Load image from website

Question

I am trying to add some chemical structure images to some plots I have created. I am using the ACToR database to access the chemical structures. For example:

Answer 1

Here is an approach that worked for me for a single image (it could be wrapped in a function to be used in the loop):

con <- url("http://actor.epa.gov/actor/image?format=png%3Aw1000%2Ch1000&casrn=1478-61-1",
    open='rb')

rawpng <- readBin(con, what='raw', n=50000)

close(con)

png1 <- readPNG(rawpng)

I tested it using:

plot(1:10, type='n')
rasterImage( as.raster(png1), 3,3,8,8 )

It took some guesswork to get the 50000 and that may be different for other files (actually I should have used 48849, but then it really would be likely to change between files).