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python requests post headers

Narkw Brahma

Narkw Brahma

• 2 min read

Python Requests Post Headers

When sending a POST request using the Python Requests library, headers can be added to the request for various purposes. Headers provide additional information about the request being made and can be used to send authorization tokens, user agents, and other metadata. In this post, we will discuss how to add headers to a POST request in Python Requests.

Method 1: Passing Headers as a Dictionary

The easiest way to add headers to a POST request in Python Requests is to pass a dictionary of headers to the headers parameter of the post method. The keys in the dictionary represent the header names, and the values represent the header values.


import requests

url = 'https://example.com'
headers = {'Content-Type': 'application/json'}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, data=data)

In this example, we are adding a Content-Type header with a value of application/json. This is useful when sending JSON data in the request body.

Method 2: Setting Headers as Instance Attributes

If you need to set headers that are common to all requests made by your application, you can set them as instance attributes on the requests.Session object. This will ensure that the headers are included in all requests made using that session.


import requests

session = requests.Session()
session.headers.update({'Content-Type': 'application/json'})

response = session.post(url, data=data)

In this example, we are setting the Content-Type header as an instance attribute on the session object. This will ensure that the header is included in all requests made using that session.

Method 3: Using a Custom Session Class

If you need to set headers that are specific to a certain subset of requests made by your application, you can create a custom session class and set the headers as instance attributes on that class. This will ensure that the headers are included only in requests made using that custom session class.


import requests

class CustomSession(requests.Session):
    def __init__(self, headers=None):
        super().__init__()
        if headers:
            self.headers.update(headers)

session = CustomSession(headers={'Content-Type': 'application/json'})
response = session.post(url, data=data)

In this example, we are creating a custom session class called CustomSession that inherits from requests.Session. We are setting the Content-Type header as an instance attribute on the CustomSession class. Then we create an instance of the CustomSession class and pass in the headers we want to use for that session.

Conclusion

In this post, we discussed three different methods for adding headers to a POST request in Python Requests. The easiest method is to pass a dictionary of headers to the headers parameter of the post method. If you need to set headers that are common to all requests made by your application, you can set them as instance attributes on the requests.Session object. If you need to set headers that are specific to a certain subset of requests made by your application, you can create a custom session class and set the headers as instance attributes on that class.

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