Download image/png - RCurl

Question

I'm trying to use Clearbit.com's free logo API (https://logo.clearbit.com/:domain) to download the a few company logos.

To try out the tool, simply paste https://logo.clearbit.com/nike.com into your web browser.

The goal is to save the Response from a GET request as a PNG file. Here is a an example of the code I'm using, which fails.

    library(RCurl)
    url <- "https://logo.clearbit.com/basf.com"
    png <- getURL(url, httpheader = "image/png", ssl.verifypeer = F)

This produces the following error message:

    Error in curlPerform(curl = curl, .opts = opts, .encoding = .encoding) : 
    embedded nul in string:'‰PNG\r\n\032\n\0\0\0\rIHDR\0\0\0\0\0\0\b\006\0\0\0Ã>aË\0\0\0\004gAMA\0\0±\vüa\005\0\0\0 cHRM\0\0z&\0\0€„\0\0ú\0\0\0€è\0\0u0\0\0ê`\0\0:˜\0\0\027pœºQ<\0\0\0\006bKGD\0ÿ\0ÿ\0ÿ ½§“\0\0\0\atIME\aß\006\036\022\0228_nn\005\0\0\027$IDATxÚíyx[Õ÷?÷^IW»dË–÷5v\026'qœ•¤$!%$¡P(]\030Z†y™2CK\aZ\006ž–ç-Ó…¶Ó>}g\nü¥lçi¡e:L\031\030(…°¦¤$$„fOììÞâ}·,YÒ]æ\017+"ŠäÄÄv3ɽŸ<y\022stîÑ9ß{öó;Â뇟Ô11,â…N€É…Å\024€Á1\005`pL\001\030\034S\0\006Ç\024€Á1\005`pL\001\030\034S\0\006Ç2•‘9­^<r\016ƒ£Œ*#IwQÈu•eüNgèxòÿ’hÁoÏG\024$B±>"ñá\v?—<S(\0êœË\bºËÙÛþ\026£§\025¬WΡ¶`mÆo½qd,œßžÇü‚µØ-®¤_W¨‘\003›Q´è…ΧK–I\vÀ#çà·ç‘ï©ÄïÈÏ\030ÆkÏ\005 y`?]¡¦4\177I´RW¸\036«dçP÷{Œ*#ÌÊ]NÐ]Žª)ìïÜt¡óé’eÒ\002(ò΢Ä_sÖ0.[\026\0ý‘\016ú#miþ9Î\022¬’þH;Í\003û\001\020\005‘ùùW’ç©à`×f4]M†\027\004‘ «\034€P¬‘Ø\00Ö„ä8K\023Ïj'¦FD+\005ž*|ö º®Ñ>|,-\r\016«—|Ï\f\\6?è:‘ø0¡ã„bý\0Ø-.|ö<¢Ê\b\021%D©\177. p¤g;N«—|O\025.›\017\035\030\036íáäÐዦ֚´\0:C'\bÇ\a\001(ñÏÅiõ¦…q'\004à°z¨+\\(XÆ\n»\177\037ª®$kˆS\031\0160\020é\004Æú\017n9›¡

I've searched through the documentation, but I have not been able to remedy this, so please advise.

P.S. This is my first post on stackoverflow, so feel free to pose suggestions on style and general guidelines.

Thanks, Ryan

Answer 1

An alternative to RCurl is the new curl package of Jeroen Ooms, which provides a modern interface to libcurl.

## install.packages("curl")
library("curl")
curl_download(url = "https://logo.clearbit.com/basf.com",
              destfile = "~/foo.png")

This is the image I downloaded:

Answer 2

Try this

library(RCurl)
url <- "https://logo.clearbit.com/basf.com"
png <- getBinaryURL(url, httpheader = "image/png", ssl.verifypeer = F) # download
writeBin(png, con = tf <- tempfile(fileext = ".png")) # save
shell.exec(tf) # open file on windows