Making an API call in Python with an API that requires a bearer token

Question

Looking for some help with integrating a JSON API call into a Python program.

I am looking to integrate the following API into a Python .py program to allow it to be called and the response to be printed.

The API guidance states that a bearer token must be generated to allow calls to the API, which I have done successfully. However I am unsure of the syntax to include this token as bearer token authentication in Python API request.

I can successfully complete the above request using cURL with a token included. I have tried "urllib" and "requests" routes but to no avail.

Full API details: IBM X-Force Exchange API Documentation - IP Reputation

Answer 1

It just means it expects that as a key in your header data

import requests
endpoint = ".../api/ip"
data = {"ip": "1.1.2.3"}
headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer MYREALLYLONGTOKENIGOT"}

print(requests.post(endpoint, data=data, headers=headers).json())

Answer 2

If you are using requests module, an alternative option is to write an auth class, as discussed in "New Forms of Authentication":

import requests

class BearerAuth(requests.auth.AuthBase):
    def __init__(self, token):
        self.token = token
    def __call__(self, r):
        r.headers["authorization"] = "Bearer " + self.token
        return r

and then can you send requests like this

response = requests.get('https://www.example.com/', auth=BearerAuth('3pVzwec1Gs1m'))

which allows you to use the same auth argument just like basic auth, and may help you in certain situations.

Answer 3

The token has to be placed in an Authorization header according to the following format:

Authorization: Bearer [Token_Value]

Code below:

import urllib2
import json

def get_auth_token():
    """
    get an auth token
    """
    req=urllib2.Request("https://xforce-api.mybluemix.net/auth/anonymousToken")
    response=urllib2.urlopen(req)
    html=response.read()
    json_obj=json.loads(html)
    token_string=json_obj["token"].encode("ascii","ignore")
    return token_string

def get_response_json_object(url, auth_token):
    """
    returns json object with info
    """
    auth_token=get_auth_token()
    req=urllib2.Request(url, None, {"Authorization": "Bearer %s" %auth_token})
    response=urllib2.urlopen(req)
    html=response.read()
    json_obj=json.loads(html)
    return json_obj

Answer 4

Here is full example of implementation in cURL and in Python - for authorization and for making API calls

cURL

1. Authorization

You have received access data like this:

Username: johndoe

Password: zznAQOoWyj8uuAgq

Consumer Key: ggczWttBWlTjXCEtk3Yie_WJGEIa

Consumer Secret: uuzPjjJykiuuLfHkfgSdXLV98Ciga

Which you can call in cURL like this:

curl -k -d "grant_type=password&username=Username&password=Password" \

                    -H "Authorization: Basic Base64(consumer-key:consumer-secret)" \

                       https://somedomain.test.com/token

or for this case it would be:

curl -k -d "grant_type=password&username=johndoe&password=zznAQOoWyj8uuAgq" \

                    -H "Authorization: Basic zzRjettzNUJXbFRqWENuuGszWWllX1iiR0VJYTpRelBLZkp5a2l2V0xmSGtmZ1NkWExWzzhDaWdh" \

                      https://somedomain.test.com/token

Answer would be something like:

{
    "access_token": "zz8d62zz-56zz-34zz-9zzf-azze1b8057f8",
    "refresh_token": "zzazz4c3-zz2e-zz25-zz97-ezz6e219cbf6",
    "scope": "default",
    "token_type": "Bearer",
    "expires_in": 3600
}

2. Calling API

Here is how you call some API that uses authentication from above. Limit and offset are just examples of 2 parameters that API could implement. You need access_token from above inserted after "Bearer ".So here is how you call some API with authentication data from above:

curl -k -X GET "https://somedomain.test.com/api/Users/Year/2020/Workers?offset=1&limit=100" -H "accept: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer zz8d62zz-56zz-34zz-9zzf-azze1b8057f8"

Python

Same thing from above implemented in Python. I've put text in comments so code could be copy-pasted.

# Authorization data

import base64
import requests

username = 'johndoe'
password= 'zznAQOoWyj8uuAgq'
consumer_key = 'ggczWttBWlTjXCEtk3Yie_WJGEIa'
consumer_secret = 'uuzPjjJykiuuLfHkfgSdXLV98Ciga'
consumer_key_secret = consumer_key+":"+consumer_secret
consumer_key_secret_enc = base64.b64encode(consumer_key_secret.encode()).decode()

# Your decoded key will be something like:
#zzRjettzNUJXbFRqWENuuGszWWllX1iiR0VJYTpRelBLZkp5a2l2V0xmSGtmZ1NkWExWzzhDaWdh


headersAuth = {
    'Authorization': 'Basic '+ str(consumer_key_secret_enc),
}

data = {
  'grant_type': 'password',
  'username': username,
  'password': password
}

## Authentication request

response = requests.post('https://somedomain.test.com/token', headers=headersAuth, data=data, verify=True)
j = response.json()

# When you print that response you will get dictionary like this:

    {
        "access_token": "zz8d62zz-56zz-34zz-9zzf-azze1b8057f8",
        "refresh_token": "zzazz4c3-zz2e-zz25-zz97-ezz6e219cbf6",
        "scope": "default",
        "token_type": "Bearer",
        "expires_in": 3600
    }

# You have to use `access_token` in API calls explained bellow.
# You can get `access_token` with j['access_token'].


# Using authentication to make API calls   

## Define header for making API calls that will hold authentication data

headersAPI = {
    'accept': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Bearer '+j['access_token'],
}

### Usage of parameters defined in your API
params = (
    ('offset', '0'),
    ('limit', '20'),
)

# Making sample API call with authentication and API parameters data

response = requests.get('https://somedomain.test.com/api/Users/Year/2020/Workers', headers=headersAPI, params=params, verify=True)
api_response = response.json()