Retrieving files from an FTP server
Retrieving files from an FTP server for processing is a very common operation for GIS programmers and can be automated with a Python script.
Getting ready
Connecting to an FTP server and downloading a file is accomplished through the ftplib module. A connection to an FTP server is created through the FTP object, which accepts a host, username, and password to create the connection. Once a connection has been opened, you can then search for and download files.
In this recipe, you will connect to the National Interagency Fire Center Incident FTP site and download a PDF file for a wildfire in Colorado. Before you run the following script, you will need to create a username/password through http://gis.nwcg.gov/data_nifcftp.html ...
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