Download a Media Image

The vCloud API supports downloading media images from a catalog.

Prerequisites

Verify that the following conditions are met:

■	You are logged in as a user who has permission to download media images.
■	You know the URL of the catalog item that references the media image.

Procedure

1	Retrieve the XML representation of the catalog and examine the catalog items that it contains.
2	Retrieve the catalog item that represents the media image.
3	Use the URL in the Entity element of the CatalogItem to retrieve the Media object. The Media element includes a Link element of the following form, where `id` is the id of the media image: <Link rel="enable" href="https://vcloud.example.com/api/media/`id`/action/enableDownload"/>
4	Enable the media image for download. Make a POST request to the action/enableDownload URL shown in Step 2. The response is a Task element.
5	When the task completes, retrieve the media item again. The Media object now includes a download URL for the media file.
6	Make a GET request to the download:default URL. The media file is downloaded to the current working directory.

Example: Download a Media Image

When you download a media file, you first enable the file for download.

Request:

POST https://vcloud.example.com/api/media/254/action/enableDownload

Response:

202 Accepted
Content-Type: application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.task+xml
...
<Task 
   ... 
   operation="Enabling download of Media database.iso (254)" ... >
   ...
</Task>

The Task in the response tracks the creation of the downloadable image. When the task completes, retrieve the Media element again.

GET https://vcloud.example.com/api/media/254

The Media object now includes a download URL for the media file.


<Media ... >
   ...
   <Files>
      <File
         name="database.iso"
         bytesTransferred="0">
         <Link
            rel="download:default"
            href="https://vcloud.example.com/transfer/.../database.iso" />
      </File>
   </Files>
   ...
</Media>

The download URL remains valid while a transfer session is in progress, and for a maximum of 60 minutes of transfer session idle time. A system administrator can change this default value. See Retrieve or Update System Settings.