About the trouble downloading from ISC Bulletin in oq-mbtk as of Feb 2026

[Enrico Abcede]

I am migrating from the old GEM Catalogue Toolkit to the current OpenQuake Model Building Toolkit (oq-mbtk). Previously, I was able to download data from the ISC, but I am now encountering issues when attempting to retrieve earthquake catalogs in .isf format. Please see the code I am using below:  

```python
%matplotlib inline
import openquake.cat.isc_downloader as isc

Cat1 = isc.ISCBulletinUrl()
Cat1.SetField("OutputFormat","ISF")
Cat1.SetField("StartYear","2000")
Cat1.SetField("EndYear","2001")
Cat1.SetField('SearchAreaShape','RECT')
Cat1.SetField('RectangleBottomLatitude','23')
Cat1.SetField('RectangleTopLatitude','34')
Cat1.SetField('RectangleLeftLongitude','77')
Cat1.SetField('RectangleRightLongitude','91')
Cat1.SetField("MinimumDepth","")

Cat1.GetCatalogue()

Cat1.WriteOutput("outputs/Example_ISF_Catalogue.isf")
```

I just get a connection error

```python
Warning: Server is busy, retrying in a few seconds...
Warning: Server is busy, retrying in a few seconds...
Warning: Server is busy, retrying in a few seconds...
Warning: Server is busy, retrying in a few seconds...
Warning: Server is busy, retrying in a few seconds...
Warning: Server is busy, retrying in a few seconds...
Warning: Server is busy, retrying in a few seconds...
Warning: Server is busy, retrying in a few seconds...
Warning: Server is busy, retrying in a few seconds...
Warning: Server is busy, retrying in a few seconds...
Warning: Server is busy, retrying in a few seconds...
Warning: Maximum number of attempts reached...
```

Has there been a recent change to the download method or API for the ISC Bulletin? Any insights would be appreciated.

[Peter Pažák]

Hi, I am getting the same problem.

Though when I try:

Cat1.CreateUrl()

it seems to give correct path(?)

http://www.isc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/web-db-v4?request=REVIEWED&out_format=ISF&searchshape=RECT&bot_lat=23&top_lat=34&left_lon=77&right_lon=91&ctr_lat=&ctr_lon=&radius=&max_dist_units=deg&srn=&grn=&coordvals=&start_year=2000&start_month=01&start_day=01&start_time=00:00:00&end_year=2001&end_month=12&end_day=31&end_time=23:59:59&min_dep=&max_dep=&null_dep=on&min_mag=&max_mag=&null_mag=on&req_mag_type=&req_mag_agcy=&req_fm_agcy=Any&include_phases=off&min_def=&max_def=&null_phs=&prime_only=&include_magnitudes=on&include_headers=on&include_comments=off&include_links=off&

and maybe also expected results, though there is a line in the response saying:

Sorry a problem has occured with the map.

As the code of isc_downloader includes a cycle with:

            Page = parse_page(UrlRes.read())
            UrlRes.close()
            if Page.find("Sorry") > -1:
                if Tries > 10:
                    print("Warning: Maximum number of attempts reached...")
                    break
                print("Warning: Server is busy, retrying in a few seconds...")
                time.sleep(30)
                Tries += 1

it seems to remain in the loop an after 10 times it stops trying.

So maybe the output is correct, just the isc response changed a bit?

As a first workaround you probably may copy all between DATA_TYPE and STOP form the returned page data and save to an isf file.

Peter

Dátum: štvrtok 12. februára 2026, čas: 9:08:11 UTC+1, odosielateľ: enrico.a...@gmail.com