Texture from url?

[TIG]

API can use the texture image file from a temp folder.
You need to download the image file to that folder from the url.
See Ruby on Rails http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/133981
http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/3994
or
http://crunchlife.com/articles/2009/01/07/another-ruby-image-scraper

or here's some java script to download an image in a webdialog http://www.codingforums.com/archive/index.php/t-34531.html

[Viskiz]

@tig said:

API can use the texture image file from a temp folder.
You need to download the image file to that folder from the url.
See Ruby on Rails http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/133981
http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/3994
or
http://crunchlife.com/articles/2009/01/07/another-ruby-image-scraper

These links requires additional ruby libraries that regular Sketchup users does not have and may find difficult themselves to install them. I'd like to find a way to do this without using Sketchup unsupported Ruby libraries.

@attachment_data = open(url) #throws exception "Invalid argument", cause it requires 'open-uri' that Sketchup does not have.

@unknownuser said:

or here's some java script to download an image in a webdialog http://www.codingforums.com/archive/index.php/t-34531.html

I need to get the file without interrupting user with "Save as" or another yet additional dialog

[TIG]

The javascript version 'executes' 'save_as' you could look for a 'save' equivalent ?

[Viskiz]

I could not find such function, that save file without interruption. I don't think it's possible.

[thomthom]

How about:

• Download the image using HTTPRequest
• Put the data into a hidden input field. (possibly base64 encoded? - since you are dealing with binary data)
• Use WebDialog.get_element_value to fetch the data
• Save to a temp file with the Ruby File class

[ben.doherty]

Hi, I'm trying to do something similar.
I'm not too fussed about using non sketchup ruby libraries, so I just want to do it in the most elegant way possible.

I tried adding:
$LOAD_PATH << "C:/Ruby186/lib/ruby/1.8/net"
$LOAD_PATH << "C:/Ruby186/lib/ruby/1.8/i386-mingw32"
to my load paths as a way to crunch through the error messages that I got (couldn't find socket etc.)

Is there an easy way to do this that is nice and easy and clean?

[NatBridge]

Maybe you could just open the webdialog to the image url and screenshot it? (If it isn't bigger than the screen.)

http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/webdialog.html#write_image

[ben.doherty]

That would probably work, but wouldn't win any prizes for elegance.
Given that ruby can access things on the internet as part of it's core library does anyone have any idea how to point it at those standard libraries?

[TIG]

Here's a discreet way of downloading an image file from a url on Windows only - using vbs...

strFileURL = "http://www.it1.net/images/it1_logo2.jpg"
strHDLocation = "C;\Temp\it1_logo2.jpg"
Set objXMLHTTP = CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
objXMLHTTP.open "GET", strFileURL, false
objXMLHTTP.send()
If objXMLHTTP.Status = 200 Then
  Set objADOStream = CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
  objADOStream.Open
  objADOStream.Type = 1 'adTypeBinary
  objADOStream.Write objXMLHTTP.ResponseBody
  objADOStream.Position = 0    'Set the stream position to the start
  Set objFSO = Createobject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
If objFSO.Fileexists(strHDLocation) Then objFSO.DeleteFile strHDLocation
  Set objFSO = Nothing
  objADOStream.SaveToFile strHDLocation
  objADOStream.Close
  Set objADOStream = Nothing
End if
Set objXMLHTTP = Nothing

Make a copy of this text in a file that's called say
C:\Temp\urldownloader.vbs
or another Temp folder etc...
Change the first two lines of the text to be the url [I've used a known image_file simply to show that it works] and the folder+filepath to save that file to - in this example I put it into C:\Temp\ too using the same file_name...
Now run it from within Ruby
UI.openURL("C:\\Temp\\urldownloader.vbs")
In Ruby wait till the file arrives - timeout after a while ?
To tidy up you can delete the temp file...
It works - I have run it successfully...

[Jim]

@ben.doherty said:

Is there an easy way to do this that is nice and easy and clean?

Nothing is easy.

You have the right idea, but I think you may need to add more locations to make it complete. If you check the $LOAD_PATH of your installed Ruby, you'll find it has more locations than just those you listed. See Dan's post on the subject. We should have more success using the installed Ruby since we now have 1.8.6 in SketchUp and an installable 1.8.6

[Jim]

@tig said:

Here's a discreet way of downloading an image file from a url on Windows only - using vbs...

VBScript will run in the WebDialog, so you could eliminate the external file. But I would still try to follow Thom's advice, use JavaScript, and pass the data to the Ruby plugin to save it on disk.

[TIG]

My 'vbs' method means you don't actually need a web-dialog running at all.
You can download images from a url with it [on PC] irrespective of what the Ruby script is doing or has as an interface...

[Jim]

@tig said:

[on PC]

Exactly.

The most beneficial result from this thread would be a cross-platform download library which could be used for images or anything, really.

[TIG]

But the original inquiry was 'for PC' ?
A pure Javascript version can't work [?] - because of security issues there is no plain 'save' - only 'save_as', to you ensure you know what's going on with downloading things off the www onto your PC...
The 'vbs' method will work for PC - there's probably an equivalent AppleScript [type] method for the MAC... but I can't see how a 'cross-platform' version might work
Java is inherently 'limited' as I said...

[Jim]

@tig said:

A pure Javascript version can't work [?]

I think it can. There is no save or save as in JavaScript. You can save to disk using JavaScript, but there isn't a cross-platform solution. On Windows, you would use a FileSystem activex object. The same scripting host that rtuns the .vbs can run .js also.

But, the XHR is available on all (important) browser platforms. So a cross-platform solution is to use a WebDialog, fetch the file using the XHR, then pass it to the ruby plugin for saving to disk.

This small library is a good example of using a XHR cross-platform:
http://code.google.com/p/microajax/

if (window.ActiveXObject)
return new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLHTTP');
else if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
return new XMLHttpRequest();
return false;

[TIG]

What's this then ?
<a href="java script&#058;void(0);" onclick="document.execCommand('SaveAs',true,'http://fileden.com/somefolder/some file.mp3');">download</a>
There's just not a 'Save' version ???

[Jim]

I've never heard of "execCommand" before, but I'd be surprised if it were cross-platform. If it existed, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.

[TIG]

Perhaps a MAC users could confirm...

[ben.doherty]

While the JS debate rages, I've been playing with what can be done with ruby (being single-minded/stubborn/lazy)

I've updated my !loadpaths file to match dan's latest http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=29412&hilit=load+path#p257058
and when I try a couple of things I get this response:
require 'net/http' Error: #<LoadError: C:/ruby186/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:21:inrequire': No such file to load -- socket>
C:/ruby186/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:21
require 'date/format'
true`

Any ideas on why net/http fails, but date/format works?

I'm sure it will take some clever file management, and refresh cycle control etc, but it'd be cool to be able to specify a url to get a texture from. That'd open up a load of opportunities for data vis etc.

[Jim]

That means it couldn't find the file (socket.so) in the load path.

For a short-term solution, you could try to copy socket.so to the Plugins folder.