# Import files from web servers

Robot: `/http/import`

🤖/http/import imports any file that is publicly available via a web URL into Transloadit.

The result of this <dfn>Robot</dfn> will carry a field `import_url` in its metadata, which references the URL from which it was imported. Further conversion results that use this file will also carry this `import_url` field. This allows you to match conversion results with the original import URL that you used.

This <dfn>Robot</dfn> knows to interpret links to files on these services:

* Dropbox
* Google Drive
* Google Docs
* OneDrive

Instead of downloading the HTML page previewing the file, the actual file itself will be imported.

Stage: ga

## Usage example

Import an image from a specific URL:

```json
{
  "steps": {
    "imported": {
      "robot": "/http/import",
      "url": "https://demos.transloadit.com/inputs/chameleon.jpg"
    }
  }
}
```

## Parameters

* `interpolate`: Controls whether Assembly Variables are interpolated for individual instruction fields.

  By default, most Robot instruction fields interpolate Assembly Variables. Set this to `false` to treat every instruction field as literal text, or set an individual field path to `false` to treat only that field as literal text. For Robot-specific fields that are literal by default, set this to `true` or set that field path to `true` to opt back into interpolation.

  Use field names such as `path`, or dotted paths such as `ffmpeg.vf` for nested objects.

* `output_meta`: Allows you to specify a set of metadata that is more expensive on CPU power to calculate, and thus is disabled by default to keep your Assemblies processing fast.

  For images, you can add `"has_transparency": true` in this object to extract if the image contains transparent parts and `"dominant_colors": true` to extract an array of hexadecimal color codes from the image.

  For images, you can also add `"blurhash": true` to extract a [BlurHash](https://blurha.sh) string — a compact representation of a placeholder for the image, useful for showing a blurred preview while the full image loads.

  For videos, you can add the `"colorspace": true` parameter to extract the colorspace of the output video.

  For videos, you can also add `"interlaced": true` to detect whether the video is interlaced. This combines the cheap ffprobe `field_order` flag with a bounded `idet` sampling pass over the first frames of the source, exposing `interlaced`, `field_order`, and a diagnostic `interlace_detection` object under `file.meta`. This is computationally expensive and billed accordingly.

  For audio, you can add `"mean_volume": true` to get a single value representing the mean average volume of the audio file.

  You can also set this to `false` to skip metadata extraction and speed up transcoding.

* `user_meta`: Adds custom metadata to each file emitted by this Robot without modifying the file’s contents.

  The values are merged with any existing `user_meta` carried by the input file. If both objects contain the same key, this Robot’s value takes precedence. Assembly Variables are supported, for example `{ "internal_file_id": "${file.id}" }`.

* `result`: Whether the results of this Step should be present in the Assembly Status JSON

* `queue`: Setting the queue to 'batch', manually downgrades the priority of jobs for this step to avoid consuming Priority job slots for jobs that don't need zero queue waiting times

* `force_accept`: Force a Robot to accept a file type it would have ignored.

  By default, Robots ignore files they are not familiar with.
  [🤖/video/encode](/docs/robots/video-encode.md), for
  example, will happily ignore input images.

  With the `force_accept` parameter set to `true`, you can force Robots to accept all files thrown at them.
  This will typically lead to errors and should only be used for debugging or combatting edge cases.

* `ignore_errors`: Ignore errors during specific phases of processing.

  Setting this to `["meta"]` will cause the Robot to ignore errors during metadata extraction.

  Setting this to `["execute"]` will cause the Robot to ignore errors during the main execution phase.

  Setting this to `["import"]` will cause the Robot to ignore errors while importing the source file. The `"import"` phase is only available to import Robots.

  Setting this to `true` is equivalent to `["meta", "import", "execute"]` and will ignore errors in all three phases.

* `force_name`: Custom name for the imported file(s). By default file names are derived from the source.

* `import_on_errors`: Setting this to `["meta"]` will still import the file on metadata extraction errors. `ignore_errors` is similar, it also ignores the error and makes sure the Robot doesn't stop, but it doesn't import the file.

* `url`: The URL from which the file to be imported can be retrieved.

  You can also specify an array of URLs or a string of `|` delimited URLs to import several files at once. Please also check the `url_delimiter` parameter for that.

* `url_delimiter`: Provides the delimiter that is used to split the URLs in your `url` parameter value.

* `headers`: Custom headers to be sent for file import.

  This is an empty array by default, such that no additional headers except the necessary ones (e.g. Host) are sent.

  Headers can be specified as:

  * An array of strings in the format "Header-Name: value"
  * An array of objects with header names as keys and values as values
  * A JSON string that will be parsed into an object

  The same `headers` value is sent with every URL in this `/http/import` Step. If `url` is an
  array, `headers` is not matched to the URLs by array index. Use separate `/http/import` Steps
  when different URLs need different headers.

* `fail_fast`: Disable the internal retry mechanism, and fail immediately if a resource can't be imported. This can be useful for performance critical applications.

* `max_file_size`: Maximum allowed size in bytes for each imported file. If the remote server reports a larger file size, the import is rejected before the download starts. If the remote server does not report a size upfront, the download is aborted once this limit is exceeded.

* `return_file_stubs`: If set to `true`, the Robot will not yet import the actual files but instead return an empty file stub that includes a URL from where the file can be imported by subsequent Robots. This is useful for cases where subsequent Steps need more control over the import process, such as with 🤖/video/ondemand. This parameter should only be set if all subsequent Steps use Robots that support file stubs.

* `range`: Allows you to specify one or more byte ranges to import from the file. The server must support range requests for this to work.

  **Single range**: Use a string like `"0-99"` to import bytes 0-99 (the first 100 bytes).

  **Multiple ranges**: Use an array like `["0-99", "200-299"]` to import multiple separate ranges. The resulting file will contain all requested ranges concatenated together, with zero bytes (\0) filling any gaps between non-contiguous ranges.

  **Range formats**:

  * `"0-99"`: Bytes 0 through 99 (inclusive)
  * `"100-199"`: Bytes 100 through 199 (inclusive)
  * `"-100"`: The last 100 bytes of the file

  **Important notes**:

  * The server must support HTTP range requests (respond with 206 Partial Content)
  * If the server doesn't support range requests, the entire file will be imported instead
  * Overlapping ranges are allowed and will be included as requested
  * The resulting file size will be the highest byte position requested, with gaps filled with zero bytes