Converting requests to urllib: How to Create a Bearer Token in Python

Learn how to effectively use `urllib.request` to create a bearer token for API calls in Python, replacing requests with urllib. --- This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/63227344/ asked by the user 'azach' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/8441531/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/63228018/ provided by the user 'Balaji Ambresh' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/12611409/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions. Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: Replacing requests with urllib Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/licensing The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ) license. If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com. --- Converting requests to urllib: Creating a Bearer Token in Python When working with APIs in Python, many developers turn to the requests library for its simplicity and user-friendly interface. However, there may be instances where you need to use the built-in urllib library for HTTP requests instead of requests. This guide addresses a common scenario: converting a token generation function from requests to urllib. The Problem: Generating a Bearer Token with requests In the original implementation, the function getToken() uses requests to send a POST request and retrieve a bearer token. Here's a quick look at how it’s structured: [[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]] While this approach works well with requests, you might want to replace it with urllib.request for various reasons, such as minimizing dependencies or ensuring compatibility with environments where third-party libraries cannot be installed. The Solution: Using urllib.request Here’s how you can replicate the getToken() function using urllib. The following steps outline the process of making a POST request and extracting the bearer token. Step-by-Step Conversion Import Required Libraries: Instead of requests, import Request and urlopen from urllib.request, along with ujson for parsing JSON. [[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]] Define the URL and Payload: Set up the URL for the API call and format the payload correctly. [[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]] Set Headers: Create a dictionary for the headers just like before. [[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]] Create the Request Object: Utilize the Request class to build the request. Don’t forget to encode your payload to bytes. [[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]] Send the Request and Read the Response: Use urlopen to execute the request, read the response, and decode it back into a string. [[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]] Extract the Token: Parse the JSON response to obtain the token. [[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]] Complete Function Here’s the complete function using urllib.request: [[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]] Conclusion By following this structured approach, you can easily replace requests with urllib for generating bearer tokens in Python. Whether it’s for dependency management or ensuring compatibility, mastering both libraries empowers you as a developer. Feel free to experiment with other HTTP methods and requests using urllib as you enhance your API interaction skills. Happy coding!