Python: downloading xml files in batch returns a damaged zip file

Question

Drawing inspiration from this post, I am trying to download a bunch of xml files in batch from a website:

import urllib2

url='http://ratings.food.gov.uk/open-data/'

f = urllib2.urlopen(url)
data = f.read()
with open("C:\Users\MyName\Desktop\data.zip", "wb") as code:
    code.write(data)

The zip file is created within seconds, but as I attempt to access it, an error window comes up:

Windows cannot open the folder.
The Compressed (zipped) Folder "C:\Users\MyName\Desktop\data.zip" is invalid.

What am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

you are not opening file handles inside the zip file:

import urllib2
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import zipfile

url='http://ratings.food.gov.uk/open-data/'

fileurls = []

f = urllib2.urlopen(url)
mainpage = f.read()

soup = BeautifulSoup(mainpage, 'html.parser')

tablewrapper = soup.find(id='openDataStatic')

for table in tablewrapper.find_all('table'):
    for link in table.find_all('a'):
        fileurls.append(link['href'])

with zipfile.ZipFile("data.zip", "w") as code:
    for url in fileurls:
        print('Downloading: %s' % url)
        f = urllib2.urlopen(url)
        data = f.read()
        xmlfilename = url.rsplit('/', 1)[-1]
        code.writestr(xmlfilename, data)