apiclient 1.0.1

Framework for making good API client libraries using urllib3.

Tiny framework for building good API client libraries thanks to urllib3.

Highlights

• Threadsafely reuses connections with Keep-Alive (via urllib3).

• Small and easy to understand codebase perfect for extending and building upon.

• Built-in support for rate limiting and request throttling.

• Functional examples for the Klout API and the Facebook OpenGraph API.

Examples

How to make your own super-simple client API library:

>>> from apiclient import APIClient
>>> class AcmePublicAPI(APIClient):
...    BASE_URL = 'https://localhost:1234/'

>>> acme_api = AcmePublicAPI()

>>> acme_api.call('/hello')
{'what': 'world'}
>>> acme_api.call('/echo', params={"ping": "pong"})
{'ping': 'pong'}

How to add rate limiting to your client API library so that we don’t exceed 10 requests per minute:

>>> from apiclient import RateLimiter
>>> lock = RateLimiter(max_messages=10, every_seconds=60)
>>> acme_api = AcmePublicAPI(rate_limit_lock=lock)

>>> # Get the first 100 pages
>>> for page in xrange(100):
...     # Whenever our request rate exceeds the specifications of the API's
...     # RateLimiter, the next request will block until the next request window
...     r = acme_api.call('/stream', page=str(page))

For more specific API examples, see the examples/ directory.

Extending

To handle different calling conventions, apiclient can be extended through subclassing.

For example, if an API requires that all arguments be JSON encoded, the _compose_url method could be implemented like this:

>>> class JSONArgsAPIClient(APIClient):
...     def _compose_url(self, path, params=None):
...         if params is not None:
...             params = dict((key, json.dumps(val))
...                            for (key, val) in params.iteritems())
...         return APIClient._compose_url(self, path, params=params)

Or if an API returns YAML instead of JSON, the _handle_response method could be overridden:

>>> class YAMLResponseAPIClient(APIClient):
...     def _handle_response(self, response):
...         return yaml.load(response.data)

TODO

• Tests.

• More documentation.

• More types of API handshakes, like OAuth and OAuth2.

• More examples.

Contributing

Any contribution is highly encouraged and desired. :)

1. Fork on Github.

2. Make the changes. Bonus points if changes include documentation and tests.

3. Send a pull request.

If you’re unsure if it’s a good idea, open an Issue or contact me to discuss your proposal. Extra juicy bonus points if you pick off some of the items in the TODO list.

License

MIT

Changes

1.0.1 (2011-10-10)

• Fixed setup.py package not including a MANIFEST.in

1.0 (2011-10-03)

• Published decoupled code from SocialGrapple.