Real Python: Python's urllib.request for HTTP Requests

This tutorial covers how to use the urllib.request module in Python to make HTTP requests. The urllib.request module is part of Python's standard library and allows you to perform HTTP operations without adding external dependencies. You can use urllib.request to execute GET and POST requests, handle HTTP responses, and manage character encodings. The tutorial also covers how to handle common errors and differentiate between urllib.request and the requests library. By the end of the tutorial, you will understand how to make basic HTTP requests, deal with character encodings of HTTP messages, and solve common errors when using urllib.request. The tutorial starts with making a basic GET request to a sample URL and then covers making a GET request to a mock REST API for some JSON data. You will also learn how to use the urlopen function from urllib.request to make a request and receive a response. The tutorial provides examples of how to read the body of the response, close the response object, and display the content. Additionally, you will learn how to decode and parse the returned JSON bytes into a Python dictionary. The tutorial also provides a high-level overview of what an HTTP message is and how urllib.request handles them, which will provide a solid foundation for troubleshooting many different kinds of issues. Overall, the tutorial aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how to use urllib.request to make HTTP requests in Python.