Download a file using api call in python

It can also provide extension mechanisms so that users can extend existing functionality in various ways and to varying degrees. Besides sharing data, APIs also help developers in other ways. It is the foundation of any data exchange on the Web and it is a client-server protocol, which means requests are initiated by the recipient, usually the Web browser. Assume we are using the web browser to communicate with the server from a website. Then the server provides a response message as the answer.

The response could contain the data requested if applicable and some other information like completion status. Some common HTTP response status codes are:. We tried to summarize the general procedures of using an API with this Yelp example.

Please note that the process of setting up other APIs might still differ. The good starting point to learn about a new API is the documentation. Yelp Fusion has several Business Endpoints. It has some basic information about the business. The API keys should be kept secret like other passwords.

Different APIs have different authentication schemes. The Yelp Fusion API documentation provides detailed instructions on how to set up the authentication. You can follow it to obtain the API key before moving onto the next step. The API key should look like a string of random characters.

So, let us get started! API is an acronym for Application programming Interface. It can be understood as a composition of rules that enables us to access an external service on web through our systems. Bursts of code to power through your day. Web Development articles, tutorials, and news. Sign in. Changhui Xu Follow. Written by Changhui Xu Follow. More From Medium. Accessing Azure Analysis Services Models using. NET Core. Sanjay Bhagia. Vincent A. Fixed-Rate Protocol.

Vivek Chanddru in Adventurous Android. Almas Sayyed in Quick Code. There are many different types of requests. The most commonly used one, a GET request, is used to retrieve data. When we make a request, the response from the API comes with a response code which tells us whether our request was successful. Response codes are important because they immediately tell us if something went wrong.

The get function returns a response object. We can use the response. Status codes are returned with every request that is made to a web server. Status codes indicate information about what happened with a request.

Here are some codes that are relevant to GET requests:. The first number of status codes indicate their categorization. Often there will be multiple APIs available on a particular server. Each of these APIs are commonly called endpoints. This makes it a simple API for us to get started with. JSON is a way to encode data structures that ensures that they are easily readable by machines.

You can think of JSON as being a combination of these objects represented as strings. Python has great JSON support with the json package.