WEBVTT 1 00:00.000 --> 00:03.930 Now in a previous skill when we first talked about REST APIs, I happen to 2 00:03.930 --> 00:04.960 highlight a very 3 00:04.960 --> 00:10.180 popular utility for interacting with REST APIs known as Postman. This is really 4 00:10.180 --> 00:10.640 good because 5 00:10.640 --> 00:14.370 you can ultimately save your endpoints, you can easily browse them. It really 6 00:14.370 --> 00:14.800 is very, 7 00:14.800 --> 00:20.000 very handy for testing purposes, but that said, if you want to interact with a 8 00:20.000 --> 00:20.960 REST API and 9 00:20.960 --> 00:24.960 receive the data, like JSON data, and then work with it in a programmatic 10 00:24.960 --> 00:26.960 manner, utilizing Python, 11 00:26.960 --> 00:30.960 then what we would like to have would be a dedicated Python library that is WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000 11 00:26.960 --> 00:30.960 then what we would like to have would be a dedicated Python library that is 12 00:30.960 --> 00:31.680 effectively going to 13 00:31.680 --> 00:37.010 allow us to talk HTTP. Well, the good news is that there is such a library and 14 00:37.010 --> 00:38.320 this one is called 15 00:38.320 --> 00:42.480 the Request Library. So let's walk through the basic installation of Request 16 00:42.480 --> 00:42.960 and then we'll do 17 00:42.960 --> 00:46.580 some testing. So very similar to what I did when I happened to install NetMeko, 18 00:46.580 --> 00:47.040 what I will do 19 00:47.040 --> 00:50.150 is I will create a little virtual environment here. This is going to allow me 20 00:50.150 --> 00:51.360 some segmentation 21 00:51.360 --> 00:55.580 or isolation should I say. So now I've created it, let me just activate it. And 22 00:55.580 --> 00:56.400 now we can see here 23 00:56.400 --> 01:00.720 in the corner my virtual environment has been activated. So this means anything WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000 23 00:56.400 --> 01:00.720 in the corner my virtual environment has been activated. So this means anything 24 01:00.720 --> 01:01.840 I install is not going to 25 01:01.840 --> 01:05.270 be installed system-wide instead it's going to be installed with fitness 26 01:05.270 --> 01:06.640 environment only. So I 27 01:06.640 --> 01:10.420 will now say it's pit 3 install request and to answer give a moment and as we 28 01:10.420 --> 01:11.040 can see here, 29 01:11.040 --> 01:14.640 I have successfully installed a request library. So let me just create a little 30 01:14.640 --> 01:15.520 test folder, just 31 01:15.520 --> 01:19.310 called test, keep it nice and simple. And let's go inside it. And what I will 32 01:19.310 --> 01:20.240 do is I will create a 33 01:20.240 --> 01:26.480 little file called script1.py. So remember we were using Postman, but we were 34 01:26.480 --> 01:28.000 using Postman to send 35 01:28.000 --> 01:31.620 requests to this little test-reached API. So let's click on this here once WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000 35 01:28.000 --> 01:31.620 requests to this little test-reached API. So let's click on this here once 36 01:31.620 --> 01:32.880 again. So what we can see 37 01:32.880 --> 01:37.590 here is we have our endpoints such as getting information on the actual users. 38 01:37.590 --> 01:38.320 So what I'm going to do 39 01:38.320 --> 01:42.620 here is I'm going to take this information but as opposed to connecting to the 40 01:42.620 --> 01:44.080 rest API over Postman, 41 01:44.080 --> 01:47.720 I'm going to use the request library to do the same thing. So the first thing I 42 01:47.720 --> 01:48.480 will do is I will 43 01:48.480 --> 01:52.260 grab this URL right here. So I've got a copy of it. And let me go in and open 44 01:52.260 --> 01:53.440 up this script here. 45 01:53.440 --> 01:56.740 All right, so first thing is first what I'm going to do is to import the 46 01:56.740 --> 01:58.000 request library. And what 47 01:58.000 --> 02:01.490 I will now do is I will create a little dictionary. Let me just pull this down WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000 47 01:58.000 --> 02:01.490 I will now do is I will create a little dictionary. Let me just pull this down 48 02:01.490 --> 02:02.480 a little touch. And I'll 49 02:02.480 --> 02:05.750 call the dictionary headers okay. And this is going to allow me to define the 50 02:05.750 --> 02:07.040 headers that I want. 51 02:07.040 --> 02:11.520 So in this case here, I'm going to have an accept header and the corresponding 52 02:11.520 --> 02:12.560 value is going to be 53 02:12.560 --> 02:16.920 application forward slash JSON. And remember, if you recall, this is just 54 02:16.920 --> 02:18.320 similar to what we did when 55 02:18.320 --> 02:23.290 we made a request via Postman. Remember, I can make my get request paste in the 56 02:23.290 --> 02:24.080 URL that I want to 57 02:24.080 --> 02:28.210 target. And in my headers, what I did was specify an accept header. And one of 58 02:28.210 --> 02:29.360 the valid values is 59 02:29.360 --> 02:33.610 like I say, it's application forward slash JSON right here. So if I just happen WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000 59 02:29.360 --> 02:33.610 like I say, it's application forward slash JSON right here. So if I just happen 60 02:33.610 --> 02:34.640 to send this off, 61 02:34.640 --> 02:38.180 as we can see, we get the response, let's do the same thing with our Python 62 02:38.180 --> 02:38.960 code. So we'll 63 02:38.960 --> 02:42.970 define our headers. And now what I will do is I will create a little variable 64 02:42.970 --> 02:44.160 to store my result. So 65 02:44.160 --> 02:47.630 I'll just say response is equal to, and then I'm going to take the request 66 02:47.630 --> 02:48.880 library that I'm just 67 02:48.880 --> 02:53.620 importing. And then I'm going to say dot get this will be the get method to 68 02:53.620 --> 02:55.200 actually send a get 69 02:55.200 --> 02:59.140 request. So what I also want to do is I want to define the URL that I want to 70 02:59.140 --> 03:00.480 target. So I'll just say WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000 70 02:59.140 --> 03:00.480 target. So I'll just say 71 03:00.480 --> 03:05.740 URL is equal to and paste in this particular value right here. And all I'll do 72 03:05.740 --> 03:07.040 is also the URL 73 03:07.040 --> 03:11.150 is equal to the URL. I've just defined above. I'll say the headers that I want 74 03:11.150 --> 03:12.400 are equal to the 75 03:12.400 --> 03:16.830 headers library or library. The header dictionary I've just defined above 76 03:16.830 --> 03:18.000 clearly I'm not getting 77 03:18.000 --> 03:22.300 enough sleep these days. Now what I'm also going to say is verify is equal to 78 03:22.300 --> 03:23.280 false pretty much. 79 03:23.280 --> 03:28.500 I'm not looking to verify my SSL certificates or my TLS certificates. Now check 80 03:28.500 --> 03:29.360 this out. What we've 81 03:29.360 --> 03:34.640 done here is we've taken the library going to send a HTTP get request, but WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000 81 03:29.360 --> 03:34.640 done here is we've taken the library going to send a HTTP get request, but 82 03:34.640 --> 03:35.840 specify the URL and the 83 03:35.840 --> 03:39.350 headers and we're going to save the response and this particular variable here. 84 03:39.350 --> 03:39.840 So what this 85 03:39.840 --> 03:43.550 therefore means is if I just print out the response, which I actually see some 86 03:43.550 --> 03:44.400 pretty interesting 87 03:44.400 --> 03:48.330 information. So let's just save this. And if I just go and attempt to run my 88 03:48.330 --> 03:49.280 little script or 89 03:49.280 --> 03:54.330 I'll say Python 3 script 1.py and to enter, look at what we actually see here 90 03:54.330 --> 03:55.760 response 200. This 91 03:55.760 --> 04:00.270 is as seeing the actual status code. And what I'm also getting here is this WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000 91 03:55.760 --> 04:00.270 is as seeing the actual status code. And what I'm also getting here is this 92 04:00.270 --> 04:01.600 particular warning. 93 04:01.600 --> 04:04.430 So in order just to suppress that warning. So it's not going to be quite so 94 04:04.430 --> 04:05.200 annoying. I'm just 95 04:05.200 --> 04:11.130 going to disable it by saying requests dot packages URL lib3 and I'll say dot 96 04:11.130 --> 04:12.640 disable warnings. 97 04:12.640 --> 04:16.700 So let's try it again. Arrow up, hit enter. Now we're just seeing the response, 98 04:16.700 --> 04:17.280 but this is not 99 04:17.280 --> 04:21.250 actually showing us the data we got back just mainly the response code. However 100 04:21.250 --> 04:22.800 , this particular 101 04:22.800 --> 04:26.450 variable is going to have some particular attributes associated with it. So 102 04:26.450 --> 04:28.240 what I can say here is show 103 04:28.240 --> 04:32.970 me the text attribute, which ultimately shows me the content of the response in WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000 103 04:28.240 --> 04:32.970 me the text attribute, which ultimately shows me the content of the response in 104 04:32.970 --> 04:33.920 Unicode as we see 105 04:33.920 --> 04:38.010 right here. So what this means then is if I actually run this one more time, 106 04:38.010 --> 04:39.040 now we're actually seeing 107 04:39.040 --> 04:43.270 all of the data that's coming back here are all of the names, the emails, the 108 04:43.270 --> 04:44.160 gender, the status, 109 04:44.160 --> 04:47.770 so on, so forth. Now as it stands right now, this type of information is just 110 04:47.770 --> 04:48.880 regular string data. 111 04:48.880 --> 04:52.010 Okay, so it's not programmatic, even though it does look like it. So if I just 112 04:52.010 --> 04:52.960 print the type and 113 04:52.960 --> 04:56.540 hit enter, indeed, we can see this is just a regular Python string. So we can't 114 04:56.540 --> 04:57.360 go and work with a 115 04:57.360 --> 05:01.420 list or call any of the dictionary case, but what we can do is we also have an WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000 115 04:57.360 --> 05:01.420 list or call any of the dictionary case, but what we can do is we also have an 116 05:01.420 --> 05:02.640 additional attribute 117 05:02.640 --> 05:07.240 here. So I just happened to print this out and I just say print the response 118 05:07.240 --> 05:08.560 dot json and then I 119 05:08.560 --> 05:13.060 use my parentheses to actually call the JSON object. If I run the script, the 120 05:13.060 --> 05:14.320 information looks the same, 121 05:14.320 --> 05:17.980 but this time, if I actually check the type one more time, look at this right 122 05:17.980 --> 05:19.440 here, the outer object 123 05:19.440 --> 05:23.130 is actually a Python list as the note of via the square brackets. So what this 124 05:23.130 --> 05:24.160 means is we can now 125 05:24.160 --> 05:28.440 access the data programmatically so I can grab list index position zero, run 126 05:28.440 --> 05:29.680 this, enter, 127 05:29.680 --> 05:33.100 this now gives us the first item in the list, which is this right here. And now WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000 127 05:29.680 --> 05:33.100 this now gives us the first item in the list, which is this right here. And now 128 05:33.100 --> 05:33.680 we can grab the 129 05:33.680 --> 05:37.320 particular keys. Let's maybe say want to get the email. Let's go and grab this 130 05:37.320 --> 05:38.880 to call the email key. 131 05:38.880 --> 05:42.600 And now we're able to program it to access the very first email within all of 132 05:42.600 --> 05:43.360 this data. 133 05:43.360 --> 05:46.880 So unlike what we were doing with postman, we're not just retrieving the actual 134 05:46.880 --> 05:47.760 information back 135 05:47.760 --> 05:52.310 and testing the response now with Python, but able to access this data as 136 05:52.310 --> 05:53.520 Python objects and 137 05:53.520 --> 05:57.720 begin manipulating it programmatically. This is very, very important when 138 05:57.720 --> 05:58.960 working with networking 139 05:58.960 --> 06:02.800 information, particularly when you want to conduct network tests. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000 139 05:58.960 --> 06:02.800 information, particularly when you want to conduct network tests.