Python HTTP GET Request to Public API example

Last update on December 21 2024 07:48:55 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Write a Python program that performs a simple HTTP GET request to a public API (e.g., JSONPlaceholder) and prints the response.

Sample Solution:

Python Code :

# Import the urllib3 library
import urllib3

# Create a PoolManager instance to manage HTTP connections
http = urllib3.PoolManager()

# Define the API endpoint URL
api_url = 'https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1'

# Make a GET request to the API endpoint
response = http.request('GET', api_url)

# Check if the request was successful (status code 200)
if response.status == 200:
    # Print the response data (decoded as UTF-8)
    print("Response Data:")
    print(response.data.decode('utf-8'))
else:
    # Print an error message if the request was not successful
    print(f"Error: Unable to fetch data. Status Code: {response.status}")

Sample Output:

Response Data:
{
  "userId": 1,
  "id": 1,
  "title": "sunt aut facere repellat provident occaecati excepturi optio reprehenderit",
  "body": "quia et suscipit\nsuscipit recusandae consequuntur expedita et cum\nreprehenderit molestiae ut ut quas totam\nnostrum rerum est autem sunt rem eveniet architecto"
}

Explanation:

Here's a brief explanation of the above Python urllib3 library code:

import urllib3: This line imports the 'urllib3' library, which is used for HTTP requests.
http = urllib3.PoolManager(): It creates a PoolManager instance named 'http'. The 'PoolManager' manages connections to various hosts.
api_url = 'https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1': It defines the URL of the public API endpoint. In this example, it's set to a specific resource (a post with ID 1) on JSONPlaceholder, a fake online REST API for testing and prototyping.
response = http.request('GET', api_url): This line sends a GET request to the specified 'api_url' using the 'http' PoolManager. The response is stored in the response variable.
if response.status == 200:: It checks if the HTTP status code of the response is 200, which indicates a successful request.
print("Response Data:"): Prints a header indicating that the following lines will display the response data.
print(response.data.decode('utf-8')): Prints the decoded content of the response. The decode('utf-8') is used to convert the binary response content to a UTF-8 string.
else:: If the status code is not 200, this block is executed.
print(f"Error: Unable to fetch data. Status Code: {response.status}"): Prints an error message along with the HTTP status code, indicating that the request was not successful.

Flowchart:

Python Code Editor :

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