---
# System prepended metadata

title: Requests Library

---

# Requests Library
## `import requests`

This is how we can send requests to the server we have running
### If you want to test this:
* You have to make sure you have a server running the command for this requires you to:
    1. Navigate to the folder that contains paths to both the src files and the test files
    2. Run: `python3 -m (folder that has the server file).(file that has the server)`
    3. This should result in a flask server running notification on your screen - when you see this you're good to start testing!

### Testing methods
#### Get
This will need your server file to have something like the following:
`data = request.args.get('data')`
To test this your code will look like the following:
`resp = requests.get(f'{URL}/whateverroute', params=data)`
* resp is the response that requests receives after inputing the data that you are sending to the server
* requests.get is what we use to send date to a route that is of GET method
* params is the format we send data to GET requests as - this is simulating putting this in the query string in ARC server
* data is the data you have inputed in a dictionary format (because json is a string that is formatted like a dictionary)

#### Put
This will need your server file to have something like the following:
```
`data = request.get_json()`
```
To test this your code will look like the following:
```
`resp = requests.put(f'{URL}/whateverroute', json=data)`
```
* resp is the response that requests receives after inputing the data that you are sending to the server
* requests.put is what we use to send date to a route that is of PUT method
* json is the format we send data to PUT requests
* data is the data you have inputed in a dictionary format (because json is a string that is formatted like a dictionary)

#### Post
This will need your server file to have something like the following:
```
data = request.get_json()
```
To test the following you will need to have this in your test
```
resp = requests.put(f'{URL}/whateverroute', json=data)
```
* resp is the response that requests receives after inputing the data that you are sending to the server
* requests.post is what we use to send date to a route that is of POST method
* json is the format we send data to POST requests
* data is the data you have inputed in a dictionary format (because json is a string that is formatted like a dictionary)

#### Delete
This will need your server file to have something like the following:
```
* data = request.get_json()
```
To test the following you will need to have this in your test
```
resp = requests.put(f'{URL}/whateverroute', json=data)
```
* resp is the response that requests receives after inputing the data that you are sending to the server
* requests.delete is what we use to send date to a route that is of DELETE method
* json is the format we send data to DELETE requests
* data is the data you have inputed in a dictionary format (because json is a string that is formatted like a dictionary)

### The response object
The response object allows to check a whole bunch of things - the most relevant to you:
`resp.status_code` - this shows you whether the request you sent was accepted or caused an error, typical codes that you might see are:
* 200 - everythng worked
* 500 - server error
* 400 - inputerror
* 403 - accesserror

We can convert the response object into a json file so that we are able to manipulate it like we do in our regular tests by using the following code:
`load = resp.json()`
* load is now the response in json form that can be manipulated in python (e.g. we can now use loops to look for particular keys in the dictionary)
* json is the resopnse format that we received from the server