python - Download pdf using urllib?

Question

I am trying to download a pdf file from a website using urllib. This is what i got so far:

import urllib

def download_file(download_url):
    web_file = urllib.urlopen(download_url)
    local_file = open('some_file.pdf', 'w')
    local_file.write(web_file.read())
    web_file.close()
    local_file.close()

if __name__ == 'main':
    download_file('http://www.example.com/some_file.pdf')

When i run this code, all I get is an empty pdf file. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Here is an example that works:

import urllib2

def main():
    download_file("http://mensenhandel.nl/files/pdftest2.pdf")

def download_file(download_url):
    response = urllib2.urlopen(download_url)
    file = open("document.pdf", 'wb')
    file.write(response.read())
    file.close()
    print("Completed")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()