How to Get Data from API in Python Flask

Last Updated : 05 Jul, 2024

In modern web development, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) play a crucial role in enabling the interaction between different software systems. Flask, a lightweight WSGI web application framework in Python, provides a simple and flexible way to create APIs. In this article, we'll explore how to get data from an API using Python Flask. We'll cover setting up a Flask project, making API requests, and handling responses.

Setting Up a Flask Project

To get started with Flask, you'll need to install it. You can do this using pip:

Install Flask and requests:

pip install Flask requests

Directory Structure:

Next, create a new directory for your project and a Python file.

flask_api_project/
├── app.py
└── templates/
    └── data.html

Displaying Data in Flask Templates

Flask supports rendering HTML templates using the Jinja2 template engine. Let's create a simple HTML template to display the data we get from the API.

First, create a templates directory in your project folder and add a file named data.html:

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>API Data</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>API Data</h1>
    <pre>{{ data | tojson }}</pre>
</body>
</html>

Next, create a new directory for your project and a Python file, e.g., app.py. In this file, we'll set up the basic structure of our Flask application.

Python

from flask import Flask, jsonify, request

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def home():
    return "Welcome to the Flask API tutorial!"

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run(debug=True)

app.py

The requests library provides a straightforward way to handle API responses. In the example, we use the json() method to parse the JSON response from the API. We then use Flask's jsonify function to return the data as a JSON response from our endpoint.

Python

from flask import Flask, jsonify, render_template
import requests

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def home():
    return "Welcome to the Flask API tutorial!"

@app.route('/api/data')
def get_data():
    try:
        response = requests.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1')
        # Raises an HTTPError if the HTTP request returned an unsuccessful status code
        response.raise_for_status()  
        data = response.json()
    except requests.exceptions.HTTPError as http_err:
        return jsonify({'error': f'HTTP error occurred: {http_err}'}), 500
    except Exception as err:
        return jsonify({'error': f'Other error occurred: {err}'}), 500
    return render_template('data.html', data=data)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run(debug=True)