python requests cache connection

Python Requests Cache Connection

Python requests is a widely used library to send HTTP requests and handle responses in Python. One of the features of this library is caching which can significantly improve the performance of your application. Caching saves the response of a request and reuses it for subsequent requests, thus reducing the number of requests made to the server.

Cache control

Python requests uses Cache-Control headers to determine if a response can be cached or not. Cache-Control headers specify directives for caching mechanisms in both requests and responses. The directives are used by caches to determine whether a particular request/response can be cached and for how long. Here is an example of how to set the Cache-Control header:

import requests

response = requests.get('https://example.com', headers={'Cache-Control': 'max-age=3600'})

The above code sets the maximum age of the cached response to 3600 seconds (1 hour).

Caching with Requests-cache

Requests-cache is an extension to Python requests that provides caching support. It is easy to use and can be installed via pip:

pip install requests-cache

Here is an example of how to use requests-cache:

import requests_cache

# Enable cache
requests_cache.install_cache('example_cache')

# Make request
response = requests.get('https://example.com')

# Response is cached for subsequent requests
response = requests.get('https://example.com')

The above code installs a cache named "example_cache" and enables caching for subsequent requests. When the same request is made again, the cached response will be returned instead of making a new request.

Cache expiration

By default, requests-cache caches a response indefinitely. However, you can set an expiration time after which the cached response will be considered stale and a new request will be made. Here is an example:

# Cache response for 1 hour
requests_cache.install_cache('example_cache', expire_after=3600)

The above code sets the expiration time of the cached response to 3600 seconds (1 hour).

Cache storage location

By default, requests-cache stores the cache in a SQLite database in the current working directory. However, you can specify a different storage location. Here is an example:

# Store cache in memory
requests_cache.install_cache('example_cache', backend='memory')

# Store cache in a file
requests_cache.install_cache('example_cache', backend='sqlite', expire_after=3600, cache_name='example_cache.sqlite')

The above code stores the cache in memory or in a SQLite file named "example_cache.sqlite" with an expiration time of 3600 seconds (1 hour).