Dynamically export data from a script or web service by calling a URL export from any programming language.

Before you begin

Role required: none

About this task

The following procedure includes code samples that demonstrate calling a URL export in C# for a .Net framework call:

Procedure

  1. Add the following Imports: 
    using System.Net;
using System.IO;
  2. Call the Download method: 
    static void Main(string[] args)

     {
        // Call to DownloadFile method supplying the URL and location to save CSV file locally
        int read = DownloadFile("https://<instance>.service-now.com/incident_list.do?CSV&sysparm_query=priority=1&sysparm_orderby=assigned_to",
                     "c:\\test\\incident.csv");
    }
  3. Create a Download method as follows: 
    public static int DownloadFile(String url,
                                       String localFilename)
    {
        // Function will return the number of bytes processed
        // to the caller. Initialize to 0 here.
        int bytesProcessed = 0;
        // Assign values to these objects here so that they can
        // be referenced in the finally block
        Stream remoteStream = null;
        Stream localStream = null;
        WebResponse response = null;
        // Use a try/catch/finally block as both the WebRequest and Stream
        // classes throw exceptions upon error
        try
        {
            // Create a request for the specified remote file name
            WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(url);
            // Create the credentials required for Basic Authentication
            System.Net.ICredentials cred = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("user_name", "password");
            // Add the credentials to the request
            request.Credentials = cred;
            if (request != null)
            {
                // Send the request to the server and retrieve the
                // WebResponse object 
                response = request.GetResponse();
                if (response != null)
                {
                    // Once the WebResponse object has been retrieved,
                    // get the stream object associated with the response's data
                    remoteStream = response.GetResponseStream();
                    // Create the local file
                    localStream = File.Create(localFilename);
                    // Allocate a 1k buffer
                    byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
                    int bytesRead;
                    // Simple do/while loop to read from stream until
                    // no bytes are returned
                    do
                    {
                        // Read data (up to 1k) from the stream
                        bytesRead = remoteStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
                        // Write the data to the local file
                        localStream.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
                        // Increment total bytes processed
                        bytesProcessed += bytesRead;
                    } while (bytesRead > 0);
                }
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
        }
        finally
        {
            // Close the response and streams objects here 
            // to make sure they're closed even if an exception
            // is thrown at some point
            if (response != null) response.Close();
            if (remoteStream != null) remoteStream.Close();
            if (localStream != null) localStream.Close();
        }
        // Return total bytes processed to caller.
        return bytesProcessed;
    }