Podcast catcher in Python

[Chuck]

On Sep 11, 1:09 pm, Chuck <galois... at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sep 11, 12:56 pm, Chuck <galois... at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > On Sep 11, 10:30 am, Falcolas <garri... at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > > On Sep 11, 8:20 am, Chuck <galois... at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > > > Hi all,
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> > > > I would like to code a simple podcast catcher in Python merely as an
> > > > exercise in internet programming.  I am a CS student and new to
> > > > Python, but understand Java fairly well.  I understand how to connect
> > > > to a server with urlopen, but then I don't understand how to download
> > > > the mp3, or whatever, podcast?  Do I need to somehow parse the XML
> > > > document?  I really don't know.  Any ideas?
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> > > > Thanks!
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> > > > Chuck
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> > > You will first have to download the RSS XML file, then parse that file
> > > for the URL for the audio file itself. Something like eTree will help
> > > immensely in this part. You'll also have to keep track of what you've
> > > already downloaded.
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> > > I'd recommend taking a look at the RSS XML yourself, so you know what
> > > it is you have to parse out, and where to find it. From there, it
> > > should be fairly easy to come up with the proper query to pull it
> > > automatically out of the XML.
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> > > As a kindness to the provider, I would recommend a fairly lengthy
> > > sleep between GETs, particularly if you want to scrape their back
> > > catalog.
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> > > Unfortunately, I no longer have the script I created to do just such a
> > > thing in the past, but the process is rather straightforward, once you
> > > know where to look.
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> > > ~G
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> > Thanks!  I will see what I can do.- Hide quoted text -
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> > - Show quoted text -
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> I am not sure how eTree fits in.  Is that eTree.org?- Hide quoted text -
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> - Show quoted text -

Can I just use x.read() to download the mp3 file and use x.write() to
write it to a file?  Or, do I have to worry about encoding/decoding
etc...?  I am under the impression that I can just read the mp3 and
write to a file, then play it in a media player.  Is this too
simplified?