Minimize Bandwidth

[Tim Golden]

Robert Rawlins - Think Blue wrote:
> I have a python application that hits a web service on a regular basis to
> post a string of CSV log data and I'm looking to minimize the amount of
> bandwidth that the application uses to send the log data.
> 
> Is there any way to encode the string into base64 or something, that I can
> then post and decode at the other end? Is that likely to save me bandwidth
> perhaps? I don't really know much about this encoding stuff, but the smaller
> I can compress the string the better.

You could zip the csv data up first (assuming you control
both ends of the conversation). Obviously compression ratios
depend on various things.

<code>
import zlib

data = """
BAN X08 001 / 00 01
BAN X08 004 / 00 04
BAN X08 013 / 00 01
BAN X08 016 / 00 01
BAN X08 017 / 00 02
BAN X08 018 / 00 03
BAN X08 010 / 00 01
BAN X08 019 / 00 01
BAN X08 022 / 00 01
BAN X08 025 / 00 01
MAI X01 001 / 00 01
MAI X01 002 / 00 01
MAI X01 003 / 00 01
MAI X01 004 / 00 01
MAI X01 005 / 00 01
MAI X01 006 / 00 01
MAI X01 008 / 00 01
MAI X01 009 / 00 01
MAI X01 010 / 00 01
MAI X01 011 / 00 01
MAI X01 012 / 00 01
MAI X01 013 / 00 01
TOW P02 015 / 00 01
BET C01 006 / 00 BL
BET C01 006 / 00 TL
BET T01 011 / 00 01
BET T01 012 / 02 01
BET P01 010 / 00 01
BET P01 030 / 00 01
BET P02 022 / 00 01
STO C02 031 / 00 01
BON P01 003 / 01 01
"""
compressed_data = zlib.compress (data, 9)

print len (data), len (compressed_data)

</code>

TJG