Requests Library Deep Dive - 3

Key Points:

High-Level Structure

The requests library is organized into several core modules that handle different parts of HTTP functionality. Here’s a quick overview:

1. requests/__init__.py This file defines the user-facing API of the library, such as requests.get, requests.post, etc. It imports functionality from other internal modules and exposes them as a unified interface.
2. requests/models.py Defines classes like Request and Response, which represent HTTP requests and responses respectively. Handles data serialization, headers, and response content.
3. requests/sessions.py Manages Session objects, which allow for persistent settings (e.g., headers, cookies) across multiple requests. Provides methods like Session.get and Session.post.
4. requests/adapters.py Implements the HTTPAdapter class, which handles the low-level connection pooling and transports.
5. requests/api.py A thin wrapper around Session methods to provide the requests.get, requests.post, etc., functions.
6. requests/utils.py Contains helper functions used across the library (e.g., URL manipulation, encoding detection).
7. requests/exceptions.py Defines custom exception classes used by the library (e.g., RequestException, HTTPError).
8. requests/status_codes.py mapping of HTTP status codes to their textual representation (e.g., 200: ‘OK’).
9. requests/cookies.py Manages cookies for HTTP requests.
10. requests/hooks.py Implements hooks, allowing users to customize behavior (e.g., modifying a response object before it’s returned).