forum.vdsworld.com

[Raymond175]

I've created a dialog as a startup program for my real application. In this dialog I want an image loaded from the internet with the latest information. This way, when the image comes from my website, everyuser can be up-to-date.

The only problem seems to be:
DIALOG ADD,BITMAP,Image,9,8,283,303,http://www.darkwebdesign.com/Gamescreen.bmp

For some reason the image will not be loaded... Does someone know why? And does someone have an alternitive?

Thanks,
Raymond

[Dr. Dread]

You need to establish an HTTP client to download the image file to the harddisk - then you can use it
in your program.

You can plug into Windows' own Internet socket files (if you're using VDS5) or you could use a VDS
extension DLL such as VDSIPP to do the job. If you're no hardcore API programmer the latter solution
will be far easier.

Greetz
Dr. Dread

[PGWARE]

Hi Raymond as Dr. Dread suggested VDS can't pull images directly like you are trying. You have to first download the image and save it to disk before you can assign it.

Here is code that will do what you are trying, you will need to download the vdsipp.dll from vdsworld.com first for this to work.

Download VDSIPP.DLL

[noveltech]

PGWARE, Please explain the 1 usage and 0 usage below.
I'm reading every thread on this forum and I am still in a fog with the various numbers being used thruout the scripts. It would help this newbie (me) a great deal. thanks, nt

[PGWARE]

Hello,

INTERNET HTTP,CREATE,1

the 1 above relates to the http instance to create. The vdsipp allows you to create 99 instances of all protocols, this allows you to open up 99 http connections at the same time.

It's very similar to the LIST CREATE,1 command in vds where a list is created and can then be destroyed. In the LIST CREATE,1 command you're telling vds to create a list with the identifier of 1. This lets you then use commands like LIST ADD,1,whatever to tell vds to add an item 'whatever' to the list 1.

In the above I created an instance of an http and assigned it the identifier 1, it can be any number from 1-99. Then I call other INTERNET commands telling it to use the http instance 1:

INTERNET HTTP,THREADS,1,OFF
INTERNET HTTP,DOWNLOAD,1,http://www.darkwebdesign.com/Gamescreen.bmp,@path(%0)Gamescreen.bmp
INTERNET HTTP,DESTROY,1

internet http,threads,1,off -- this tells the dll to turn threading off for the http 1 instance.

internet http,download,1,http:/....,@path(%0)gamescreen.. -- tells it to download the image and save the file, it also is using the identifier http 1.

internet http,destroy,1 -- this tells the dll to destroy the http 1 instance, this simply frees the instance and allows me to reuse it again if I want.

I could just as well used INTERNET HTTP,CREATE,56 , this would simply have created a http instance with the identifier 56, but I would then need to use 56 in each of the INTERNET HTTP commands. This number is an identifier, it sets each http instance with a number so you can operate on several http instances at the same time (similar to how you can operate on several LISTS in vds).


The @path(%0) just returns the current directory that the exe is in. %0 is a commandline variable in vds, this variable %0 holds the path and filename of the exe that is running. I just wrapped it with @path() to extract out the filepath.

[PGWARE]

To further clarify I could have done this:

[noveltech]

Thanks, PGWARE...

I understand much better. nt

[noveltech]

Would you modify the above example to download
the http file in html format instead of bmp format
and if http is not avail or no connection event possible!...
utilize the last file download.!

Scenario:

1. The Gamescreen Bmp is located in the current exe directory.
2. The exe loads as blank dialog waiting for http connection.
3. Connection not avail

However, the previously loaded or bmp with same name
is avail in the current directory...the dialog screen does
not use it...it remains imageless!

Is there a time limit command for http download?

If not connected within x secs, use the current bmp or html.

Thanks, nt.

[PGWARE]

noveltech,

I'm not sure what you mean by downloading hte file in html format instead of bmp format. The file being downloaded is a bmp, to my knowledge there is no html format for an image. If you want to download the source to a website you can use the INTERNET HTTP,GET command.

Also there are many functions such as:

@INTERNET(HTTP,RETURNCODE)
@INTERNET(HTTP,CONTENTLENGTH)

which you can use to see if the file you are trying to download is available or if you are able to even connect (no internet connection).

There is a timelimit, I can't recall off hand what it is but its almost immediate if it cannot load the file or make a connection.