Download PDF file

[Niblob]

Hi,

I need to download (save to a specific directory) a PDF file which is only accessible after logging on to an application.

I can use _IECreate(), enter the login criteria and then use _IENavigate() which opens the PDF file in the browser. I know I could save it by getting AutoIT to click File/Save as... and then entering text and clicking through the dialogs to confirm over-writing an existing file, but I really don't like this method. The dialog boxes may move, or the file may or may not need to be over-written, etc. Well, as a last resort I will use that method, but I would really rather do it in a more reliable way. Here are a couple of ideas which I've already investigated a bit:

Ideally, I would like to use INetGet(), but I can't see how to get it to use an existing browser session - which would be already logged on to the application.

I have tried using the XMLHTTP object, which allows me to log onto the application and make an HTTP request for the PDF file. This seems to work, but I don't know how to access the stream that is returned by the http object. It is not in the responseText property, which is where I would expect it to be. Or maybe it is, but I don't know how to access it.

Here's my code - I'm afraid it might confuse more than illuminate, so I apologise in advance!

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#include <IE.au3>
#include <Date.au3>
#Include <Array.au3>

;Set up objects
$oxmlhttp = ObjCreate("MSXML2.XMLHTTP.4.0")

;Set up variables
$url1 = "https://the.application.url/login.php"
$url2 = "https://the.application.url/example.pdf"
$tempFile = "c:\temp\temp.pdf"
$intLimit = 30

;Start of login process
    $strPostData = ""
    $strPostData = $strPostData & "USER=user&"
    $strPostData = $strPostData & "PASSWORD=pass&"
    $strPostData = $strPostData & "SMENC=ISO-8859-1&"
    $strPostData = $strPostData & "target=https://the.application.url/&"
    $strPostData = $strPostData & "smauthreason=0"
    
    ;####Post XML Document####
    $oxmlhttp.Open ("POST", $url1, True)
    $oxmlhttp.setRequestHeader ("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded") ; Set content type
    $oxmlhttp.send ($strPostData)
    
    
    ;####Wait for response####
    $timBegin = _NowCalc()
    Do
        sleep(1000)
    Until $oxmlhttp.ReadyState = 4 Or _DateDiff("s", $timBegin, _NowCalc()) > $intLimit
    If $oxmlhttp.ReadyState <> 4 Then
        msgbox("","","Timed out when logging in")
        $oxmlhttp.abort
        exit
    EndIf
    msgbox("","",$oxmlhttp.ResponseText)
;end of login process

;start of file retrieval process
    $oxmlhttp.Open ("GET", $url2, False)
    $oxmlhttp.send ()
    
    ;####Wait for response####
    $timBegin = _NowCalc()
    Do
        sleep(1000)
    Until $oxmlhttp.ReadyState = 4 Or _DateDiff("s", $timBegin, _NowCalc()) > $intLimit
    If $oxmlhttp.ReadyState <> 4 Then
        msgbox("","","Timed out when getting document")
        $oxmlhttp.abort
        exit
    EndIf
    msgbox("","",StringLen($oxmlhttp.ResponseText))
    filewrite($tempFile,$oxmlhttp.ResponseText)
;end of retrieval process

Actually, I've just had a better idea. Maybe it's clearer to just post a bit of code to download a random PDF file as the logging on using this method is working. Here it is:

#include <IE.au3>
#include <Date.au3>
#Include <Array.au3>

;Set up objects
$oxmlhttp = ObjCreate("MSXML2.XMLHTTP.4.0")

;Set up variables
$url2 = "http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/serv_sstd_tablepdf.pdf"
$tempFile = "c:\temp\temp.pdf"
$intLimit = 30


;start of file retrieval process
    $oxmlhttp.Open ("GET", $url2, False)
    $oxmlhttp.send ()
    
    ;####Wait for response####
    $timBegin = _NowCalc()
    Do
        sleep(1000)
    Until $oxmlhttp.ReadyState = 4 Or _DateDiff("s", $timBegin, _NowCalc()) > $intLimit
    If $oxmlhttp.ReadyState <> 4 Then
        msgbox("","","Timed out when getting document")
        $oxmlhttp.abort
        exit
    EndIf
    ;msgbox("","",StringLen($oxmlhttp.ResponseText))
    $temp = fileopen($tempFile,2)
    filewrite($temp,$oxmlhttp.ResponseText)
;end of retrieval process

Thanks in advance for any help!

[DaleHohm]

I'll focus on your second code example.

First, you don't need the timer loop since you set Async to False. Second, you need .ResponseBody, not .ResponseText as the file is a binary stream:

$oxmlhttp = ObjCreate("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")

;Set up variables
$url2 = "http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/serv_sstd_tablepdf.pdf"
$tempFile = "c:\temp\temp.pdf"


;start of file retrieval process
$oxmlhttp.Open ("GET", $url2, False)
$oxmlhttp.send ()

$temp = fileopen($tempFile,2)
filewrite($temp,$oxmlhttp.ResponseBody)
FileClose($temp)
;end of retrieval process

Dale

Edited September 3, 2009 by DaleHohm

[Niblob]

Thanks, that works perfectly! I could have sworn I tried every possible property of the response object. Obviously not! Thanks again.

Niblob