Headers and Authentication

Adding Headers

Include custom headers in requests:

import requests

headers = {
    'User-Agent': 'MyApp/1.0',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Accept': 'application/json'
}

response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data', headers=headers)

Basic Authentication

Use basic auth:

from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data',
                       auth=HTTPBasicAuth('username', 'password'))

# Or simpler
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data',
                       auth=('username', 'password'))

Bearer Token Authentication

Use token-based auth:

headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer your-token-here'
}

response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data', headers=headers)

API Key Authentication

Use API keys:

# In headers
headers = {'X-API-Key': 'your-api-key'}
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data', headers=headers)

# Or in query parameters
params = {'api_key': 'your-api-key'}
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data', params=params)

Using Sessions

Reuse connections and headers:

session = requests.Session()
session.headers.update({'Authorization': 'Bearer token'})

# All requests use the same headers
response1 = session.get('https://api.example.com/data1')
response2 = session.get('https://api.example.com/data2')

Best Practices

• Store credentials securely: Use environment variables
• Use sessions: For multiple requests to same API
• Set User-Agent: Identify your application
• Handle tokens: Refresh expired tokens

Next Steps

Learn about GET and POST requests for making API calls.