Master Python Requests: GET, POST, HTTPS, File Transfer, Auth & Test Automation

1. Sending GET request

Import requests, define the URL, payload and headers, then call requests.get and print the response text, encoding, and decoded text.

import requests
url = "http://xxxxxxx"
payload = "{\"head\":{\"accessToken\":\"\",\"lastnotice\":0,\"msgid\":\"\"},\"body\":{\"user_name\":\"super_admin\",\"password\":\"b50c34503a97e7d0d44c38f72d2e91ad\",\"role_type\":1}}"
headers = {
  'Content-Type': 'text/plain',
  'Cookie': 'akpsysessionid=bafc0ad457d5a99f3a4e53a1d4b32519'
}
r = requests.get(url=url, headers=headers, data=payload)
print(r.text)
print(r.encoding)
print(r.text.encode('utf-8').decode('unicode_escape'))

2. Sending POST request

Similar to GET, but using requests.post to send the payload.

import requests
url = "http://xxxxxxx"
payload = "{\"head\":{\"accessToken\":\"\",\"lastnotice\":0,\"msgid\":\"\"},\"body\":{\"user_name\":\"super_admin\",\"password\":\"b50c34503a97e7d0d44c38f72d2e91ad\",\"role_type\":1}}"
headers = {
  'Content-Type': 'text/plain',
  'Cookie': 'akpsysessionid=bafc0ad457d5a99f3a4e53a1d4b32519'
}
r = requests.post(url=url, headers=headers, data=payload)
print(r.text)

3. Sending HTTPS request

Demonstrates disabling SSL verification or providing a certificate path.

import requests
url = 'https://www.ctrip.com/'
# Disable verification
r = requests.post(url=url, verify=False)
# Or specify certificate path
r = requests.post(url=url, verify='path/to/cert')
print(r.text)

4. File upload

Upload a file using requests.post with a file dictionary.

import requests
file = {'filename': open('file_name', 'rb')}
response = requests.post('http://example.com/upload', files=file)
print(response.text)

5. File download

Download small and large files, writing the content to disk.

# Small file
import requests
r = requests.get('https://img.sitven.cn/Tencent_blog_detail.jpg')
with open('D:/a.jpg', 'wb') as f:
    f.write(r.content)

# Large file with streaming
import requests

def download(url, file_path):
    s = requests.session()
    r = s.get(url, stream=True, verify=False)
    with open(file_path, 'wb') as f:
        for chunk in r.iter_content(chunk_size=512):
            f.write(chunk)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    download('https://www.url.com/test/export', 'D:/a.xlsx')

6. Timeout handling

Loop with retries and a very short timeout to trigger errors.

import requests
for i in range(10):
    try:
        url = "http://example.com"
        data = {"head": {"lastnotice":0,"msgid":"","accessToken":"89a08bff-..."}, "body": {"clinicid":"978f66..."}}
        r = requests.post(url=url, json=data, timeout=0.03)
        print(r.text)
        print(r.cookies)
    except Exception:
        print('error')

7. Authentication and session management

Basic auth, session reuse, token handling, and signature generation.

# Basic auth
import requests
url = 'http://192.168.1.1'
r = requests.get(url, auth=('admin', '123456'), timeout=10)
print(r.text)

# Session usage
session = requests.session()
response = session.post(url, headers=req_header, data=form_data)

# Token handling (login then reuse token)
import requests
url = 'http://example.com/login'
json = {"head": {"accessToken":"","lastnotice":0,"msgid":""}, "body": {"username":"15623720880","password":"48028d...","forceLogin":0}}
r = requests.post(url=url, json=json)
print(r.text)
print(r.cookies)
# Use token in subsequent request
for i in range(1):
    try:
        url = 'http://example.com/next'
        data = {"head": {"lastnotice":0,"msgid":"","accessToken":"89a08bff-..."}, "body": {...}}
        r = requests.post(url=url, json=data, timeout=0.09)
        print(r.text)
        print(r.cookies)
    except Exception:
        print('error')

8. Signature generation (WeChat Pay example)

import hashlib
stringA = "appid=wxd930ea5d5a258f4f&body=test&device_info=1000&mch_id=10000100&nonce_str=ibuaiVcKdpRxkhJA"
md = hashlib.md5()
md.update(stringA.encode())
AES = md.hexdigest().upper()
print(AES)

9. Automation project structure

Typical layout for a Python API test framework.

config : configuration files (e.g., server IP, database settings)

common : reusable utility functions (Excel reading, SQL execution)

testdata : test data files (xls, txt, csv)

test_case : test case scripts

report : generated HTML/XML reports

run_case : test runner script

log : logging output

9.1 Config module

def server_ip():
    server_add = {
        'dev_ip': 'http://his.dev.com',
        'sit_ip': 'http://his.sit.com'
    }
    return server_add['dev_ip']

def sql_conf():
    host = 'localhost'
    user = 'root'
    password = '123456'
    database = 'mysql'
    port = 3306
    charset = 'utf8'
    return host, user, password, database, port, charset

9.2 Common utilities

# Read Excel data
import xlrd
def get_excel_value(i):
    filename = r"../testdata/jiekou.xls"
    book = xlrd.open_workbook(filename)
    sheet = book.sheet_by_index(0)
    return sheet.cell_value(i,1), sheet.cell_value(i,2)

# Execute SQL and return results
import pymysql
from config.sql_conf import *
def get_sql(sql):
    host, user, password, database, port, charset = sql_conf()
    db = pymysql.connect(host=host, user=user, password=password, database=database, port=port, charset=charset)
    cursor = db.cursor()
    cursor.execute(sql)
    data = cursor.fetchall()
    cursor.close()
    db.close()
    return data

9.3 Test data

Stores xls, txt, csv files used by test cases.

9.4 Test cases

from common.get_mysql import get_sql
from config.cof import server_ip
from common.get_excel import *
from config.sql_conf import *
import requests

def test_aokao_login():
    url = server_ip() + '/service/user/login'
    username, password = get_excel_value(1)
    json = {
        "head": {"accessToken":"","lastnotice":0,"msgid":""},
        "body": {"username":username,"password":password,"forceLogin":0}
    }
    r = requests.post(url=url, json=json)
    print(r.text)
    assert r.status_code == 200
    assert '"accessToken":"89a08bff-15d7-4d7a-9967-0b5f4fb699ce"' in r.text

def test_aokao_registadd():
    url = server_ip() + '/service/registration/registadd'
    data = {"head": {"lastnotice":0,"msgid":"","accessToken":"89a08bff-..."}, "body": {...}}
    r = requests.post(url=url, json=data, timeout=0.09)
    print(r.text)
    print(r.cookies)
    assert r.status_code == 200

9.5 Report generation

HTML and XML reports are stored in the report directory.

9.6 Running test cases

import pytest
if __name__ == "__main__":
    pytest.main(['../test_case/', '--html=../report/report.html', '--junitxml=../report/report.xml'])

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