<style> .reveal { font-size: 27px; } .reveal div.para { text-align: left; } .reveal ul { display: block; } .reveal ol { display: block; } img[alt=drawing] { width: 200px; } </style> # COMP1010 ## 5.5 Web Apps: External Data Sources ### Retrieving data from external sources --- ## Client libraries * A client library is a library designed to let you communicate with an external service. * **Important Points:** * Once installed, you can use them anywhere in your Python code. * They are typically the easiest way to get data from an online service. * Python has many client libraries, so it's always worth checking if one exists before going to the effort of doing it yourself. * **Examples:** * ``1_eds_client.py`` --- ## Requests library * The Python requests library allows us to make HTTP requests in much the same way our web browsers do. * **Important points:** * If you need to communicate with an external service, and there isn't a client library for it, requests is the next best solution. * We typically use the get() function, but there exists a post() function as well. * The result of the get() function is a response. The contents of a response are bytes representing the response data. * **Examples:** * ``2_eds_requests.py`` * using https://source.unsplash.com/ --- ## APIs * Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) define how different software components communicate. * Web APIs are typically web servers that are designed to receive requests from programs rather than a user navigating with their browser. * **Examples:** * ``3_eds_api.py`` * ``4_eds_api.py`` * using https://rapidapi.com/apidojo/api/imdb8/ --- ## APIs * **Some Free (to some extent) APIs:** * https://mixedanalytics.com/blog/list-actually-free-open-no-auth-needed-apis/ * https://rapidapi.com/marketplace * https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis * https://apilist.fun/ * http://deckofcardsapi.com/ ---