Python's requests Library

This repository is a practical learning guide to mastering the requests library in Python. It includes conceptual explanations, step-by-step code examples, and practical projects to solidify understanding of HTTP requests, web APIs, and web interactions.

The goal is to build a solid foundation by moving from core concepts to real-world applications.

Why requests?

The requests library is the de facto standard for making HTTP requests in Python. It's incredibly user-friendly and handles much of the complexity of web communication, allowing developers to focus on building powerful applications without getting bogged down by low-level details.

Repository Structure

This repository is organized to help you learn progressively:

• concepts/: Contains small, focused Python scripts that demonstrate specific features of the requests library, like making GET and POST requests, handling headers, and managing errors.
• [projects/]: Contains larger, more practical applications that combine multiple concepts into a single, functional tool, such as a basic web scraper or an API client.
• requirements.txt: Lists all the necessary libraries for this project, including requests.
• .gitignore: Specifies files and folders that should be ignored by Git (e.g., virtual environments, cache files).

Learning Plan

I'll follow a structured plan to cover the essential aspects of the library:

1. Introduction to requests
2. Making GET Requests
3. Handling Query Parameters
4. Making POST Requests
5. Headers and Authentication
6. Handling Errors and Exceptions
7. Using Session Objects

Each topic will have its own code example within the concepts/ directory. Hopefully lol

Getting Started

To get started, you'll need Python installed on your system. It's highly recommended to use a virtual environment to manage your project's dependencies.

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/awanicaleb/python-requests.git
   cd python-requests

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

   # For macOS/Linux
   python3 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate
   
   # For Windows
   python -m venv venv
   .\venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install the required libraries:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set up your environment variables

   For the weather_app.py project, you will need a free API key from OpenWeatherMap.

   • Sign up for an account to get your API key.

   • Create a file named .env in the project's root directory.

   • Add your API key to the file like this:

     WEATHER_APP_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
     

Projects and Concepts Covered

• error_handling.py: A foundational script demonstrating how to use try...except blocks and response.raise_for_status() to handle common HTTP errors gracefully.
• session_objects.py: A script that introduces requests.Session() to improve the performance of a series of requests by maintaining a persistent connection and managing cookies.
• todo_manager.py: A complete CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) application that interacts with the JSONPlaceholder API. It features methods for adding, viewing, updating, and deleting to-do items.
• weather_app.py: A more advanced project that fetches and displays weather data from the OpenWeatherMap API. This project demonstrates handling API keys securely with environment variables and accepting command-line input from the user.

Usage

todo_manager.py

This script is meant to be run directly to perform various API actions. You can uncomment the different sections in the if __name__ == "__main__": block to test the create, update, and delete methods.

weather_app.py

Run this script from your terminal and provide a city name as an argument.

• Example: Get the weather for London.

  python weather_app.py "London"

• Example: Get the weather for a city with a space in its name.

  python weather_app.py "New York"

• Example: Without an argument, the script will show an error message.

  python weather_app.py

Contributing

This is a personal learning project, but if you have suggestions for new projects or improvements to the documentation, feel free to open an issue or pull request.