I barely use REST api with Python, but recently I found a great (and easy) Python library for HTTP/REST APIs, Python Requests.
It needs zero effort for installing, with pip or easy_install ("easy_install requests" for my MacOS)
First try with GET
import requests
r = requests.get('https://example.com')
GET with parameter
param = {‘user_id’:12345}
r = requests.get('https://example.com’, param)
#to get the content of the response
print r.text
# it can also parse to json data
data = json.loads(r.text)
check with status code
print r.status_code
for bad request, raise exceptions
print r.raise_for_status()
Session objects are pretty helpful
I used POST to carry to auth cookies through from authentication
s = requests.Session()
url = ‘api.example.com’
info = {‘user’:”usename’, ‘password’:’mypassword’}
r = s.post(url, data = info)
I got an error at the first beginning
requests.exceptions.SSLError: hostname 'api.example.com' doesn't match
either of ‘example.com', 'www.example.com’
It seems the POST method checked the host’s SSL certificate. In this case we just need set the verify flag as False
r = s.post(url, data = info, verify=False)
dah-dah!! it got through, then I can do GET, POST and DELETE to play with the data through the api
useful resource: handy cheat sheet for beginners
