From: FrihD <lucas.dicioccio@...>
Date: 2008-09-23T06:46:50+09:00
Subject: Re: Streaming media with net/http

_why wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 03:24:49AM +0900, William Spitzer wrote:
>> So I was wondering how one would capture a continuous stream of data
>> (for instance a net radio station or a webcam) with the net/http
>> library?
> 
> Here's an example of streaming the Ubuntu ISO with Net::HTTP:
> 
>   require 'net/http'
>   uri = URI("http://mirrors.us.kernel.org/ubuntu-releases/hardy/ubuntu-8.04.1-desktop-i386.iso")
>   Net::HTTP.get_response(uri) do |res|
>     size, total = 0, res.header['Content-Length'].to_i
>     res.read_body do |chunk|
>       size += chunk.size
>       puts "%d%% done (%d of %d)" % [(size * 100) / total, size, total]
>     end
>   end
> 
> So, before the `read_body` block, you can examine the headers.  And
> inside the `read_body` block, you can handle chunks as they come in.
> In your case, you'd pass them to file.write.
> 
> _why
> 

And don't forgot to put a "stop" condition to the loop in case of a 
"everlasting download". The problem is : I don't know how he can cleanly 
break the chunk iterations (will the socket be cleanly disconnected with 
an exception etc.?).

By the way, this kind of "streaming" is named "progressive download" and 
both have their drawbacks.

regards

--FrihD(Lucas)