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websave

Save content from RESTful web service to file

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Syntax

outfilename = websave(filename,url)
outfilename = websave(filename,url,QueryName1,QueryValue1,...,QueryNameN,QueryValueN)
outfilename = websave(___,options)

Description

example

outfilename = websave(filename,url) saves content from the web service specified by url and writes it to filename. The websave function returns the full filename path as outfilename.

The web service provides a RESTful that returns data formatted as an internet media type such as JSON, XML, image, or text.

outfilename = websave(filename,url,QueryName1,QueryValue1,...,QueryNameN,QueryValueN) appends query parameters to url, as specified by one or more pairs of name-value arguments. The web service defines the query parameters.

example

outfilename = websave(___,options) adds other HTTP request options, specified by the weboptions object options. You can use this syntax with any of the input arguments of the previous syntaxes.

websave supports HTTP GET and POST methods. To send an HTTP POST request, specify the RequestMethod property of options as 'post'. Many web services provide both GET and POST methods to request data.

Examples

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Open Live Script

This example shows how to save an image on a Web server to a file.

Locate Image

httpsUrl = "https://requestserver.mathworks.com";
imageUrl = strcat(httpsUrl, "/assets/computerVision.jpg");

Save Image to File

imageFile = "computerVision.jpg";
imageFileFullPath = websave(imageFile, imageUrl);
Open Live Script

This example shows how to save data from a Web server file.

httpsUrl = "https://requestserver.mathworks.com";
dataUrl = strcat(httpsUrl, "/assets/weatherStation.csv");
weatherFile = "weatherData.csv";
weatherFileFullPath = websave(weatherFile, dataUrl);
Open Live Script

This example shows how to save data to a text file.

httpUrl  = 'http://requestserver.mathworks.com';
employeeUrl = strcat(httpUrl, '/employee');
employeeFile = 'employeeData.txt';
employeeFileFullPath = websave(employeeFile, employeeUrl, 'occupation', 'Software Engineer');
employeeData = jsondecode(fileread(employeeFileFullPath))
employeeData=2×1 struct array with fields:
    id
    firstName
    lastName
    occupation
    age
    city

Read JSON data from a website and save in file test.txt.

uri = matlab.net.URI('http://httpbin.org/get');
websave('test.txt',uri,weboptions('ContentType','json'));

Read the text from the file into a structure of JSON data.

js = jsondecode(fileread('test.txt'))
js = 

  struct with fields:

       args: [1×1 struct]
    headers: [1×1 struct]
     origin: '144.444.4.4'
        url: 'http://httpbin.org/get'

Input Arguments

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Name of file to save content to, specified as a character vector or string scalar. websave saves the content as is. websave ignores options.ContentType and options.ContentReader, even if these properties are set.

Example: websave('matlabcentral.html','https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral') reads the web page and saves its HTML to the file matlabcentral.html.

URL to a web service, specified as a character vector or string scalar. Include the transfer protocol. Only http and https are supported. The web service implements a RESTful interface. See RESTful for more information.

Web service query parameters, specified as one or more pairs of name-value arguments. A QueryName argument must specify the name of a query parameter. A QueryValue argument must be a character vector, a string scalar, or a numeric, logical, or datetime value that specifies the value of the query parameter. Numeric, logical, and datetime values can be in arrays. The web service defines name-value pairs that it accepts as part of a request.

When you specify QueryValue as a datetime object, you must specify its Format property to be consistent with the format required by the web service. If the Format property includes a time zone or offset, and the datetime object is not zoned, then websave specifies 'Local' as the time zone.

When QueryValue contains multiple values in an array, you might need to specify the ArrayFormat property of a weboptions object to form-encode the array as specified by the web service.

Example: websave('webread_search.html','https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/','term','simulink') retrieves a list of files uploaded to the File Exchange that contain the word simulink and saves the search results to an HTML file.

Additional HTTP request options, specified as a weboptions object. For all request options that are weboptions properties, see weboptions.

More About

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RESTful

REST means representational state transfer, a common architectural style for web services. RESTful interfaces provide standard HTTP methods such as GET, PUT, POST, or DELETE.

Tips

  • For functionality not supported by the RESTful web services functions, see the Use HTTP with MATLAB.

  • For HTTP POST requests, the websave function supports only the application/x-www-form-urlencoded media type. To send a POST request with content of any other internet media type, use webwrite.

  • To specify proxy server settings, see Proxy Server Authentication.

Version History

Introduced in R2014b

See Also

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Topics

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