Changing this code so my application does not freeze?

[Zeratulsdomain]

Private Declare Function URLDownloadToFile Lib "urlmon" Alias "URLDownloadToFileA" (ByVal pCaller As Long, ByVal szURL As String, ByVal szFileName As String, ByVal dwReserved As Long, ByVal lpfnCB As Long) As Long
Public Function DownloadFile(URL As String, LocalFilename As String) As Boolean
    Dim lngRetVal As Long
    lngRetVal = URLDownloadToFile(0, URL, LocalFilename, 0, 0)
    If lngRetVal = 0 Then DownloadFile = True
End Function
Private Sub Form_Load()
    'example by Matthew Gates ([email protected])
    DownloadFile "http://www.allapi.net", "c:\allapi.htm"
End Sub

My program downloads image after image... Some of the images are +1MBs... So they take +5 seconds to download, and when ever its downloading my whole application stops (cannot move the window, windows is not updated (if a other window goes over it, the window will only be updated once the image is done downloaded))....

So how would I change that code so my program works normally even when the image is downloading?

note: Its kind of like when you have a loop that takes forever, while vb is in the loop, you cannot do anything with the program (but in a loop you can use DoEvents)...

[rory]

you would need to use Winsock instead.

example
http://www.vbforums.com/showpost.php?p=2537947

[Zeratulsdomain]

I dont know the first thing about winsock...

[Zeratulsdomain]

Any other suggestions? This bug is very annoying, and if I make this application public I will need to fix this...

[smUX]

Any other suggestions? This bug is very annoying, and if I make this application public I will need to fix this...

http://curl.haxx.se is a program I use for advanced downloading or website navigation...it *may* be of use to you...or you could write a program to call via the shell which downloads the file and lets the main program continue what it's doing...however, winsock is probably the best way to go, although I know nothing about winsock myself and can't stand the way it regularly crashes the VB IDE if you're not careful (you can't break out of a program while using winsock as it freezes the whole thing)...there's an alternative to winsock that some people here talked about, but I dunno the URL...I am sure someone will know the URL and will tell you :-)

[gavio]

You can use MS Internet Transfer Control:

Dim site As String
    site = Inet1.OpenURL("http://www.allapi.net")
        Open "c:\allapi.html" For Output As #1
            Print #1, site
        Close #1
            MsgBox "Done!"

[Zeratulsdomain]

smUX: I am looking for a VB solution...

gavio: I use inet to get the source of my html.... But I remember I had tried it with images and had some sort of problem... What is the syntax for it again?

Isnt there some reliable way to download a file in VB while also getting info (like the download rate?)

[gavio]

Works for all files:

Option Explicit
    Public i As Long
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
On Error GoTo errorHandeler
    Dim strURL As String
    Dim bData() As Byte
    Dim intFile As Integer
        strURL = "http://www.someSite.com/someFile.jpg"
        intFile = FreeFile()
        bData() = Inet1.OpenURL(strURL, icByteArray)
            Open "C:\someFile.jpg" For Binary Access Write As #intFile
                Put #intFile, , bData()
            Close #intFile
                    Exit Sub
errorHandeler:
End Sub