python requests module cookies

Python Requests Module Cookies

Python Requests module is a popular choice when it comes to sending HTTP requests in Python. It provides a simple API for making HTTP requests and handling responses. In addition to the basic HTTP functionality, it also supports cookies handling, which is essential for web scraping, testing, and authentication.

What are Cookies?

Cookies are small pieces of data that are sent by a website to a user's web browser. They are stored on the user's computer and sent back to the website with every subsequent request. Cookies are used for various purposes, such as keeping the user logged in, storing user preferences, and tracking user behavior.

How to Handle Cookies with the Requests Module?

The Requests module makes it easy to handle cookies in Python. When a response is received from a server, the cookies are automatically stored in a cookie jar object. This cookie jar is then sent with subsequent requests to the same domain. The following code shows how to send a request with cookies:

import requests

# set cookies
cookies = {'name': 'value'}

# send request with cookies
response = requests.get(url, cookies=cookies)

The 'cookies' parameter takes a dictionary of cookie name-value pairs. If you want to send multiple cookies, you can add them to the dictionary as key-value pairs.

If you want to access the cookies that are returned by the server, you can use the 'cookies' attribute of the response object:

import requests

response = requests.get(url)

# get cookies
cookies = response.cookies

# access cookie values
print(cookies['name'])

The 'cookies' attribute returns a cookie jar object that contains all the cookies returned by the server. You can access individual cookies by their names using dictionary notation.

Using a Session Object for Persistent Cookies

If you need to maintain a session with a website, you can use a Session object instead of sending individual requests with cookies. A Session object persists cookies across requests, making it easier to maintain a session.

import requests

# create session object
session = requests.Session()

# set cookies in session
session.cookies.set('name', 'value')

# send request with session
response = session.get(url)

# access cookies in session
cookies = session.cookies

The Session object is created using the 'requests.Session()' method. You can set cookies in the session using the 'cookies.set()' method. Similarly, you can access cookies using the 'cookies' attribute of the session object.

Conclusion

The Python Requests module makes it easy to handle cookies in Python. You can send cookies with requests using the 'cookies' parameter, and access cookies returned by the server using the 'cookies' attribute of the response object. If you need to maintain a session, you can use a Session object to persist cookies across requests.