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post request python http.client

Narkw Brahma

Narkw Brahma

• 2 min read

How to Make a POST Request in Python using http.client

POST requests are used to send data or information to a server, which can then be processed and stored. Python's http.client module allows us to make HTTP requests easily, including POST requests. Here's how you can make a POST request using http.client:

Step 1: Import the http.client module


import http.client

Step 2: Set up the connection to the server

In order to make a POST request, we need to first connect to the server. We can do this using the http.client.HTTPConnection class. Here's an example:


conn = http.client.HTTPConnection("www.example.com")

Replace "www.example.com" with the actual URL of the website you want to connect to.

Step 3: Define the data to be sent

Next, we need to define the data that we want to send in our POST request. This can be done using a Python dictionary:


data = {"key1": "value1", "key2": "value2"}

Replace "key1" and "key2" with the actual keys you want to use, and "value1" and "value2" with the actual values you want to send.

Step 4: Encode the data

In order to send the data, we need to encode it into a format that can be sent over the internet. The most common encoding format is URL-encoded, which we can accomplish using the urllib.parse module:


import urllib.parse

encoded_data = urllib.parse.urlencode(data).encode("utf-8")

Step 5: Send the request

Finally, we can send the POST request to the server using the http.client.HTTPConnection.request method:


conn.request("POST", "/path/to/endpoint", encoded_data)

Replace "/path/to/endpoint" with the actual endpoint you want to send the data to.

Step 6: Get the response

Once we've sent the request, we can get the response from the server using the http.client.HTTPConnection.getresponse method:


response = conn.getresponse()
print(response.status, response.reason)
response_data = response.read().decode()
print(response_data)

The first line gets the HTTP status code and reason phrase from the response, and the second line reads the response data and decodes it into a string.

Alternative method using requests library

Another popular Python library for making HTTP requests is the requests library. Here's how you can make a POST request using requests:


import requests

url = "http://www.example.com/path/to/endpoint"
data = {"key1": "value1", "key2": "value2"}

response = requests.post(url, data=data)

print(response.status_code)
print(response.text)

Replace "http://www.example.com/path/to/endpoint" with the actual URL of the endpoint you want to send the data to.

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