3. Testing the TVMaze API

TVMaze is a tool that:

Allows you to search for TV shows and get information about them. Provides a RESTful API to access the data.

In the following example, we will use the TVMaze API to search for TV shows. The base url is TVMaze API.

In this case, we will use the requests library to make the API request. The base url is "https://api.tvmaze.com/search/shows". To this url, a parameter q with the value of the show big bang theory will be passed. Finally, the url will look like this: "https://api.tvmaze.com/search/shows?q=big+bang+theory". Note that after the base url, a ? is written to indicate that the parameters follow.

import requests import json api_url = "http://api.tvmaze.com/search/shows" # The parameters that will be passed to the url are written inside a dictionary # we don't need to add spaces in parameters, because the requests library will do it for us parameters = {"q": "big bang theory"} # We request the data from the api response = requests.get(api_url, params=parameters) # Now we print the url print(response.url) print() # We transform the json-formatted data to Python data data = json.loads(response.text) print(data)

In the previous example, you could see that the API returns text, which if passed through json.loads transforms into a Python dictionary. However, it is not entirely readable. This can be solved with json.dumps.

Now, we will request information about the show golden girls. This time we will print the data in a readable format. We will use urllib to make the request.

import urllib.request import urllib.parse import json api_url = "http://api.tvmaze.com/search/shows?" # The following line is for the url parameters # we don't need to add spaces in parameters, because the requests library will do it for us parameters = urllib.parse.urlencode({"q": "golden girls"}) request = urllib.request.urlopen(api_url + parameters) data = json.loads(request.read()) # We print the data in a user-readable format print(json.dumps(data, indent=4)) print("The query returned " + str(len(data)) + " results")

The following exercise comes with automatic grading.

Now we will ask TVMaze for the show suits. Then the dictionary parameters should have the value "suits" assigned to the key "q".

First, you will request from the API what was described above, and save this in the variable request. In another variable, request_url, save the url of the request. Then, assign the data to the variable data. Next, assign the variable results the number of results that the request returned (as was done in the previous example).

Now, you will calculate the average rating of all the shows that were returned. You will save this in the variable average_rating. Hint: the ratings are located within data["show"]["rating"]["average"]. You will need to use a for loop to calculate the average.

Lastly you will search for the number of times the word "Drama" appears in the genres related to suits. You will save that number in the variable drama_count. Hint: the genres are located within data["show"]["genres"]. You will need to use a for loop to calculate the number of dramas.

import requests import json api_url = "http://api.tvmaze.com/search/shows" parameters = {} request = request_url = data = results = total_rating = 0 rated_shows = 0 for show in data: # complete the loop drama_count = 0 for show in data: # complete the loop print("Request url:", request_url) print("Results:", results) print("Average rating:", average_rating) print("Number of dramas:", drama_count) ==== from unittest.gui import TestCaseGui class myTests(TestCaseGui): def testOne(self): self.assertEqual( request_url, "http://api.tvmaze.com/search/shows?q=suits", "Testing that the url is: http://api.tvmaze.com/search/shows?q=suits", ) self.assertEqual(results, 10, "Testing that results is assigned correctly.") self.assertEqual(average_rating, 7.8, "Testing that similar_movies are: 7.8") self.assertEqual(drama_count, 6, "Testing that drama_count is assigned correctly.") myTests().main()

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