Loading PNG files directly from URL

Question

I am using the png package to load PNGs as raster images, and then plotting them. The PNGs are coming from an online source, namely, Wikipedia. I can get the fo

Answer 1

Use getURLcontent in the RCurl package.

library(RCurl)
myurl <- "http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Flag_of_Afghanistan.svg/150px-Flag_of_Afghanistan.svg.png"
my_image <-  readPNG(getURLContent(myurl))