python script to download xml files on my server

Question

I need a python script that will do the following:

1. connect to a URL, and that URL will return a number like 1200.

2. Use the number, to download xml files named: 1 to x where x is the number from #1.

3. store the files in a particular directory.

Sorry I've never written a python script, so if you could guide me along that would be great (maybe with a some comments).

I will be running this as a cron job if that matters.

Answer 1

Example using urllib:

import urllib
import os

URL = 'http://someurl.com/foo/bar'
DIRECTORY = '/some/local/folder'

# connect to a URL, and that URL will return a number like 1200.
number = int(urllib.urlopen(URL).read())

# Use the number, to download xml files named: 
# 1 to x where x is the number from #1.
# store the files in a particular directory.
for n in xrange(1, number + 1):
    filename = '%d.xml' % (n,)
    destination = os.path.join(DIRECTORY, filename)
    urllib2.urlretrieve(URL + '/' + filename, destination)

Answer 2

If you're never written a python script, you would do better to look for a python tutorial first.

Once you have a small grasp of things, check out

http://docs.python.org/library/

For question #1, you'll want to look at

http://docs.python.org/library/internet.html

For question #2, you can do something like

max = 10 # assume from #1
for x in range(1, max+1):
    filename = 'some_file-' + str(x) + '.xml'
    # download the file - see above url for internet protocols
    # see http://docs.python.org/library/stdtypes.html#file-objects
    # for help on files

This question is very vague on details and while it doesn't smell like a homework assignment, it would not be a good idea to do it in a language you don't know at all, in particular if you are running it in cron.