---
title: "system.net.httpGet"
description: "Retrieves the document at the given URL using the HTTP GET protocol."
---

# system.net.httpGet

> Retrieves the document at the given URL using the HTTP GET protocol.

This function is used in **Python Scripting**.

## Description
Retrieves the document at the given URL using the HTTP GET protocol. The document is returned as a string. For example, if you use the URL of a website, you'll get the same thing you'd get by going to that website in a browser and using the browser's "View Source" function.

Keep in mind that [JRE proxy settings](https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/11/docs/api/java.base/java/net/doc-files/net-properties.html#Proxies) will influence how these functions conduct their network activities.  

## Client Permission Restrictions
This scripting function has no [Client Permission](../../../ignition-modules/vision/vision-project-properties/vision-project-properties.md#vision-permissions-properties) restrictions.

## Syntax
`system.net.httpGet(url, connectTimeout, readTimeout, username, password, headerValues, bypassCertValidation, useCaches, throwOnError)`

### Parameters
Type | Parameter | Description 
------- | ------- | ------
String| `url` | The URL to retrieve.
Integer| `connectTimeout` | The timeout for connecting to the URL. In milliseconds. Default is 10,000.  [optional]
Integer| `readTimeout` | The read timeout for the get operation. In milliseconds. Default is 60,000. [optional]
String| `username` | If specified, the call will attempt to authenticate with basic HTTP authentication. [optional]
String| `password` | The password used for basic HTTP authentication, if the username parameter is also present. [optional]
Dictionary[String, String]| `headerValues` | A dictionary of name/value pairs that will be set in the HTTP header. [optional]
Boolean| `bypassCertValidation` | If the target address is an HTTPS address, and this parameter is true, the system will bypass all SSL certificate validation. This is not recommended, though is sometimes necessary for self-signed certificates. [optional]
Boolean| `useCaches` | Will cache the information returned by the httpGet call. If using this for something that constantly updates like an RSS feed, it would be better to set this to False. Default is True. [optional]
 Boolean| `throwOnError` | Set to False if you wish to get the error body rather than a Python exception if the GET request returns an error code (non-200 responsive). Default is True. [optional]
   
### Returns

**String** - The content found at the given URL.

### Scope

Gateway, Vision Client, Perspective Session

## Code Examples 

If you are using JSON, check out the [system.util.jsonEncode](appendix/scripting-functions/system-util/system-util-jsonEncode.md) and [system.util.jsonDecode](appendix/scripting-functions/system-util/system-util-jsonDecode.md).

```python title="Example #1"
# This code would return the source for Google's homepage
source = system.net.httpGet("http://www.google.com")
print source
```
```python title="Example #2 - Getting Weather Information"
# This code would query Yahoo Weather for the temperature in Sacramento, CA
# and then find the current temperature using a regular expression
  
response = system.net.httpGet("https://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql?q=select%20*%20from%20weather.forecast%20where%20woeid%3D2489314")
  
# import Python's regular expression library
import re
  
# NOTE - if you've never seen regular expressions before, don't worry, they look
# confusing even to people who use them frequently.
pattern = re.compile('.*?<yweather:condition (.*?)/>', re.DOTALL)
match = pattern.match(response)
if match:
   subText = match.group(1)
   condition = re.compile('.*?text="(.*?)"').match(subText).group(1)
   temp = re.compile('.*?temp="(.*?)"').match(subText).group(1)
   print "Condition: ", condition
   print "Temperature (F): ", temp
else:
   print 'Weather service format changed'
```