Doing PUT using Python urllib2

Question

I'm trying to do PUT to REST using urllib2 following the example I found on stackoverflow:

Is there any way to do HTTP PUT in python

I don't understand why I get error an error.

Here's an excerpt of my code:

import urllib2
import json

content_header = {'Content-type':'application/json',
                 'Accept':'application/vnd.error+json,application/json',
                 'Accept-Version':'1.0'}

baseURL = "http://some/put/url/"


f = open("somefile","r")
data = json.loads(f.read())

request = urllib2.Request(url=baseURL, data=json.dumps(jsonObj), headers=content_header)
request.get_method = lambda: 'PUT' #if I remove this line then the POST works fine.

response = urllib2.urlopen(request)

print response.read()

if I remove the PUT option I'm trying to set then it posts it find but it will error out when I try and set get_method to PUT.

To be sure that the REST services aren't causing the issues I tried using cURL to do a PUT and it worked fine.

And if you are not fussed about installing a new Python library, [`python-requests`](http://docs.python-requests.org/en/latest/) can handle `PUT` without extra hacks and is much easier to use. — Martijn Pieters, Jan 20 '14 at 20:51
FWIW I strongly recommend using the `requests` library for any HTTP stuff in Python. The API for the build-in HTTP client functionality is no good. This doesn't amount to an answer, though, as your question specifies `urllib2`. — Andrew Gorcester, Jan 20 '14 at 20:51

score 13 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 31 '20 at 13:41

13

While aaronfay's answer is good and works, I think that given that there are only 3 HTTP methods other than GET (and you are only worried about PUT), it is clearer and simpler to just define the Request sub-classes per method.

For example:

class PutRequest(urllib2.Request):
    '''class to handling putting with urllib2'''

    def get_method(self, *args, **kwargs):
        return 'PUT'

Then to use:

request = PutRequest(url, data=json.dumps(data), headers=content_header)

edited Jan 31 '20 at 13:41

olivieradam666

4,522
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answered Dec 06 '17 at 19:40

Rob Marrowstone

1,224
8
15

It's not necessary to override any method (in this case `__init__`) in a subclass if the subclass implementation simply calls the superclass implementation. – rgov Jul 28 '18 at 06:21
Perhaps a silly question, but how do you actually execute this request? – physicalattraction May 27 '20 at 13:15
urllib2.urlopen(request) – Jeff Moser Feb 01 '21 at 20:55

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 05 '15 at 17:42

As others have noted, requests is a fantastic library. However, if you are in a situation where requests cannot be used (say an ansible module development or similar), there is another way, as demonstrated by the author of this gist:

import urllib2

class MethodRequest(urllib2.Request):
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        if 'method' in kwargs:
            self._method = kwargs['method']
            del kwargs['method']
        else:
            self._method = None
        return urllib2.Request.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)

    def get_method(self, *args, **kwargs):
        if self._method is not None:
            return self._method
        return urllib2.Request.get_method(self, *args, **kwargs)

Usage:

>>> req = MethodRequest(url, method='PUT')

Perhaps a silly question, but how do you actually execute this request? — physicalattraction, May 27 '20 at 13:15

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 11 '16 at 09:42

0

Try to use:

import urllib

data=urllib.urlencode(jsonObj)

Instead of json.dumps. It works for me.

answered May 11 '16 at 09:42

Ruben

172
4
8

URL encoding and JSON encoding are fundamentally different things, and the encoding (URL encoding vs JSON) is orthogonal to the HTTP method (POST vs PUT) – rgov Jul 28 '18 at 06:18

Doing PUT using Python urllib2

3 Answers3