Calling HTTP APIs
Parsing the body before checking the status is the most common mistake: an error page is not JSON, and the traceback you get points at the parser rather than the failed request.
Overview
The network is not a function call
Parsing the body before checking the status is the most common mistake: an error page is not JSON, and the traceback you get points at the parser rather than the failed request.
Set a timeout on every request. Without one, a hung server hangs your script indefinitely, and there is no default that saves you.
Transient failures deserve a retry with exponential backoff; a client error does not. Retrying a bad request just sends the same wrong thing repeatedly.
- Check the status code first
- Set a timeout on every call
- Retry only on transient failures, with backoff
In this lesson you will:
- Send a request and read the response
- Check the status before parsing the body
- Retry transient failures with backoff
Resources
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