Betfair Price Files Download Manager

[ODPaul82]

On a technicality the file shows ".xls" but files with macros should be of ".xmls" type

xls is the pre 2007 excel format.
xlsm as paspug said is macro enabled excel format which is post 2007

The key differences are xls is purely binary format for its structure whereas xlsm & xlsx (and others) are a collection of XML files which have been zipped up
If you rename the actual extension to .zip you can unzip them to take a peak at how they're structured.
Same for docx, pptx, they went from propertiary binary encoding of the files to XML structure.

[Johnedale]

This has stopped working for me, I think the directory has changed again. The files are now at :
https://promo.betfair.com/betfairsp/prices

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Edit :
apologies, just looked through the vba to try to sort it out myself and it looks like the link is up to date.
I'm getting an error message - possible internet connection problem, error 404
I've restarted the laptop, my connection is ok and I can still download the files manually

[ODPaul82]

...
apologies, just looked through the vba to try to sort it out myself and it looks like the link is up to date.
I'm getting an error message - possible internet connection problem, error 404
I've restarted the laptop, my connection is ok and I can still download the files manually

Hi John,

I've just gone to download with no issue this morning, HTTP error code 404 is page not found so would be page not found so may have been a temporary blip their end

[Johnedale]

[quote=ODPaul82 post_id=342917
Hi John,

I've just gone to download with no issue this morning, HTTP error code 404 is page not found so would be page not found so may have been a temporary blip their end
[/quote]

Thanks Paul. I've tried with a different pc but still getting the same error. I can't connect to the page with power query either although it connects to other sites fine, so probably a problem with bf as you say. Strange that I can still access the page with Chrome though.
Power query spends about five minutes trying to connect then comes up with this weird error :

Unable to connect
We encountered an error while trying to connect.
Details: "The Web.Page function requires Active Scripting to be enabled in Internet Explorer options, See
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?Linkld-506565 for details on how to enable Active Scripting."

[paspuggie48]

Thanks Paul. I've tried with a different pc but still getting the same error. I can't connect to the page with power query either although it connects to other sites fine, so probably a problem with bf as you say. Strange that I can still access the page with Chrome though.
Power query spends about five minutes trying to connect then comes up with this weird error :

Unable to connect
We encountered an error while trying to connect.
Details: "The Web.Page function requires Active Scripting to be enabled in Internet Explorer options, See
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?Linkld-506565 for details on how to enable Active Scripting."

I've been using the Downloader since Paul created it May 2021 (including my updated version) and can't recall ever having a problem. Even since you posted a few days ago it has worked perfect for me too, no issues at all.

As for Power Query; PQ will only get the list one sees on the website, it will not get the files themselves.

I've not seen your Active Scripting error before but a quick glance at the Power BI forum someone posted something similar...https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/ ... d-p/631063

[Johnedale]

I've not seen your Active Scripting error before but a quick glance at the Power BI forum someone posted something similar...https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/ ... d-p/631063

Thanks. I've had a look but I'm pretty new to power BI and the discussion was way beyond me!

Both the computers I've run the downloader on share the same connection and the same office365 account so I'll try it somewhere else and hopefully get the files that way

[Tiesto13]

Heh, maybe I should have searched the forum to see if there was already a solution to this before I spent all day developing some code to download these files

Anyhow, am I comfortable to assume that the 'SELECTION_ID' in these files is a unique identifier applied to horses? Would the same horse ever appear under different 'SELECTION_IDs'?

[ODPaul82]

Heh, maybe I should have searched the forum to see if there was already a solution to this before I spent all day developing some code to download these files

Anyhow, am I comfortable to assume that the 'SELECTION_ID' in these files is a unique identifier applied to horses? Would the same horse ever appear under different 'SELECTION_IDs'?

yes I've come across occurances of that in older data, you may also have a horse that has the same name. Can't remember which one but one has a suffix of GB applied against it for some races.

[gstar1975]

I'm getting the same error 404 nternet connection problem. Will there be an updated version?

[Johnedale]

I'm getting the same error 404 nternet connection problem. Will there be an updated version?

I was having the same issue but seem to have solved it. Whenever the line

XMLPage.Open "Get", "https://promo.betfair.com/betfairsp/prices/", False

appears in the vba I just took the last / off :

XMLPage.Open "Get", "https://promo.betfair.com/betfairsp/prices", False

No idea why it suddenly became a problem as I'd been using the downloader fine for ages until recently

[Brovashift]

Hi all, are these downloads still working??

I have tried each version I think but I am getting compile errors on all...

I have altered file paths etc. but on the Download BF Files versions I get "Expected: Sub or Function" pop up.
At the top of all these versions for some reason "Private Declare PtrSafe..." is in red!

Private Declare PtrSafe Function URLDownloadToFile Lib "urlmon" Alias "URLDownloadToFileA" ( _
ByVal pCaller As LongPtr, _
ByVal szURL As String, _
ByVal szFileName As String, _
ByVal dwReserved As LongPtr, _
ByVal lpfnCB As LongPtr) As LongPtr

I tried to comment this out but then it said URLDownloadToFile not defined, so its obviously needed, but why is it red?

And on the original Betfair Price Files v6 version, after editing the dates to 2024 and pressing the update button for UK Win it says "Sub or Function not defined (Module2), for; URLDownloadToFile 0,

in Sub UpdateFiles()

I have created all the necessary folders in my C:\ and pointed all the file paths accordingly, I think.

Also, I have to remove the "/" at the end of https://promo.betfair.com/betfairsp/prices because it doesn't find the page when I copy into the browser with "/" added.

Anyone else had this?

TIA