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python requests module logging

Narkw Brahma

Narkw Brahma

• 2 min read

Python Requests Module Logging

The Python Requests module is a popular HTTP library for sending requests to websites and APIs. It simplifies the process of making HTTP requests and handling responses. However, when working with APIs or web services, debugging can be a challenge since you might not know what’s going on between your code and the server.

That’s where logging comes in. Logging is a way to report events that occur in your code to help you debug and troubleshoot issues. Logging helps you trace the flow of your program and isolate bugs more effectively. In this article, we’ll look at how to use logging with the Python Requests module.

Logging Levels

Logging has several levels, ranging from most verbose to least verbose:

  • DEBUG: Detailed information, typically of interest only when diagnosing problems.
  • INFO: Confirmation that things are working as expected.
  • WARNING: An indication that something unexpected happened or indicative of some problem in the near future (e.g., ‘disk space low’). The software is still working as expected.
  • ERROR: Due to a more serious problem, the software has not been able to perform some function.
  • CRITICAL: A very serious error, indicating that the program itself may be unable to continue running.

Using Logging with Requests

The requests module uses the built-in Python logging module, which means that you can use all of its functionality to log errors, warnings or other events in your code when working with HTTP requests. The logging module provides several handlers that can be used to send log output to different destinations, like the console or a file.

Here’s an example of using logging with the Requests module:

import requests
import logging

# Setup logging
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)

# Make a request
response = requests.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1')

# Check the status code
if response.status_code == 200:
    logging.info('Success!')
else:
    logging.error('Error')

Here we’re using the basicConfig() function to set the logging level to DEBUG. This means that all DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, and CRITICAL messages will be printed to the console. Then, we make a request to a sample API endpoint and check the status code. If the status code is 200, we log a success message using logging.info(). If the status code is anything else, we log an error message using logging.error().

Conclusion

Using logging with the Python Requests module can be a great way to debug your code and troubleshoot issues when working with web services or APIs. By using logging, you can trace the flow of your program and isolate bugs more effectively. Remember to set the logging level appropriately and use different logging levels for different types of messages.

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