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Working with APIs using requests

Scraping is a fallback when vendors expose no contract; REST/JSON endpoints behave better for automation—they version responses, authenticate explicitly, and document rate limits.

pip install requests

📚 Prerequisites​

  • JSON literacy (dict/list structures in Python).

🎯 What you'll master​

  • GET/POST with JSON bodies, headers (Authorization), and query strings.
  • Handle transient failures robustly (raise_for_status, retry policies conceptually).

GET with params​

import requests

resp = requests.get(
    "https://httpbin.org/get",
    params={"page": "2"},
    headers={"Accept": "application/json"},
    timeout=10,
)
resp.raise_for_status()
print(resp.json()["args"])

POST JSON​

payload = {"title": "Sync job", "status": "queued"}
resp = requests.post(
    "https://httpbin.org/post",
    json=payload,
    timeout=10,
)
resp.raise_for_status()

json= auto-serializes and sets appropriate Content-Type.

Session reuse​

Use requests.Session() when hitting the same origin repeatedly—it keeps cookies and connection pooling warm.

💡 Key takeaways​

  • Log correlation IDs embedded in upstream responses—they accelerate partner support traces.

➡️ Next steps​

Send automated notifications responsibly in Email automation with smtplib and email.