requests API

Overview:

Requests is a library for performing various HTTP operations from Python Code.
Requests has got several accolades mainly for the simplicity of the interface it offers to a Python Programmer.
Requests abstracts developers from writing a lot of network code and helps getting things done in a rapid yet elegant way.

Installing Requests:

Requests library can be installed using pip command as given here:

pip install requests

Request a HTTP server for a resource:

The requests module offers the main interface, using which any required HTTP operation can be performed.
The methods of the requests module return a response object.
The get method of the requests module sends a HTTP GET command to the HTTP server specified and returns the HTTP response as a response object.

A Python example using requests to fetch the homepage from example.com:

After making a HTTP GET request to the web server of example.com, the results or the HTTP response is returned through a response object.
The response object is checked for the status of the HTTP request sent.
From the response object, the values of the HTTP header fields and the HTML contents are printed.

import requests

# Connect to the web server of example.com and get the home page

url2Fetch = "https://www.example.com"

print("Sending HTTP GET to %s"%url2Fetch)

response = requests.get(url2Fetch)

# Print the http response status code

print("HTTP response code: %d"%response.status_code)

# Print the HTTP headers

print("HTTP Header: %s"%response.headers)

# Print the HTML text

print("HTTP Header: %s"%response.text)

Output:

Sending HTTP GET to https://www.example.com

HTTP response code: 200

HTTP Header: {'Content-Encoding': 'gzip', 'Accept-Ranges': 'bytes', 'Cache-Control': 'max-age=604800', 'Content-Type': 'text/html; charset=UTF-8', 'Date': 'Tue, 29 Jan 2019 16:51:05 GMT', 'Etag': '"1541025663+gzip"', 'Expires': 'Tue, 05 Feb 2019 16:51:05 GMT', 'Last-Modified': 'Fri, 09 Aug 2013 23:54:35 GMT', 'Server': 'ECS (dca/24C0)', 'Vary': 'Accept-Encoding', 'X-Cache': 'HIT', 'Content-Length': '606'}

HTTP Header: <!doctype html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Example Domain</title>

body {

background-color: #f0f0f2;

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

font-family: "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;

}

div {

width: 600px;

margin: 5em auto;

padding: 50px;

background-color: #fff;

border-radius: 1em;

}

a:link, a:visited {

color: #38488f;

text-decoration: none;

}

@media (max-width: 700px) {

body {

background-color: #fff;

}

div {

width: auto;

margin: 0 auto;

border-radius: 0;

padding: 1em;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<div>

<h1>Example Domain</h1>

<p>This domain is established to be used for illustrative examples in documents. You may use this

domain in examples without prior coordination or asking for permission.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.iana.org/domains/example">More information...</a></p>

</div>

</body>

</html>

Overview:

Installing Requests:

Request a HTTP server for a resource:

A Python example using requests to fetch the homepage from example.com:

Output: