diff --git a/code.json b/code.json
index fab3978..5c17bfd 100644
--- a/code.json
+++ b/code.json
@@ -1,8 +1,4 @@
-{
-  "version": "2.0.0",
-  "measurementType": {},
-  "agency": "U.S. Department of Interior",
-  "releases": [
+  [
     {
       "name": "libcomcat",
       "description": "Python wrapper around ComCat web API",
@@ -41,4 +37,3 @@
       }
     }
   ]
-}
diff --git a/environment.yml b/environment.yml
index abc5bbd..a975624 100644
--- a/environment.yml
+++ b/environment.yml
@@ -5,25 +5,15 @@ channels:
 - digitalglobe
 - ioos
 dependencies:
-- beautifulsoup4
-- cartopy
-- decorator
-- fiona
-- h5py
 - ipython
 - jupyter
-- matplotlib<2.0
 - numpy
 - obspy
 - pandas
-- paramiko
-- pycrypto
 - pytest
 - pytest-cov
 - pytest-mpl
 - python=3.5
-- seaborn
-- shapely
 - xlrd
 - xlwt
 - openpyxl
diff --git a/environment_linux.yml b/environment_linux.yml
index c8fb358..07631c5 100644
--- a/environment_linux.yml
+++ b/environment_linux.yml
@@ -4,171 +4,132 @@ channels:
 - defaults
 - ioos
 dependencies:
-- asn1crypto=0.22.0
-- attrs=17.3.0
-- beautifulsoup4=4.6.0
+- asn1crypto=0.24.0
+- attrs=17.4.0
+- backports=1.0
+- backports.functools_lru_cache=1.5
 - blas=1.1
 - bleach=2.0.0
-- ca-certificates=2017.11.5
-- cairo=1.14.6
-- cartopy=0.15.1
-- certifi=2017.11.5
-- cffi=1.11.2
+- ca-certificates=2018.1.18
+- certifi=2018.1.18
+- cffi=1.11.5
 - chardet=3.0.4
-- click=6.7
-- click-plugins=1.0.3
-- cligj=0.4.0
-- coverage=4.4.2
+- coverage=4.5.1
 - cryptography=2.1.4
-- curl=7.55.1
 - cycler=0.10.0
-- decorator=4.1.2
+- dbus=1.10.22
+- decorator=4.2.1
 - entrypoints=0.2.3
 - et_xmlfile=1.0.1
-- expat=2.1.0
-- fiona=1.7.11
-- fontconfig=2.12.1
-- freetype=2.7
-- freexl=1.0.4
+- expat=2.2.5
+- fontconfig=2.12.6
+- freetype=2.8.1
 - future=0.16.0
-- gdal=2.1.3
-- geos=3.6.2
-- gettext=0.19.7
-- giflib=5.1.4
-- glib=2.51.4
+- gettext=0.19.8.1
+- glib=2.55.0
 - gmp=6.1.2
-- graphite2=1.3.10
-- h5py=2.7.1
-- harfbuzz=1.4.3
-- hdf4=4.2.13
-- hdf5=1.10.1
+- gst-plugins-base=1.8.0
+- gstreamer=1.8.0
 - html5lib=1.0.1
 - icu=58.2
 - idna=2.6
-- ipykernel=4.7.0
+- ipykernel=4.8.2
 - ipython=6.2.1
 - ipython_genutils=0.2.0
-- ipywidgets=7.0.5
+- ipywidgets=7.1.2
 - jdcal=1.3
-- jedi=0.10.2
+- jedi=0.11.1
 - jinja2=2.10
 - jpeg=9b
-- json-c=0.12.1
 - jsonschema=2.6.0
 - jupyter=1.0.0
-- jupyter_client=5.2.0
+- jupyter_client=5.2.2
 - jupyter_console=5.2.0
 - jupyter_core=4.4.0
-- kealib=1.4.7
-- krb5=1.14.2
-- libdap4=3.18.3
+- kiwisolver=1.0.1
 - libffi=3.2.1
 - libiconv=1.15
-- libnetcdf=4.4.1.1
-- libpng=1.6.28
-- libpq=9.6.3
+- libpng=1.6.34
 - libsodium=1.0.15
-- libspatialite=4.3.0a
-- libssh2=1.8.0
-- libtiff=4.0.9
-- libxml2=2.9.5
+- libxcb=1.12
+- libxml2=2.9.7
 - libxslt=1.1.32
 - lxml=4.1.1
 - markupsafe=1.0
-- matplotlib=1.5.3
+- matplotlib=2.2.0
 - mistune=0.8.3
-- munch=2.2.0
 - nbconvert=5.3.1
 - nbformat=4.4.0
 - ncurses=5.9
 - nose=1.3.7
-- notebook=5.2.2
-- numpy=1.13.3
+- notebook=5.4.0
+- numpy=1.14.1
 - obspy=1.1.0
-- olefile=0.44
 - openblas=0.2.20
-- openjpeg=2.1.2
-- openpyxl=2.5.0b1
+- openpyxl=2.5.0
 - openssl=1.0.2n
-- owslib=0.15.0
-- pandas=0.21.1
-- pandoc=2.0.5
+- pandas=0.22.0
+- pandoc=2.1.2
 - pandocfilters=1.4.1
-- pango=1.40.4
-- paramiko=2.3.1
-- patsy=0.4.1
+- parso=0.1.1
 - pcre=8.39
-- pexpect=4.3.1
+- pexpect=4.4.0
 - pickleshare=0.7.4
-- pillow=4.2.1
 - pip=9.0.1
-- pixman=0.34.0
 - pluggy=0.6.0
-- proj4=4.9.3
 - prompt_toolkit=1.0.15
 - ptyprocess=0.5.2
 - py=1.5.2
-- pyasn1=0.3.7
 - pycparser=2.18
-- pycrypto=2.6.1
-- pyepsg=0.3.2
 - pygments=2.2.0
-- pynacl=1.1.2
-- pyopenssl=17.4.0
+- pyopenssl=17.5.0
 - pyparsing=2.2.0
-- pyproj=1.9.5.1
-- pyqt=4.11.4
-- pyshp=1.2.12
-- pysocks=1.6.7
-- pytest=3.3.1
+- pyqt=5.6.0
+- pysocks=1.6.8
+- pytest=3.4.2
 - pytest-cov=2.5.1
 - pytest-mpl=0.9
-- python=3.5.4
+- python=3.5.5
 - python-dateutil=2.6.1
-- pytz=2017.3
-- pyzmq=16.0.2
-- qt=4.8.7
+- pytz=2018.3
+- pyzmq=17.0.0
+- qt=5.6.2
 - qtconsole=4.3.1
-- readline=6.2
+- readline=7.0
 - requests=2.18.4
 - scipy=1.0.0
-- seaborn=0.8.1
-- setuptools=38.2.4
-- shapely=1.6.3
+- send2trash=1.5.0
+- setuptools=38.5.1
 - simplegeneric=0.8.1
 - sip=4.18
 - six=1.11.0
-- sqlalchemy=1.1.13
-- sqlite=3.13.0
-- statsmodels=0.8.0
+- sqlalchemy=1.2.4
+- sqlite=3.20.1
 - terminado=0.8.1
 - testpath=0.3.1
-- tk=8.5.19
-- tornado=4.5.2
+- tk=8.6.7
+- tornado=4.5.3
 - traitlets=4.3.2
 - urllib3=1.22
 - wcwidth=0.1.7
 - webencodings=0.5
 - wheel=0.30.0
-- widgetsnbextension=3.0.8
-- xerces-c=3.2.0
+- widgetsnbextension=3.1.4
 - xlrd=1.1.0
 - xlsxwriter=1.0.2
 - xlwt=1.3.0
+- xorg-libxau=1.0.8
+- xorg-libxdmcp=1.1.2
 - xz=5.2.3
-- zeromq=4.2.1
+- zeromq=4.2.3
 - zlib=1.2.11
-- bcrypt=3.1.4
-- libgcc-ng=7.2.0
 - libgfortran=3.0.0
-- util-linux=2.21
 - pip:
+  - backports.functools-lru-cache==1.5
   - et-xmlfile==1.0.1
   - ipython-genutils==0.2.0
-  - jupyter-client==5.2.0
+  - jupyter-client==5.2.2
   - jupyter-console==5.2.0
   - jupyter-core==4.4.0
   - prompt-toolkit==1.0.15
-  - ./impact-utils.zip    
-prefix: /home/mhearne/miniconda/envs/comcat
-
+  - ./impact-utils.zip
diff --git a/environment_osx.yml b/environment_osx.yml
index 9061246..ab48f23 100644
--- a/environment_osx.yml
+++ b/environment_osx.yml
@@ -6,162 +6,120 @@ channels:
 - ioos
 dependencies:
 - appnope=0.1.0
-- asn1crypto=0.22.0
-- attrs=17.3.0
-- autopep8=1.3.3
-- beautifulsoup4=4.6.0
+- asn1crypto=0.24.0
+- attrs=17.4.0
+- backports=1.0
+- backports.functools_lru_cache=1.5
 - blas=1.1
 - bleach=2.0.0
-- ca-certificates=2017.11.5
-- cartopy=0.15.1
-- certifi=2017.11.5
-- cffi=1.11.2
+- ca-certificates=2018.1.18
+- certifi=2018.1.18
+- cffi=1.11.5
 - chardet=3.0.4
-- click=6.7
-- click-plugins=1.0.3
-- cligj=0.4.0
-- coverage=4.4.2
+- coverage=4.5.1
 - cryptography=2.1.4
-- curl=7.55.1
 - cycler=0.10.0
-- decorator=4.1.2
+- decorator=4.2.1
 - entrypoints=0.2.3
 - et_xmlfile=1.0.1
-- expat=2.1.0
-- fiona=1.7.11
-- freetype=2.6.3
-- freexl=1.0.4
+- freetype=2.8.1
 - future=0.16.0
-- gdal=2.1.3
-- geos=3.6.2
-- giflib=5.1.4
-- h5py=2.7.1
-- hdf4=4.2.13
-- hdf5=1.10.1
 - html5lib=1.0.1
 - icu=58.2
 - idna=2.6
-- ipykernel=4.7.0
+- ipykernel=4.8.2
 - ipython=6.2.1
 - ipython_genutils=0.2.0
-- ipywidgets=7.0.5
+- ipywidgets=7.1.2
 - jdcal=1.3
-- jedi=0.10.2
+- jedi=0.11.1
 - jinja2=2.10
 - jpeg=9b
-- json-c=0.12.1
 - jsonschema=2.6.0
 - jupyter=1.0.0
-- jupyter_client=5.1.0
+- jupyter_client=5.2.2
 - jupyter_console=5.2.0
 - jupyter_core=4.4.0
-- kealib=1.4.7
-- krb5=1.14.2
-- libdap4=3.18.3
+- kiwisolver=1.0.1
 - libffi=3.2.1
 - libgfortran=3.0.0
 - libiconv=1.15
-- libnetcdf=4.4.1.1
-- libpng=1.6.28
-- libpq=9.6.3
+- libpng=1.6.34
 - libsodium=1.0.15
-- libspatialite=4.3.0a
-- libssh2=1.8.0
-- libtiff=4.0.9
-- libxml2=2.9.5
+- libxml2=2.9.7
 - libxslt=1.1.32
 - lxml=4.1.1
 - markupsafe=1.0
-- matplotlib=2.0.0rc2
+- matplotlib=2.2.0
 - mistune=0.8.3
-- munch=2.2.0
 - nbconvert=5.3.1
 - nbformat=4.4.0
 - ncurses=5.9
 - nose=1.3.7
-- notebook=5.2.2
-- numpy=1.12.1
+- notebook=5.4.0
+- numpy=1.14.1
 - obspy=1.1.0
-- olefile=0.44
 - openblas=0.2.20
-- openjpeg=2.1.2
-- openpyxl=2.5.0b1
+- openpyxl=2.5.0
 - openssl=1.0.2n
-- owslib=0.15.0
-- pandas=0.21.1
-- pandoc=2.0.5
+- pandas=0.22.0
+- pandoc=2.1.2
 - pandocfilters=1.4.1
-- paramiko=2.3.1
-- patsy=0.4.1
-- pcre=8.39
-- pexpect=4.3.1
+- parso=0.1.1
+- pexpect=4.4.0
 - pickleshare=0.7.4
-- pillow=4.0.0
 - pip=9.0.1
 - pluggy=0.6.0
-- proj4=4.9.3
 - prompt_toolkit=1.0.15
 - ptyprocess=0.5.2
 - py=1.5.2
-- pyasn1=0.3.7
-- pycodestyle=2.3.1
 - pycparser=2.18
-- pycrypto=2.6.1
-- pyepsg=0.3.2
 - pygments=2.2.0
-- pynacl=1.1.2
-- pyopenssl=17.4.0
+- pyopenssl=17.5.0
 - pyparsing=2.2.0
-- pyproj=1.9.5.1
 - pyqt=5.6.0
-- pyshp=1.2.12
-- pysocks=1.6.7
-- pytest=3.3.1
+- pysocks=1.6.8
+- pytest=3.4.2
 - pytest-cov=2.5.1
 - pytest-mpl=0.9
-- python=3.5.4
+- python=3.5.5
 - python-dateutil=2.6.1
-- pytz=2017.3
-- pyzmq=16.0.2
+- pytz=2018.3
+- pyzmq=17.0.0
 - qt=5.6.2
 - qtconsole=4.3.1
-- readline=6.2
+- readline=7.0
 - requests=2.18.4
 - scipy=1.0.0
-- seaborn=0.8.1
-- setuptools=38.2.4
-- shapely=1.6.3
+- send2trash=1.5.0
+- setuptools=38.5.1
 - simplegeneric=0.8.1
 - sip=4.18
 - six=1.11.0
-- sqlalchemy=1.1.13
-- sqlite=3.13.0
-- statsmodels=0.8.0
+- sqlalchemy=1.2.1
+- sqlite=3.20.1
 - terminado=0.8.1
 - testpath=0.3.1
-- tk=8.5.19
-- tornado=4.5.2
+- tk=8.6.7
+- tornado=4.5.3
 - traitlets=4.3.2
 - urllib3=1.22
 - wcwidth=0.1.7
 - webencodings=0.5
 - wheel=0.30.0
-- widgetsnbextension=3.0.8
-- xerces-c=3.2.0
+- widgetsnbextension=3.1.4
 - xlrd=1.1.0
 - xlsxwriter=1.0.2
 - xlwt=1.3.0
 - xz=5.2.3
-- zeromq=4.2.1
+- zeromq=4.2.3
 - zlib=1.2.11
-- bcrypt=3.1.4
 - pip:
+  - backports.functools-lru-cache==1.5
   - et-xmlfile==1.0.1
   - ipython-genutils==0.2.0
-  - jupyter-client==5.1.0
+  - jupyter-client==5.2.2
   - jupyter-console==5.2.0
   - jupyter-core==4.4.0
   - prompt-toolkit==1.0.15
-  - ./impact-utils.zip  
-prefix: /Users/mhearne/anaconda3/envs/comcat
-
+  - ./impact-utils.zip
diff --git a/libcomcat/classes.py b/libcomcat/classes.py
index f1d4519..d231778 100644
--- a/libcomcat/classes.py
+++ b/libcomcat/classes.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 import re
 from enum import Enum
 import sys
+from io import StringIO
 
 # third party imports
 from obspy.core.event import read_events
@@ -514,27 +515,20 @@ def toDict(self, catalog=None,
                 edict.update(_get_focal_mechanism_info(focal))
 
         if get_all_magnitudes:
-            handle, tmpfile = tempfile.mkstemp()
-            os.close(handle)
-            try:
-                phase_data = self.getProducts('phase-data')[0]
-                phase_data.getContent('quakeml.xml', filename=tmpfile)
-                with warnings.catch_warnings():
-                    warnings.simplefilter("ignore")
-                    catalog = read_events(tmpfile)
-                    event = catalog.events[0]
-                    imag = 1
-                    if get_all_magnitudes:
-                        for magnitude in event.magnitudes:
-                            edict['magnitude%i' % imag] = magnitude.mag
-                            edict['magtype%i' %
-                                  imag] = magnitude.magnitude_type
-                            imag += 1
-            except:
-                raise Exception(
-                    'Failed to retrieve quakeml.xml file from phase-data product (%s).' % content_url)
-            finally:
-                os.remove(tmpfile)
+            phase_data = self.getProducts('phase-data')[0]
+            phase_bytes,url = phase_data.getContentBytes('quakeml.xml')
+            phase_io = StringIO(phase_bytes.decode('utf-8'))
+            with warnings.catch_warnings():
+                warnings.simplefilter("ignore")
+                catalog = read_events(phase_io)
+                event = catalog.events[0]
+                imag = 1
+                if get_all_magnitudes:
+                    for magnitude in event.magnitudes:
+                        edict['magnitude%i' % imag] = magnitude.mag
+                        edict['magtype%i' %
+                              imag] = magnitude.magnitude_type
+                        imag += 1
 
         return edict
 
@@ -775,18 +769,39 @@ def getContentURL(self, regexp):
         else:
             return None
 
-    def getContent(self, regexp, filename=None):
+    def getContent(self, regexp, filename):
         """Find and download the shortest file name matching the input regular expression.
 
         :param regexp:
           Regular expression which should match one of the content files in the Product.
         :param filename:
-          Filename to which content should be downloaded.
+          Filename to which content should be downloaded. 
         :returns:
           The URL from which the content was downloaded.
         :raises:
           Exception if content could not be downloaded from ComCat after two tries.
         """
+        data,url = self.getContentBytes(regexp)
+        
+        f = open(filename, 'wb')
+        f.write(data)
+        f.close()
+        
+        return url
+        
+
+    def getContentBytes(self, regexp):
+        """Find the shortest file name matching the input regular expression, return bytes of that file.
+
+        :param regexp:
+          Regular expression which should match one of the content files in the Product.
+        :returns:
+          Tuple of array of bytes containing file contents, and the source url.  Bytes can be 
+          decoded to UTF-8 by the user if file contents are known to be ASCII.  i.e.,
+          product.getContentBytes('info.json').decode('utf-8')
+        :raises:
+          Exception if content could not be downloaded from ComCat after two tries.
+        """
         content_name = 'a' * 1000
         content_url = None
         for contentkey, content in self._product['contents'].items():
@@ -806,23 +821,19 @@ def getContent(self, regexp, filename=None):
             fh = request.urlopen(url, timeout=TIMEOUT)
             data = fh.read()
             fh.close()
-            f = open(filename, 'wb')
-            f.write(data)
-            f.close()
+            
         except HTTPError as htpe:
             time.sleep(WAITSECS)
             try:
                 fh = request.urlopen(url, timeout=TIMEOUT)
                 data = fh.read()
                 fh.close()
-                f = open(filename, 'wb')
-                f.write(data)
-                f.close()
             except Exception as msg:
                 raise Exception('Could not download %s from %s.' %
                                 (content_name, url))
 
-        return url
+
+        return (data,url)
 
     def hasProperty(self, key):
         """Determine if this Product contains a given property.
diff --git a/tests/libcomcat/classes_test.py b/tests/libcomcat/classes_test.py
index 6d26ca7..81e1fd4 100755
--- a/tests/libcomcat/classes_test.py
+++ b/tests/libcomcat/classes_test.py
@@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ def test_product():
     assert product.getContentURL('foo') is None
     
     try:
-        product.getContent('foo')
+        product.getContent('foo',filename=None)
         assert 1==2
     except AttributeError as ae:
         pass
@@ -259,6 +259,13 @@ def test_product():
     finally:
         os.remove(tfilename)
 
+    # test getting content as a string.
+    infobytes,url = product.getContentBytes('info.json')
+    infostring = infobytes.decode('utf-8')
+    jdict = json.loads(infostring)
+    eid = jdict['input']['event_information']['event_id']
+    assert eid == '19940117123055'
+        
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     test_moment_supplement()
     test_detail_product_versions()