Requests - Digital Solutions 2025

The requests library allows Python programs to send HTTP/HTTPS requests easily. It’s commonly used for:

Accessing APIs
Downloading web content
Submitting forms programmatically

GET Request¶

Use GET to retrieve data from a server.

import requests

response = requests.get("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1", verify=False)
print(response.status_code)
print(response.json())

Explanation of GET Code

requests.get(URL): Sends a GET request to the URL.
status_code: Returns the HTTP status code (e.g., 200 means OK, 404 means Not Found).
json(): Converts the response from JSON string to Python dictionary.

GET Requests Activities

Activity 1: Retrieve User Information

Write a Python script that:

Sends a GET request to https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users
Prints the names and email addresses of all users

Activity 2: Filter Posts by User

Write a Python script that:

Sends a GET request to https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts with the query parameter userId=3
Prints the titles of all posts made by user ID 3

POST Request¶

You usually use POST to send data to a server (e.g., submit a form).

data = {
    "title": "foo",
    "body": "bar",
    "userId": 1
}

response = requests.post("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts", json=data, verify=False)
print(response.status_code)
print(response.json())

Explanation of POST Code

post(): Sends a POST request to create a new resource.
json=data: Converts the Python dictionary into a JSON payload.

POST Requests Activities

Activity 1: Submit a New Post Write a Python script that:

Sends a POST request to https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts
Includes JSON data with a title, body, and userId
Prints the response JSON to confirm creation

Activity 2: Register a New Comment

Write a script that:

Sends a POST request to https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/comments
Includes a name, email, postId, and body in the JSON payload
Prints the new comment’s ID from the response

PUT and PATCH Requests¶

Use PUT to replace the entire record.

put_data = {
    "id": 1,
    "title": "updated title",
    "body": "updated body",
    "userId": 1
}

response = requests.put("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1", json=put_data, verify=False)
print(response.json())

Explanation of PUT Code

put_data: This dictionary contains the complete updated data for the resource with ID 1.
requests.put(...): This sends a PUT request to the server to replace the existing data at /posts/1.
json=put_data: The data is sent in JSON format, which is what most APIs expect.
response.json(): The server replies with the updated record, which we print.

PUT Requests Activities

Activity 1: Replace a Post

Write a script that:

Sends a PUT request to https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1
Replaces the entire post with new title, body, and userId
Prints the full updated record from the response

Activity 2: Reset a User Profile

Write a script that:

Sends a PUT request to https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users/5
Replaces all user fields (name, username, email, etc.) with new values
Prints confirmation that the user was updated

Use PATCH to update only specific fields.

patch_data = {"title": "new title only"}

response = requests.patch("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1", json=patch_data, verify=False)
print(response.json())

Explanation of PATCH Code

patch_data: This only includes the field you want to update — in this case, just the title.
requests.patch(...): Sends a PATCH request to modify part of the resource.
json=patch_data: Sends only the data you want to change.
response.json(): The server responds with the updated record.

PATCH Requst Activities

Activity 1: Update a Post Title

Write a script that:

Sends a PATCH request to https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/2
Changes only the title field
Prints the updated post

Activity 2: Update User Email Only

Write a script that:

Sends a PATCH request to https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users/3
Changes only the email field
Prints the updated user data

DELETE Request¶

Sends a DELETE request to remove a resource. Often used in admin interfaces or APIs with write access.

response = requests.delete("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1", verify=False)
print(response.status_code)

Explanation of DELETE Code

requests.delete(...): This sends an HTTP DELETE request to the server at the URL https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1.
The /posts/1 endpoint refers to a specific resource, in this case, the post with ID 1.
response.status_code: This prints the HTTP response code returned by the server.
200 or 204 usually means the delete operation was successful:
- 200 OK: The server deleted the resource and may have returned a message.
- 204 No Content: The resource was deleted, and there’s no content in the response.

When to Use DELETE¶

You use a DELETE request when:

You want to remove a record from a server or database via an API.
You’re building an admin panel or content management system where users can remove items like posts, users, or files.

Caution¶

DELETE is destructive: once something is deleted, it usually can’t be recovered.
Some APIs require authentication (e.g., an API key or token) to allow delete requests.
Many servers will respond with a 403 Forbidden or 401 Unauthorized error if proper permissions aren’t provided.

Example with Authentication (optional)

This shows how to send a DELETE request with an API token.

headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"
}
response = requests.delete("https://api.example.com/posts/42", headers=headers, verify=False)
print(response.status_code)

DELETE Requests Activities

Activity 1: Delete a Post

Write a script that:

Sends a DELETE request to https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/10
Prints the status code to confirm deletion

Activity 2: Remove a Comment

Write a script that:

Sends a DELETE request to https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/comments/7
Checks the status code to ensure the request was successful

Headers and Query Parameters¶

Headers are used for things like tokens, content-type, etc. Params are sent as a query string like ?userId=1

headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer abc123"
}
params = {
    "userId": 1
}

response = requests.get("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts", headers=headers, params=params, verify=False)
print(response.url)
print(response.json())

Header and Parameters Activities

Use a Fake Authorization Header

Write a Python script that:

Sends a GET request to https://httpbin.org/headers

Adds a custom Authorization header:

headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer abc123"}

Prints the response JSON to confirm the header was received by the server

Activity: Filter Posts by User ID

Write a Python script that:

Sends a GET request to https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts
Adds a query parameter:
```
params = {"userId": 5}
```
Prints the titles of all posts made by user ID 5

Error Handling¶

try:
    response = requests.get("https://httpbin.org/status/404")
    response.raise_for_status()  # Raises HTTPError if status is 4xx or 5xx
except requests.exceptions.HTTPError as err:
    print("HTTP Error:", err)
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as err:
    print("Request Error:", err)

Explanation of Error Handling Code

raise_for_status() helps catch failed requests.
RequestException catches all other connection issues, like timeouts.

Error Handling Activity

Handle a 404 Error Gracefully

Write a Python script that:

Sends a GET request to https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/9999 (a post that doesn’t exist)
Uses try/except with response.raise_for_status() to detect and print a user-friendly message like:
“Error: The requested post was not found (404).”

Timeouts¶

try:
    response = requests.get("https://httpbin.org/delay/3", timeout=2, verify=False)
except requests.exceptions.Timeout:
    print("Request timed out.")

Explanation of Timeouts Code

timeout=2: Waits 2 seconds before giving up.
Helps avoid hanging programs if a server is slow or down.

Timeouts Activity

Simulate and Handle a Timeout

Write a Python script that:

Sends a GET request to https://httpbin.org/delay/5
Sets a timeout of 2 seconds using the timeout argument
Catches the timeout exception and prints:
“Request timed out. Please try again later.”

Extension Activities

Use your knowledge from this section and the Working with JSON and XML to make an API requests, then process and print the returned JSON file.

You can find a heap of APIs at Free APIs. It is easiest to use API with No authorization