python requests module with username and password

Python Requests Module with Username and Password

If you are working with APIs, it is likely that you will come across endpoints that require authentication via a username and password. The Python Requests Module is a popular library for making HTTP requests in Python, and it provides an easy way to include authentication credentials in your requests.

Method 1: Passing Credentials as Parameters

The simplest way to include authentication credentials in your requests is to pass them as parameters to the requests library. You can do this by including the auth parameter in your request, and passing a tuple of the username and password as its value.


            import requests

            response = requests.get('https://example.com/api', auth=('username', 'password'))
        

In the example above, we are sending a GET request to the URL https://example.com/api. We are also passing the auth parameter as a tuple with the username and password as its values. This will include the authentication credentials in our request.

Method 2: Using the HTTPBasicAuth Object

Another way to pass credentials to the requests library is by using the HTTPBasicAuth object. This object takes the username and password as arguments when it is instantiated, and can be passed to the auth parameter in your request.


            import requests
            from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

            auth = HTTPBasicAuth('username', 'password')
            response = requests.get('https://example.com/api', auth=auth)
        

In the above example, we are creating an instance of the HTTPBasicAuth object, passing our username and password as arguments. We can then pass this object to the auth parameter in our request.

Method 3: Using the Session Object

If you plan to make multiple requests to an API that requires authentication, it may be more efficient to use a session object. This allows you to store your authentication credentials in the session object, and reuse the same object across multiple requests.


            import requests

            session = requests.Session()
            session.auth = ('username', 'password')
            response1 = session.get('https://example.com/api/endpoint1')
            response2 = session.get('https://example.com/api/endpoint2')
        

In the above example, we are creating a session object using the requests.Session() method. We can then set the auth attribute of the session object to our authentication credentials. We can then make multiple requests using the same session object, and the authentication credentials will be included in each request.

Conclusion

The Python Requests Module provides several ways to include authentication credentials in your HTTP requests. You can pass the credentials as parameters, use the HTTPBasicAuth object, or use a session object to store your credentials. Choose the method that works best for your specific use case.