python requests module tutorial

Python Requests Module Tutorial

If you are looking for a way to send HTTP requests from your Python program, the Requests module is a great tool to use. It is a popular Python library that allows you to send HTTP requests and handle the responses in a very easy and efficient way.

Installation

You can install the Requests module using pip, which is the Python package manager. Simply open your command prompt and type:

pip install requests

This will download and install the latest version of the Requests module on your system.

Sending HTTP Requests

Once you have installed the Requests module, you can start sending HTTP requests using the requests.get(), requests.post(), requests.put(), and requests.delete() methods. These methods correspond to the HTTP methods GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE respectively.

Here is an example of how to send a GET request using the requests.get() method:

import requests

response = requests.get('https://www.google.com')
print(response.content)

In the above code, we import the Requests module and use the requests.get() method to send a GET request to Google's homepage. We then print out the content of the response.

The response object returned by the requests.get() method contains a lot of useful information about the response. Some of the commonly used attributes of the response object are:

  • response.status_code: The HTTP status code returned by the server
  • response.headers: A dictionary containing the response headers
  • response.content: The response content in bytes
  • response.text: The response content in Unicode

Sending HTTP Requests with Parameters and Headers

Often times, you will need to send HTTP requests with parameters and headers. Here is an example of how to send a GET request with parameters and headers:

import requests

params = {'key': 'value'}
headers = {'user-agent': 'Mozilla/5.0'}

response = requests.get('https://www.example.com', params=params, headers=headers)
print(response.content)

In the above code, we pass a dictionary of parameters and a dictionary of headers to the requests.get() method.

Sending HTTP Requests with JSON Data

If you need to send JSON data in your HTTP request, you can use the json parameter of the requests.post(), requests.put(), and requests.patch() methods. Here is an example:

import requests

data = {'key': 'value'}

response = requests.post('https://www.example.com', json=data)
print(response.content)

In the above code, we pass a dictionary of JSON data to the json parameter of the requests.post() method.

Conclusion

The Requests module is a powerful tool that makes it very easy to send HTTP requests and handle the responses in Python. With its simple and intuitive API, it is a great library for any Python developer to have in their toolkit.