What is the content type of Python httpx?

Shawn 165 Published: 09/12/2024

What is the content type of Python httpx?

The content type of Python httpx library is a modern and efficient HTTP client library that provides an intuitive API for sending HTTP requests and interacting with web services.

At its core, httpx is designed to be a drop-in replacement for the popular requests library, but with additional features and performance optimizations. Here are some of the key content types that httpx supports:

Text: This is the most common content type, used for transmitting human-readable text data, such as JSON or XML payloads.

Example:

import httpx

response = httpx.get('https://example.com/api/data', json={'key': 'value'})


print(response.text)  # prints the response body as a string

Binary: This content type is used for transmitting binary data, such as images or audio files.

Example:

import httpx

response = httpx.get('https://example.com/api/image', params={'id': '123'})


print(response.content)  # prints the response body as a bytes object
JSON: This content type is used for transmitting JSON payloads, which are commonly used in web APIs.

Example:

import httpx

import json


response = httpx.post('https://example.com/api/create', json={'name': 'John', 'age': 30})


print(response.json())  # prints the response body as a JSON object
Form: This content type is used for transmitting form-encoded data, which is commonly used in web forms.

Example:

import httpx

response = httpx.post('https://example.com/api/login', data={'username': 'john', 'password': 'pass'})


print(response.text)  # prints the response body as a string
Multipart: This content type is used for transmitting multipart/form-data payloads, which are commonly used in file uploads.

Example:

import httpx

from io import BytesIO


file = BytesIO(b'Hello, World!')


response = httpx.post('https://example.com/api/upload', files={'file': ('test.txt', file)})


print(response.text)  # prints the response body as a string
Bytes: This content type is used for transmitting raw byte data, which can be useful in certain scenarios.

Example:

import httpx

response = httpx.get('https://example.com/api/image', params={'id': '123'})


print(response.content)  # prints the response body as a bytes object

In summary, httpx provides a flexible and powerful way to interact with web services and APIs, supporting a range of content types including text, binary, JSON, form, multipart, and bytes.

Python httpx tutorial

Here's a comprehensive guide to the Python HTTP library, httpx.

What is httpx?

httpx is a Python library for sending and receiving HTTP requests. It was created as an alternative to the popular Requests library, but with more advanced features. One of its main advantages is that it allows you to handle asynchronous requests without having to manually deal with callbacks and threads. This makes it particularly useful when working with APIs that return large amounts of data.

Key Features

Here are some of the key features that httpx offers:

Asynchronous Request Handling: As mentioned earlier, one of the main advantages of httpx is its ability to handle asynchronous requests. This allows you to send multiple requests at once without having to block your code waiting for each response. Advanced Session Management: httpx provides a more advanced session management system than Requests. This includes features like automatic cookie handling, redirect following, and SSL certificate verification. JSON Support: httpx supports JSON data in several formats, including strings, dictionaries, and lists. This makes it easy to send and receive complex data structures. Streaming Content: If you need to send or receive large files, httpx has built-in support for streaming content. This can help prevent memory issues when dealing with very large files.

Basic Usage

Here's a basic example of how to use httpx:

import asyncio

from httpx import AsyncClient


async def main():


async with AsyncClient() as client:


response = await client.get('http://example.com')


print(response.text)


asyncio.run(main())

In this example, we're sending a GET request to the URL 'http://example.com'. We're using AsyncClient from httpx and then calling get() on it. This function returns an AsyncResponse object that contains the response data.

Error Handling

One of the most important things in any HTTP library is error handling. httpx makes it easy to handle errors by providing a robust set of exceptions. Here's an example:

import asyncio

from httpx import AsyncClient


async def main():


async with AsyncClient() as client:


try:


response = await client.get('http://example.com')


except httpx.HTTPError as e:


print(f"HTTP error occurred: {e}")


except httpx.ConnectionError as e:


print(f"Connection error occurred: {e}")


except Exception as e:


print(f"An unknown error occurred: {e}")


asyncio.run(main())

In this example, we're using try-except to handle different types of errors. We can catch specific HTTP errors or general exceptions.

Conclusion

httpx is a powerful and flexible Python library for sending and receiving HTTP requests. Its ability to handle asynchronous requests and its advanced session management make it particularly useful when working with APIs that return large amounts of data. With its robust set of exceptions, error handling is also easy. If you're building a web application or scraping data from websites, httpx is definitely worth checking out.

Note: This tutorial focuses on the basics of using httpx and doesn't delve into advanced topics like parallel processing, asynchronous code, etc. For more information, check out the official documentation for httpx.

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