download / http_download_bg

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    Http_download / http_download_bg

    Hi,

    I'm trying to download a large (> 200MB) zip file from a website, and unfortunately I just found out that HTTP_DOWNLOAD / HTTP_DOWNLOAD_BG won't support HTTPS protocol. Am I mistaken? If not, how can I grab this file?

    I've tried to work around it by using HTTP_FETCH, which is successful for smaller files (largest successful file ~20MB) but no matter how high I set the timeout 200MB is an order of magnitude too much for HTTP_FETCH it seems.

    Is there any way I can do this?

    Oh, I also tried FTP, but the files are not available that way.

    Thanks for any help!

    #2
    Re: Http_download / http_download_bg

    Just to give a bit more information, for some reason the HTTP_FETCH for the large file is returning a 200 status code (successful), but the file is not complete. I just upped the timeout to 10 minutes, and after around 5 minutes it spit out a ~25MB file. Very odd.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Http_download / http_download_bg

      HTTP_Fetch does support SSL:

      https://documentation.alphasoftware....20Function.xml

      You really should be using FTP though if there's any chance that could be arranged.
      -Steve
      sigpic

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Http_download / http_download_bg

        Yes, I have HTTP_Fetch enabled using SSL. But I am unable to retrieve the large (> 200MB) zip file using HTTP_Fetch.

        I am 100% unable to use FTP unfortunately. These are government files and I am in no position to ask them to put these files on an FTP site daily. They are provided at a fixed URL and updated daily.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Http_download / http_download_bg

          Does it seem to you this is a timeout issue? I would think so.

          Where's the bottleneck?

          If the slowpoint is not the source site, maybe you can establish a small machine (Google Cloud for instance) just to grab the file, then use FTP to get it from there. Just thinkin' out loud without knowing details.
          -Steve
          sigpic

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Http_download / http_download_bg

            I don't think it is a timeout issue. I can set timeout on HTTP_FETCH, which I did, to 10 minutes (600000 milliseconds) and it still came back with a partial file (in way less than 10 minutes) and reported a 200 status code.

            Now it could be that it has something to do with my using the development server, and not actually deploying it to a real server? Maybe some timeout setting there I cannot control? No idea on that. I will see about publishing it and experimenting there.

            I think extending HTTP_DOWNLOAD to include SSL would be the ideal solution though.

            As for your suggestion about an intermediary server, thank you! I will look into that.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Http_download / http_download_bg

              Most web servers have a timeout as well -- if a request is not completed within n seconds, it just closes the attempt. Take a look at the Advanced tab of your AA web server control panel.

              I had this issue recently with some really large file requests and (if memory serves me correctly) the maximum I could set was two minutes. I'm sure you can see that web servers need this sort of control for management purposes.

              I suspect this is your issue, which means you need to find a quicker way to grab that file.
              -Steve
              sigpic

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Http_download / http_download_bg

                Thanks Steve, I suspect the same thing.

                I found a different way to download the file, much faster. Unfortunately it is outside of Alpha. I am using PowerShell (Invoke-WebRequest) and then Windows Task Scheduler to do it all automatically. This solution actually works better for this application. I do wish Alpha could do it all though.

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