Download .xls file

Question

I've been trying to download a .xls file using urllib like this

from urllib.request import urlretrieve as retrieve 
dls = "https://www.bvc.com.co/mercados/DescargaXlsServlet?archivo=acciones&fecha=2020-04-02&resultados=100&tipoMercado="
retrieve(dls,"Acciones.xls")

But I recieve a long error message starting with:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\quiki\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\urllib\request.py", line 1317, in do_open
    encode_chunked=req.has_header('Transfer-encoding'))

and ending with:

urllib.error.URLError: urlopen error [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed: unable to get local issuer certificate (_ssl.c:1056)

I do not know if it has to do with the fact that the URL does not end with ".xls"

Does this answer your question? [How do I download a file over HTTP using Python?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22676/how-do-i-download-a-file-over-http-using-python) — foglerit, Apr 02 '20 at 22:39
Why don't you check https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27835619/urllib-and-ssl-certificate-verify-failed-error? There is also a chance, depending on how confidential the request is, to deactivate HTTPS. Check https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33770129/how-do-i-disable-the-ssl-check-in-python-3-x — Tomás Denis Reyes Sánchez, Apr 02 '20 at 22:42
If you can, use [requests](https://2.python-requests.org/en/master/) for HTTP(S). It takes care of a lot of the messy details for you. — Roland Smith, Apr 02 '20 at 23:00
Does this answer your question? [urllib and "SSL: CERTIFICATE\_VERIFY\_FAILED" Error](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27835619/urllib-and-ssl-certificate-verify-failed-error) — mx0, Sep 01 '20 at 11:46

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 02 '20 at 23:13

That's a ssl cert verification error. That means that the site's certificate is having some kind of problem.

Try this code, it disables the verification.

import requests

dls = "https://www.bvc.com.co/mercados/DescargaXlsServlet?archivo=acciones&  fecha=2020-04-02&resultados=100&tipoMercado="

with open("Acciones.xls","wb") as f:
    f.write(requests.get(dls,verify=False).content)

Hope it helps.

Download .xls file

1 Answers1