How do I download images with an https URL in Python 3?

Question

I've tried to make a short mass-downloader script in Python to store lists of images locally.

It works perfectly fine for http image urls, however fails to download any image with an https url. The lines of code in question are:

import urllib.request
urllib.request.urlretrieve(url, filename)

For instance, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/299398003486097412/303580387786096641/FB_IMG_1490534565948.jpg results in HTTP Error 403: Forbidden, as well as any other https image.

This leaves me with two questions:

1. How am I able to download such an image using Python?
2. Why do images even have https urls if they are basically just files?

EDIT:

Here's the stack trace:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "img_down.py", line 52, in <module>
    main()
  File "img_down.py", line 38, in main
    save_img(d, l)
  File "img_down.py", line 49, in save_img
    stream = read_img(url)
  File "img_down.py", line 42, in read_img
    with urllib.request.urlopen(url) as response:
  File "D:\Users\Jan\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\urllib\request.py", line 223, in urlopen
    return opener.open(url, data, timeout)
  File "D:\Users\Jan\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\urllib\request.py", line 532, in open
    response = meth(req, response)
  File "D:\Users\Jan\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\urllib\request.py", line 642, in http_response
    'http', request, response, code, msg, hdrs)
  File "D:\Users\Jan\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\urllib\request.py", line 570, in error
    return self._call_chain(*args)
  File "D:\Users\Jan\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\urllib\request.py", line 504, in _call_chain
    result = func(*args)
  File "D:\Users\Jan\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\urllib\request.py", line 650, in http_error_default
    raise HTTPError(req.full_url, code, msg, hdrs, fp)
urllib.error.HTTPError: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden

Answer 1

Hope this helps.

import requests
with open('FB_IMG_1490534565948.jpg', 'wb') as f:
    f.write(requests.get('https://url/to/image.jpg').content)

Answer 2

May help you...

I made this script, but never finished (the final intention was make it running everyday automatically)

But to not be the kind of person who postpone the answers, here's the piece of code you're interest:

    def downloadimg(self):
        import datetime
        imgurl = self.getdailyimg();
        imgfilename = datetime.datetime.today().strftime('%Y%m%d') + '_' + imgurl.split('/')[-1]
        with open(IMGFOLDER + imgfilename, 'wb') as f:
            f.write(self.readimg(imgurl))

Hope it helps you out!

Edited

PS: using python3

Full script

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

import os
IMGFOLDER = os.getcwd() + '/images/'


class BingImage(object):
    """docstring for BingImage"""
    BINGURL = 'http://www.bing.com/'
    JSONURL = 'HPImageArchive.aspx?format=js&idx=0&n=1&mkt=pt-BR'
    LASTIMG = None

    def __init__(self):
        super(BingImage, self).__init__()
        try:
            self.downloadimg()
        except:
            pass

    def getdailyimg(self):
        import json
        import urllib.request
        with urllib.request.urlopen(self.BINGURL + self.JSONURL) as response:
            rawjson = response.read().decode('utf-8')
            parsedjson = json.loads(rawjson)
            return self.BINGURL + parsedjson['images'][0]['url'][1:]

    def downloadimg(self):
        import datetime
        imgurl = self.getdailyimg();
        imgfilename = datetime.datetime.today().strftime('%Y%m%d') + '_' + imgurl.split('/')[-1]
        with open(IMGFOLDER + imgfilename, 'wb') as f:
            f.write(self.readimg(imgurl))
        self.LASTIMG = IMGFOLDER + imgfilename

    def checkfolder(self):
        d = os.path.dirname(IMGFOLDER)
        if not os.path.exists(d):
            os.makedirs(d)

    def readimg(self, url):
        import urllib.request
        with urllib.request.urlopen(url) as response:
            return response.read()


def DefineBackground(src):
    import platform
    if platform.system() == 'Linux':
        MAINCMD = "gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri"
        os.system(MAINCMD + ' file://' + src)


def GetRandomImg():
    """Return a random image already downloaded from the images folder"""
    import random
    f = []
    for (dirpath, dirnames, filenames) in os.walk(IMGFOLDER):
        f.extend(filenames)
        break
    return IMGFOLDER + random.choice(f)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    # get a new today's image from Bing
    img = BingImage()
    # check whether a new image was get or not
    if(img.LASTIMG):
        DefineBackground(img.LASTIMG)
    else:
        DefineBackground(GetRandomImg())
    print('Background defined')