HTML help

[Chad Cowan]

First of all, I am an absolute noob when it comes to programming. What I am trying to do is write a script (I'm not even sure if this is the right term...) that will save the National Radar Mosaic loop to my hard drive every 85 minutes. The filename is http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/Loop/NatLoop.gif.

Is this possible? If yes, how? Thanks in advance.

 

[Steve Miller TX]

For security concerns, you can't write any html or javascript code in a browser to save anything to your hard drive.

I'd recommend an FTP program that you can run on your desktop which you can automate the file download at set intervals. I think that would be the more simple solution, and a quick one at that. Do some googling to find one that will do that.

Other than that, you'd need to write something in a programming language such as Visual Basic or Java.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

I'm a big fan of wget myself. I think you can use it in Windows.. you may need to install cygwin.

 

[Stuart Robinson]

Chad - Did you find a fix for this?

If not, PM me in the morning (To remind me) and I will knock you up an small app to do this.

It will take me about 20 mins to do.

 

[Chip Redmond]

I am very interested to hear of this application because I would like to do that also from a image online.

Is there a similar program that could take screenshots from the computer and auto save them to the hard drive in 5 minute increments?


Chip

 

[Chad Cowan]

Chad - Did you find a fix for this?

If not, PM me in the morning (To remind me) and I will knock you up an small app to do this.

It will take me about 20 mins to do.

Nope, haven't quite figured it out yet. I found some programs that make this possible, but not on a schedule. Could you just tell me how you would do it? Or would that take more time than actually creating it. Either way, thanks to everyone for the help.

 

[Stuart Robinson]

Here you go Chad

http://www.stormtrack.co.uk/image2file.zip (5kb)

Look in the config file for settings

Bear in mind that the resultant gif file is 2Mb is size once downloaded.

*if* you think that the app is huseful - i will go on and make it rubust with error checking etc - right now it is just "as is"

 

[Chad Cowan]

This is great! Thanks Stuart!

Two things-
1) is there a way to add a date and timestamp to the downloaded file name so it doesn't save over the previous download? I was hoping to archive all radar files not just the most recent. It doesn't even have to be a date or timestamp, even a numerical series would work.

2) Is there a way to make the program run in the background or hide the icon by the clock when it is minimized instead of keeping the window on the taskbar?

 

[Stuart Robinson]

Chad,
There are a number of way of doing this – IMO a better approach would be for me to convert the app to a console app and for you to then schedule it to run via the windows timer (download a free copy of System Scheduler http://www.splinterware.com/products/wincron.htm) – it is great!

The problem with running the app 24/7 is that if anything goes wrong with it then it remains failed until you rectify it. (and you end up missing downloads) By using the scheduler it just re fires at the next scheduled time interval.

One thing to watch on a windows system is the number of files that end up in a single directory, you don’t want more that 5,000.
I run my own scripts for downloading and what I do is store them first in a date directory and then give them there own file name.

I.E.
C:\Radar\20081110\radarloop_2130.gif

Would this be better for you??

 

[Chad Cowan]

Chad,
There are a number of way of doing this – IMO a better approach would be for me to convert the app to a console app and for you to then schedule it to run via the windows timer (download a free copy of System Scheduler http://www.splinterware.com/products/wincron.htm) – it is great!

The problem with running the app 24/7 is that if anything goes wrong with it then it remains failed until you rectify it. (and you end up missing downloads) By using the scheduler it just re fires at the next scheduled time interval.

One thing to watch on a windows system is the number of files that end up in a single directory, you don’t want more that 5,000.
I run my own scripts for downloading and what I do is store them first in a date directory and then give them there own file name.

I.E.
C:\Radar\20081110\radarloop_2130.gif

Would this be better for you??

That would definitely work. I just downloaded the system scheduler. I'm not too worried about having too many files in that directory, there will only be about 18 files created per day.

 

[Stuart Robinson]

Give this improved version a try Chad,

I have converted it to a console application which you can then call via the schedular. I also added a datetime stamp to the file name (
yyyyMMdd_hhmmss_
)

http://www.stormtrack.co.uk/ImageToFile.zip
(file will remain here for just a few days...)

You will have to put your own values into the ImageToFile.exe.config file (open it with notepad)

As an aside there is no real skill here on my behalf. It is actually just two lines of code using the .NET2.0 Framework

WebClient Client = new WebClient();
Client.DownloadFile(remoteFileName, localFile);

 

[Chad Cowan]

You're the man Stuart. I'm going to buy you a pint if we ever meet on the plains. I made a couple copies of the program, tweaked a couple things and am now archiving 500mb charts and WV imagery along with radar.

 

[Stuart Robinson]

I am glad to have assisted