Posted by joakimk, Thu May 21 14:43:00 UTC 2009

Here is some code to check if a file exists on a remote server by using a HEAD request. It can optionally check if the content type is what you expected (if you for example want to only allow “audio/mpeg” links). Note that this particular implementation only works with http urls.

require 'net/http'

def exists?(file)
  begin
    # Support for both good and bad URI's
    uri = URI.parse(URI.escape(URI.unescape(file)))
    response = nil
     Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port) {|http|
       response = http.head(uri.path)
     }
     # .. response.content_type == "audio/mpeg"
     response.code == "200"
  rescue
    false
  end
end

puts exists?('http://djspike.se/files/albums/6/31/DJ_SPIKE%20-%20Tight%20(demo).mp3')

I also found a plugin with similar goals but that actually downloads the entire target file instead of only getting the header (not a good idea when dealing with media files): http://www.igvita.com/2006/09/07/validating-url-in-ruby-on-rails/

Filed Under: | Tags: http mp3 rails ruby