Best practices

  • Use the `requests` library for downloading files as it provides more control over requests and responses, including error handling and session management.

  • Always check the `status_code` of the response object to ensure the HTTP request was successful before proceeding with file operations.

  • When downloading large files, use the `stream=True` parameter in `requests.get()` to download the content in chunks, preventing large memory usage.

  • Consider using the `tqdm` library to add a progress bar when downloading files, which improves the user experience by providing visual feedback on the download progress.

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Common issues

  • Ensure you handle exceptions such as `ConnectionError` or `Timeout` when using `requests.get()` to maintain robustness in network-related failures.

  • Check the 'content-length' header against the downloaded file size to prevent incomplete or corrupted downloads

  • Set a timeout in `requests.get()` to avoid hanging indefinitely if the server does not respond or is too slow.

  • Use `os.path` to dynamically set the file path and name, ensuring compatibility across different operating systems.

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Useful resources

Python Web Scraping Tutorial: Step-By-Step
Python Web Scraping Tutorial: Step-By-Step
Authors avatar

Adomas Sulcas

2025-04-01

How to Download Files With cURL
How to Download Files With cURL
author avatar

Augustas Pelakauskas

2024-05-30

How to Scrape Images from a Website With Python
Authors avatar

Adomas Sulcas

2024-02-07

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