Scriptling Scriptling

HTTP & JSON

Scriptling provides built-in support for HTTP requests and JSON processing through the requests and json libraries.

Importing Libraries

import json
import requests

HTTP Response Object

All HTTP functions return a Response object with these attributes:

Attribute Type Description
status_code int HTTP status code (200, 404, etc.)
body string Response body as text
text string Response body as text (same as body)
headers dict Response headers
url string The URL that was requested 
response = requests.get("https://api.example.com/data")
print(response.status_code)  # 200
print(response.body)         # Response content
print(response.headers)      # {"content-type": "application/json", ...}

GET Request

# Basic GET (default 5 second timeout)
response = requests.get("https://api.example.com/users")
status = response.status_code  # 200
body = response.body           # Response body string

# GET with options
options = {"timeout": 10}
response = requests.get("https://api.example.com/users", options)

# GET with headers
options = {
    "timeout": 10,
    "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer token123",
        "Accept": "application/json"
    }
}
response = requests.get("https://api.example.com/users", options)

POST Request

# POST with JSON body (default 5 second timeout)
import json

payload = {"name": "Alice", "email": "[email protected]"}
body = json.dumps(payload)
response = requests.post("https://api.example.com/users", body)

# POST with options
options = {"timeout": 15}
response = requests.post("https://api.example.com/users", body, options)

# POST with headers
options = {
    "timeout": 10,
    "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer token123",
        "Content-Type": "application/json"
    }
}
response = requests.post("https://api.example.com/users", body, options)

# Check status
if response.status_code == 201:
    print("Created successfully")

PUT Request

# Update resource (default 5 second timeout)
payload = {"name": "Alice Updated"}
body = json.dumps(payload)
response = requests.put("https://api.example.com/users/1", body)

# With options
options = {"timeout": 10}
response = requests.put("https://api.example.com/users/1", body, options)

DELETE Request

# Delete resource (default 5 second timeout)
response = requests.delete("https://api.example.com/users/1")

# With options
options = {"timeout": 10}
response = requests.delete("https://api.example.com/users/1", options)

PATCH Request

# Partial update (default 5 second timeout)
payload = {"email": "[email protected]"}
body = json.dumps(payload)
response = requests.patch("https://api.example.com/users/1", body)

# With options
options = {"timeout": 10}
response = requests.patch("https://api.example.com/users/1", body, options)

Request Options

Option Type Description Default
timeout int Request timeout in seconds 5
headers dict HTTP headers to send {} 
options = {
    "timeout": 30,
    "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer token",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
        "Accept": "application/json",
        "User-Agent": "MyApp/1.0"
    }
}
response = requests.get("https://api.example.com/data", options)

Timeout Behavior

  • Default timeout: 5 seconds
  • On timeout: Returns an error
  • Specify timeout: Integer (seconds) in options dictionary
# Short timeout for fast APIs
options = {"timeout": 2}
response = requests.get("https://fast-api.example.com/data", options)

# Long timeout for slow APIs
options = {"timeout": 60}
response = requests.get("https://slow-api.example.com/data", options)

JSON Processing

Parsing JSON

import json

# Parse JSON string to Scriptling objects
data = json.loads('{"name": "Alice", "age": 30}')
name = data["name"]  # "Alice"
age = data["age"]    # 30

# Parse array
items = json.loads('[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]')
first = items[0]  # 1

# Parse nested structure
data = json.loads('{"user": {"name": "Alice", "tags": ["admin", "user"]}}')
user_name = data["user"]["name"]      # "Alice"
first_tag = data["user"]["tags"][0]   # "admin"

Generating JSON

import json

# Convert Scriptling objects to JSON string
obj = {"name": "Bob", "age": 25}
json_str = json.dumps(obj)  # '{"age":25,"name":"Bob"}'

# Convert list
items = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
json_str = json.dumps(items)  # '[1,2,3,4,5]'

# Nested structure
data = {
    "user": {
        "name": "Alice",
        "tags": ["admin", "user"]
    }
}
json_str = json.dumps(data)

Complete REST API Example

import json
import requests

# Configure options
options = {"timeout": 10, "headers": {"Authorization": "Bearer token123"}}

# Fetch user
response = requests.get("https://api.example.com/users/1", options)

if response.status_code == 200:
    user = json.loads(response.body)
    print("User: " + user["name"])

    # Update user
    user["email"] = "[email protected]"
    body = json.dumps(user)
    update_resp = requests.put("https://api.example.com/users/1", body, options)

    if update_resp.status_code == 200:
        print("Updated successfully")
    else:
        print("Update failed: " + str(update_resp.status_code))
else:
    print("Failed to fetch user")

# Create new user
new_user = {"name": "Bob", "email": "[email protected]"}
body = json.dumps(new_user)
create_resp = requests.post("https://api.example.com/users", body, options)

if create_resp.status_code == 201:
    created = json.loads(create_resp.body)
    user_id = created["id"]
    print("Created user with ID: " + str(user_id))

    # Delete user
    delete_resp = requests.delete("https://api.example.com/users/" + str(user_id), options)
    if delete_resp.status_code == 204:
        print("Deleted successfully")

Error Handling

import json
import requests

try:
    options = {"timeout": 5}
    response = requests.get("https://api.example.com/data", options)

    if response.status_code != 200:
        raise "HTTP error: " + str(response.status_code)

    data = json.loads(response.body)
    print("Success: " + str(len(data)))
except:
    print("Request failed")
    data = []
finally:
    print("Request complete")

Best Practices

Always Check Status Codes

response = requests.get("https://api.example.com/data", options)
if response.status_code == 200:
    data = json.loads(response.body)
elif response.status_code == 404:
    print("Not found")
else:
    print("Error: " + str(response.status_code))

Always Set Timeouts

# Good: Explicit timeout
options = {"timeout": 10}
response = requests.get("https://api.example.com/data", options)

# Bad: Using default (may be too short or too long)
response = requests.get("https://api.example.com/data")

Always Parse JSON Responses

response = requests.get("https://api.example.com/users", options)
if response.status_code == 200:
    users = json.loads(response.body)  # Don't use raw body
    for user in users:
        print(user["name"])

Always Stringify Before Sending

payload = {"name": "Alice"}
body = json.dumps(payload)  # Convert to JSON string first
response = requests.post("https://api.example.com/users", body, options)

See Also