Constructing requests with URL Query String in Python

Question

I'm not really sure what I'm doing. Should I be using a library for this? Or do it manually?

So I'm trying to do some work with the WiThings (http://www.withings.com/api) API in Python.

In order to perform some of the requests, OAuth authentication is required. I have gone through using the requests library and obtained an oauth token and secret token, alongside my consumer and consumer secret tokens.

Now I am at the point of having to make requests, and I am running into some problems. The format for the request I need to make is as follows (an example from their API):

http://wbsapi.withings.net/notify?action=subscribe
&callbackurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.yourdomain.net%2fyourCustomApplication.php
&comment=Your%20Own%20Application%20Description
&oauth_consumer_key=c331c571585e7c518c78656f41582e96fc1c2b926cf77648223dd76424b52b
&oauth_nonce=accbac1b7ee2b86b828e6dc4a5a539b2
&oauth_signature=XfobZMboIg2cRyNKAvyzONHHnKM%3D
&oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1
&oauth_timestamp=1311842514
&oauth_token=887557411788d5120537c6550fbf2df68921f8dd6f8c7e7f9b441941eb10
&oauth_version=1.0
&userid=831

As far as I can tell, this is pretty much a typical format with OAuth, except for the userid at the end.

So, is it possible for me to make a request like this using the requests library? Or some other library? How do I get the URL right, with the comment and userid and callbackurl fields? Or do I need to generate this URL manually? If that's the case, whats the best way for going about doing this?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated, as I've been stuck on this for a while.

EDIT

So, for some clarification, I understand about 98% of the code I am being referred to. I am only having a little problem at the end.

So here I am, with the following code:

from __future__ import unicode_literals
from urlparse import parse_qs
import requests
from requests_oauthlib import OAuth1Session

consumer_key = '**Valid consumer key**'

consumer_secret = '**Valid consumer secret**'


oauth_key = '**Valid oauth key obtained through requests library and OAuth workflow**'

oauth_secret ='**Valid oauth secret obtained through requests library and OAuth workflow**'

verifier = '**Valid consumer key obtained through requests library and OAuth workflow**'

base_url = 'http://wbsapi.withings.net/notify'

params = {
'action': 'subscribe',
'callbackurl': '**callback URL**',
'comment': '**comment**',
'oauth_consumer_key': '**consumer_key**',
'oauth_nonce': 'etc etc',
'oauth_signature' : '' # <-------------- Where do I get this
# etc etc... I have everything else
}
r = requests.get("http://wbsapi.withings.net/notify", params=params)

This is all I need. I have everything I need but the signature. Is there a way I can get the signature from the oauth libraries? This is all that has been holding me up.

Answer 1

To perform GET requests with URL query string:

import requests

params = {
    'action': 'subscribe',
    'callbackurl': '',
    'comment': '',
    'oauth_consumer_key': '',
    'oauth_nonce': '',
    # more key=value pairs as appeared in your query string
}
r = requests.get("http://wbsapi.withings.net/notify", params=params)

With that cleared, now you just need to follow the workflow documented on http://www.withings.com/en/api/oauthguide and implement them

1. Upon receiving your OAuth Key and OAuth Secret, perform a GET request with the following endpoint and query string which will give you back token:

   https://oauth.withings.com/account/request_token? oauth_callback=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fget_access_token &oauth_consumer_key=c331c571585e7c518c78656f41582e96fc1c2b926cf77648223dd76424b52b &oauth_nonce=f71972b1fa93b8935ccaf34ee02d7657 &oauth_signature=J8xzgFtHTsSRw8Ejc8UDV2jls34%3D &oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1 &oauth_timestamp=1311778988 &oauth_version=1.0

2. Then you need to authorize the token you received with the following request which will give you the user_id:

   https://oauth.withings.com/account/authorize? oauth_callback=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fget_access_token &oauth_consumer_key=c331c571585e7c518c78656f41582e96fc1c2b926cf77648223dd76424b52b &oauth_nonce=369f9ceb2f285ac637c9a7e9e98019bd &oauth_signature=OR9J9iEl%2F2yGOXP2wk5c2%2BWtYvU%3D &oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1 &oauth_timestamp=1311778988 &oauth_token=5bb105d2292ff43ec9c0f633fee9033045ed4643e9871b80ce586dc1bf945 &oauth_version=1.0

3. Then you need to request the access_token by hitting this endpoint with some more query string:

   https://oauth.withings.com/account/access_token? oauth_consumer_key=c331c571585e7c518c78656f41582e96fc1c2b926cf77648223dd76424b52b &oauth_nonce=7acd22371fc56fd8a0aaf8416f79f84f &oauth_signature=jmj1g%2FB3rYR2DCpWp86jB5YVHIM%3D &oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1 &oauth_timestamp=1311778988 &oauth_token=5bb105d2292ff43ec9c0f633fee9033045ed4643e9871b80ce586dc1bf945 &oauth_version=1.0 &userid=831

4. Now you have everything needed to perform the aforementioned request in your question, and others, example directly from the documentation:

   http://wbsapi.withings.com/measure? action=getmeas &oauth_consumer_key=c331c571585e7c518c78656f41582e96fc1c2b926cf77648223dd76424b52b &oauth_nonce=accbac1b7ee2b86b828e6dc4a5a539b2 &oauth_signature=XfobZMboIg2cRyNKAvyzONHHnKM%3D &oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1 &oauth_timestamp=1311842514 &oauth_token=887557411788d5120537c6550fbf2df68921f8dd6f8c7e7f9b441941eb10 &oauth_version=1.0 &userid=831

Again, everything can be done without explicit oauth library as you can finish the workflow with requests.get and query string built from a dict feed into the params argument of the method.

I truly hope this helps you achieve your goal.