Making HTTP Requests in Python with HTTPX

Python has several popular libraries for making HTTP requests like requests and urllib. A relatively newer option is HTTPX. In this article, we'll learn how to use HTTPX to make HTTP requests in Python.

What is HTTPX?

HTTPX is a next generation HTTP client for Python, built for making API requests simple and reliable. Some key features of HTTPX include:

Installation

Install HTTPX with pip:

pip install httpx

Making a GET Request

Here is a simple example to make a GET request and print the response body:

import httpx

with httpx.Client() as client:
    r = client.get("https://api.example.com/users")
    print(r.text)

The client handles opening and closing connections automatically.

POST Requests

Making a POST request is just as simple. Pass the data to json to send a JSON body:

data = {"name": "John Doe", "email": "john@example.com"}

with httpx.Client() as client:
    r = client.post("https://api.example.com/users", json=data)

Handling Responses

HTTPX responses contain properties like status_code, headers,content and more:

r = client.get("https://api.example.com/status")

print(r.status_code) # 200
print(r.headers["Content-Type"]) # "application/json" 
print(r.text) # Print response body

Check responses for errors:

if r.status_code == 200:
    print("Success!")
else:
    print("Request failed with status", r.status_code)  

Timeouts, Retries and More

Some other useful configuration options include:

client = httpx.Client(
    timeout=5.0, # Timeout per request
    retries=2, # Automatic retries
    verify=False, # Disable SSL verification
)

There are many more options for customizing the client and handling advanced use cases.

Conclusion

HTTPX makes sending HTTP requests in Python very simple, while providing useful functionality like connection pooling, support for HTTP standards, and configurable retries. Key takeaways:

Check out the HTTPX documentation to learn more!