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python requests upload file

Narkw Brahma

Narkw Brahma

• 2 min read

Python Requests: Uploading a File

If you're working with Python and you need to upload a file to a server using the HTTP protocol, you can use the requests library. Requests is a popular HTTP library for Python that simplifies sending HTTP requests and working with APIs. In this article, we will show you how to use the requests library to upload a file.

Step 1: Install Requests Library

The first step is to install the requests library. You can do this by running the following command:

pip install requests

Step 2: Upload File Using Requests

To upload a file using requests, you can use the requests.post() method with the files parameter. The files parameter is a dictionary that maps the name of the file to a tuple containing the file object and its content type.

Here is an example of how to upload a file using requests:

import requests

url = 'http://example.com/upload'
files = {'file': ('image.png', open('image.png', 'rb'), 'image/png')}
response = requests.post(url, files=files)
print(response.text)
  • The first line imports the requests library.
  • The second line sets the URL of the server you want to upload the file to.
  • The third line creates a dictionary called files, where the key is the name of the file and the value is a tuple containing three elements:
  • The name of the file (in this case, 'image.png')
  • An open file object that points to the file you want to upload (in this case, 'image.png')
  • The content type of the file (in this case, 'image/png')
  • The fourth line sends the HTTP POST request to the server with the file attached.
  • The fifth line prints the response from the server.

That's it! Your file has been uploaded to the server.

Multiple Ways to Upload a File Using Requests

There are other ways to upload a file using requests as well. Here are a few:

  • You can pass a file-like object instead of a file object:
import requests

url = 'http://example.com/upload'
with open('image.png', 'rb') as f:
    response = requests.post(url, files={'file': ('image.png', f)})
print(response.text)
  • You can pass a string as the value of the files dictionary:
import requests

url = 'http://example.com/upload'
response = requests.post(url, files={'file': open('image.png', 'rb').read()})
print(response.text)
  • You can use a tuple to specify the content type of the file:
import requests

url = 'http://example.com/upload'
files = {'file': ('image.png', open('image.png', 'rb'), 'image/png', {'Expires': '0'})}
response = requests.post(url, files=files)
print(response.text)

These are just a few examples of how you can upload a file using requests. The requests.post() method is very flexible and allows you to customize your HTTP requests to suit your needs.

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