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Client library to use the IBM Watson Services

Project description

Watson Developer Cloud Python SDK
=================================

|Build Status| |Slack| |Latest Stable Version| |CLA assistant|

Python client library to quickly get started with the various `Watson
APIs <http://www.ibm.com/watson/developercloud/>`__ services.

Table of Contents

- `Before you begin <#before-you-begin>`__
- `Installation <#installation>`__
- `Examples <#examples>`__
- `Running in IBM Cloud <#running-in-ibm-cloud>`__
- `Authentication <#authentication>`__

- `Getting credentials <#getting-credentials>`__
- `IAM <#iam>`__
- `Username and password <#username-and-password>`__

- `Python version <#python-version>`__
- `Changes for v1.0 <#changes-for-v10>`__
- `Changes for v2.0 <#changes-for-v20>`__
- `Changes for v3.0 <#changes-for-v30>`__
- `Migration <#migration>`__
- `Configuring the http
client <#configuring-the-http-client-supported-from-v110>`__
- `Disable SSL certificate
verification <#disable-ssl-certificate-verification>`__
- `Sending request headers <#sending-request-headers>`__
- `Parsing HTTP response info <#parsing-http-response-info>`__
- `Dependencies <#dependencies>`__
- `License <#license>`__
- `Contributing <#contributing>`__

Before you begin
----------------

- You need an `IBM
Cloud <http://console.bluemix.net/registration?target=/developer/watson&cm_sp=WatsonPlatform-WatsonServices-_-OnPageNavLink-IBMWatson_SDKs-_-Python>`__
account.

Installation
------------

To install, use ``pip`` or ``easy_install``:

.. code:: bash

pip install --upgrade ibm-watson

or

.. code:: bash

easy_install --upgrade ibm-watson

Note the following: a) Versions prior to 3.0.0 can be installed using:

.. code:: bash

pip install --upgrade watson-developer-cloud

b) If you run into permission issues try:

.. code:: bash

sudo -H pip install --ignore-installed six ibm-watson

For more details see
`#225 <https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/python-sdk/issues/225>`__

c) In case you run into problems installing the SDK in DSX, try

::

!pip install --upgrade pip

Restarting the kernel

For more details see
`#405 <https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/python-sdk/issues/405>`__

Examples
--------

The
`examples <https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/python-sdk/tree/master/examples>`__
folder has basic and advanced examples. The examples within each service
assume that you already have `service
credentials <#getting-credentials>`__.

Running in IBM Cloud
--------------------

If you run your app in IBM Cloud, the SDK gets credentials from the
```VCAP_SERVICES`` <https://console.bluemix.net/docs/services/watson/getting-started-variables.html>`__
environment variable.

Authentication
--------------

Watson services are migrating to token-based Identity and Access
Management (IAM) authentication.

- With some service instances, you authenticate to the API by using
**`IAM <#iam>`__**.
- In other instances, you authenticate by providing the **`username and
password <#username-and-password>`__** for the service instance.

**Note:** Authenticating with the X-Watson-Authorization-Token header is
deprecated. The token continues to work with Cloud Foundry services, but
is not supported for services that use Identity and Access Management
(IAM) authentication. See `here <#iam>`__ for details.

Getting credentials
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To find out which authentication to use, view the service credentials.
You find the service credentials for authentication the same way for all
Watson services:

1. Go to the IBM Cloud `Dashboard <https://cloud.ibm.com/>`__ page.
2. Either click an existing Watson service instance in your `resource
list <https://cloud.ibm.com/resources>`__ or click `**Create resource
> AI** <https://cloud.ibm.com/catalog?category=ai>`__ and create a
service instance.
3. Click on the **Manage** item in the left nav bar of your service
instance.

On this page, you should be able to see your credentials for accessing
your service instance.

.. figure:: https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*DaTt56z0RaKlbyWDUaRJgQ.png
:alt: alt text

alt text
Supplying credentials
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are two ways to supply the credentials you found above to the SDK
for authentication.

Credential file (easier!)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

With a credential file, you just need to put the file in the right place
and the SDK will do the work of parsing and authenticating. You can get
this file by clicking the **Download** button for the credentials in the
**Manage** tab of your service instance.

The file downloaded will be called ``ibm-credentials.env``. This is the
name the SDK will search for and **must** be preserved unless you want
to configure the file path (more on that later). The SDK will look for
your ``ibm-credentials.env`` file in the following places (in order):

- Your system's home directory
- The top-level directory of the project you're using the SDK in

As long as you set that up correctly, you don't have to worry about
setting any authentication options in your code. So, for example, if you
created and downloaded the credential file for your Discovery instance,
you just need to do the following:

.. code:: python

discovery = DiscoveryV1(version='2018-08-01')

And that's it!

If you're using more than one service at a time in your code and get two
different ``ibm-credentials.env`` files, just put the contents together
in one ``ibm-credentials.env`` file and the SDK will handle assigning
credentials to their appropriate services.

If you would like to configure the location/name of your credential
file, you can set an environment variable called
``IBM_CREDENTIALS_FILE``. **This will take precedence over the locations
specified above.** Here's how you can do that:

.. code:: bash

export IBM_CREDENTIALS_FILE="<path>"

where ``<path>`` is something like
``/home/user/Downloads/<file_name>.env``.

Manually
^^^^^^^^

If you'd prefer to set authentication values manually in your code, the
SDK supports that as well. The way you'll do this depends on what type
of credentials your service instance gives you.

IAM
~~~

IBM Cloud is migrating to token-based Identity and Access Management
(IAM) authentication. IAM authentication uses a service API key to get
an access token that is passed with the call. Access tokens are valid
for approximately one hour and must be regenerated.

You supply either an IAM service **API key** or an **access token**:

- Use the API key to have the SDK manage the lifecycle of the access
token. The SDK requests an access token, ensures that the access
token is valid, and refreshes it if necessary.
- Use the access token if you want to manage the lifecycle yourself.
For details, see `Authenticating with IAM
tokens <https://console.bluemix.net/docs/services/watson/getting-started-iam.html>`__.

Supplying the IAM API key
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

.. code:: python

# In the constructor, letting the SDK manage the IAM token
discovery = DiscoveryV1(version='2018-08-01',
url='<url_as_per_region>',
apikey='<apikey>',
iam_url='<iam_url>') # optional - the default value is https://iam.bluemix.net/identity/token

.. code:: python

# after instantiation, letting the SDK manage the IAM token
discovery = DiscoveryV1(version='2018-08-01', url='<url_as_per_region>')
discovery.set_apikey('<apikey>')

Supplying the access token
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

.. code:: python

# in the constructor, assuming control of managing IAM token
discovery = DiscoveryV1(version='2018-08-01',
url='<url_as_per_region>',
iam_access_token='<iam_access_token>')

.. code:: python

# after instantiation, assuming control of managing IAM token
discovery = DiscoveryV1(version='2018-08-01', url='<url_as_per_region>')
discovery.set_iam_access_token('<access_token>')

Username and password
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.. code:: python

from ibm_watson import DiscoveryV1
# In the constructor
discovery = DiscoveryV1(version='2018-08-01', url='<url_as_per_region>', username='<username>', password='<password>')

.. code:: python

# After instantiation
discovery = DiscoveryV1(version='2018-08-01', url='<url_as_per_region>')
discovery.set_username_and_password('<username>', '<password>')

Python version
--------------

Tested on Python 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, and 3.6.

Changes for v1.0
----------------

Version 1.0 focuses on the move to programmatically-generated code for
many of the services. See the
`changelog <https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/python-sdk/wiki/Changelog>`__
for the details.

Changes for v2.0
----------------

``DetailedResponse`` which contains the result, headers and HTTP status
code is now the default response for all methods.

.. code:: python

from ibm_watson import AssistantV1

assistant = AssistantV1(
username='xxx',
password='yyy',
url='<url_as_per_region>',
version='2018-07-10')

response = assistant.list_workspaces(headers={'Custom-Header': 'custom_value'})
print(response.get_result())
print(response.get_headers())
print(response.get_status_code())

See the
`changelog <https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/python-sdk/wiki/Changelog>`__
for the details.

Changes for v3.0
----------------

The SDK is generated using OpenAPI Specification(OAS3). Changes are
basic reordering of parameters in function calls.

The package is renamed to ibm\_watson. See the
`changelog <https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/python-sdk/wiki/Changelog>`__
for the details.

Migration
---------

This version includes many breaking changes as a result of standardizing
behavior across the new generated services. Full details on migration
from previous versions can be found
`here <https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/python-sdk/wiki/Migration>`__.

Configuring the http client (Supported from v1.1.0)
---------------------------------------------------

To set client configs like timeout use the ``with_http_config()``
function and pass it a dictionary of configs.

.. code:: python

from ibm_watson import AssistantV1

assistant = AssistantV1(
username='xxx',
password='yyy',
url='<url_as_per_region>',
version='2018-07-10')

assistant.set_http_config({'timeout': 100})
response = assistant.message(workspace_id=workspace_id, input={
'text': 'What\'s the weather like?'}).get_result()
print(json.dumps(response, indent=2))

Disable SSL certificate verification
------------------------------------

For ICP(IBM Cloud Private), you can disable the SSL certificate
verification by:

.. code:: python

service.disable_SSL_verification()

Sending request headers
-----------------------

Custom headers can be passed in any request in the form of a ``dict``
as:

.. code:: python

headers = {
'Custom-Header': 'custom_value'
}

For example, to send a header called ``Custom-Header`` to a call in
Watson Assistant, pass the headers parameter as:

.. code:: python

from ibm_watson import AssistantV1

assistant = AssistantV1(
username='xxx',
password='yyy',
url='<url_as_per_region>',
version='2018-07-10')

response = assistant.list_workspaces(headers={'Custom-Header': 'custom_value'}).get_result()

Parsing HTTP response info
--------------------------

If you would like access to some HTTP response information along with
the response model, you can set the ``set_detailed_response()`` to
``True``. Since Python SDK ``v2.0``, it is set to ``True``

.. code:: python

from ibm_watson import AssistantV1

assistant = AssistantV1(
username='xxx',
password='yyy',
url='<url_as_per_region>',
version='2018-07-10')

assistant.set_detailed_response(True)
response = assistant.list_workspaces(headers={'Custom-Header': 'custom_value'}).get_result()
print(response)

This would give an output of ``DetailedResponse`` having the structure:

.. code:: python

{
'result': <response returned by service>,
'headers': { <http response headers> },
'status_code': <http status code>
}

You can use the ``get_result()``, ``get_headers()`` and
get\_status\_code() to return the result, headers and status code
respectively.

Using Websockets
----------------

The Text to Speech service supports synthesizing text to spoken audio
using web sockets with the ``synthesize_using_websocket``. The Speech to
Text service supports recognizing speech to text using web sockets with
the ``recognize_using_websocket``. These methods need a custom callback
class to listen to events. Below is an example of
``synthesize_using_websocket``. Note: The service accepts one request
per connection.

.. code:: py

from ibm_watson.websocket import SynthesizeCallback

class MySynthesizeCallback(SynthesizeCallback):
def __init__(self):
SynthesizeCallback.__init__(self)

def on_audio_stream(self, audio_stream):
return audio_stream

def on_data(self, data):
return data

my_callback = MySynthesizeCallback()
service.synthesize_using_websocket('I like to pet dogs',
my_callback,
accept='audio/wav',
voice='en-US_AllisonVoice'
)

Dependencies
------------

- `requests <http://docs.python-requests.org/en/latest/>`__
- ``python_dateutil`` >= 2.5.3
- `responses <https://github.com/getsentry/responses>`__ for testing
- Following for web sockets support in speech to text
- ``websocket-client`` 0.48.0
- ``ibm_cloud_sdk_core`` >=0.2.0

Contributing
------------

See
`CONTRIBUTING.md <https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/python-sdk/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md>`__.

License
-------

This library is licensed under the `Apache 2.0
license <http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0>`__.

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:target: https://cla-assistant.io/watson-developer-cloud/python-sdk

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