Quickstart: Making HTTP requests

Integrate with third-party HTTP APIs

Anvil lets you make HTTP requests with very little code.

Follow this quickstart to access an external HTTP API from Python and print the response.

Create an app

Log in to Anvil and click ‘New Blank App’. Choose the Material Design theme.

Add a Server Module

In the App Browser, click the + next to Server Code to add a new Server Module.

You will see a code editor with a yellow background.

In the App Browser, click “+ Add Server Module” next to Server Code to add a new Server Module.

A new tab will open with a code editor with an orange background.

Write a server function

Write this function into the Server Module:

@anvil.server.callable
def access_xkcd_api(comic_number):
  url = f"https://xkcd.com/{comic_number}/info.0.json"
  response = anvil.http.request(url, json=True)
  return response

anvil.http.request makes the HTTP request. We are using the API of the webcomic XKCD to get the details of a given comic.

Call your server function from the client

Go to the code for Form1. It looks like this:

At the end of the __init__ method, write these lines:

    return_value = anvil.server.call('access_xkcd_api', 353)
    print(return_value)

This means your function will run when the app starts, and the result will be printed.

Run your app

Now click the ‘Run’ button at the top of the screen.

The Output Panel should display this:

This is the data presented at https://xkcd.com/353/info.0.json. It has automatically been converted to a Python dictionary because we used json=True in anvil.http.request.

Copy the example app

Click on the button below to clone a finished version of this app into your account.

Next up

Want more depth on this subject?

Read more about HTTP APIs and requests in Anvil.

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