Fetching xml content from web server with Extendscript for After Effects

Question

I am trying to fetch an XML file hosted on a web-server for within an After Effects script.

Can anyone clarify why this approach doesn't seem to work?

//var xml_path = "/c/test.xml";
var xml_path = "http://transfer.proshopeurope.com/TEMP/test.xml";

function getXML(){
    var xml_file = new File(this.xml_path);

    if(xml_file.open("r")){
        var xml_string = xml_file.read();
        var xml = new XML(xml_string);
        xml_file.close();
        return xml;
    }else{
        return false;
    }
}
$.writeln(getXML());

It works fine, by the way, if I use the local path commented out at the top.

Answer 1

You can't use 'new File' for url, you need to use 'Sockets':

reply = "";
conn = new Socket;

if (conn.open ("transfer.proshopeurope.com:80")) {
    // send a HTTP GET request
    conn.writeln("GET /TEMP/test.xml HTTP/1.0\r\nHost: transfer.proshopeurope.com\r\n");
    // and read the server's reply
    reply = conn.read(999999);
    conn.close();
}

This will return all the response into 'reply' then you should use regex to get only the xml.