Question : I need to download some files via HTTP at the press of a button in MS Access - how would I go about doing this?

I am developing an Access database which will download some files from a wholesaler's website, manipulate the data therein, & output some files suitable for importing into an ecommerce website.

The database itself is coming along nicely, and it links to the downloaded files as linked tables.

However, I currently have to manually download the various files from the wholesaler's website, having firstly renamed the previously downloaded ones in case the current ones have problems. As I would like to handover the day to day updating of the website to someone else, I would really like to get Access to automate this process at the push of a button.

How would I go about downloading the files in VBA? I have in the past used the MSXML object, although that was a while ago & from within Lotus Notes which uses LotusScript, which is pretty similar to Visual Basic. I also know there is another object - MSHTML, although I suspect this is more to do with manipulating HTML than communicating via HTTP.

Could someone provide me with a code example of how to download a file to a local folder given the URL of the remote file?

One minor additional question (for an extra 50 points?) - is there any way to programmatically track the progress of the download, or would the application simply be busy until the download was complete? If this question suddenly makes the solution much more complicated by requiring multi-threaded code, then forget it, as it's not important, I just wondered if it were easy.

Answer : I need to download some files via HTTP at the press of a button in MS Access - how would I go about doing this?

Here is how to do via HTTP (not FTP).

/gustav

                       
         
           
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             ' Declaration section:
 
Private Declare Function URLDownloadToFile Lib "urlmon" Alias "URLDownloadToFileA" ( _
  ByVal pCaller As Long, _
  ByVal szURL As String, _
  ByVal szFileName As String, _
  ByVal dwReserved As Long, _
  ByVal lpfnCB As Long) _
  As Long
 
' Function:
 
Public Function DownloadFile( _
  ByVal strURL As String, _
  ByVal strLocalFilename As String) _
  As Long
  
' Download file or page with public access from the web.
' 2004-12-17. Cactus Data ApS, CPH.
 
' Usage, download a file:
' lngRet = DownloadFile("http://www.databaseadvisors.com/Graphics/conf2002/2002ConferencePicsbySmolin/images/dba02smolin27.jpg", "c:\happybassett.jpg")
'
' Usage, download a page:
' lngRet = DownloadFile("http://www.databaseadvisors.com/conf2002/conf200202.asp", "c:\dbaconference.htm")
 
' Returns 0 if success, error code if not.
' Error codes:
' -2146697210 "file not found".
' -2146697211 "domain not found".
 
' Limitation.
' Does not check if local file was created successfully.
 
  Dim lngRetVal As Long
    
  lngRetVal = URLDownloadToFile(0, strURL & vbNullChar, strLocalFilename & vbNullChar, 0, 0)
  
  DownloadFile = lngRetVal
  
End Function
           
         

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