Specifically, we’ll be discussing how to handle them using Python Requests library’s DefaultCookiePolicy feature.
Now, if you’ve ever tried making requests with this library before, you might have noticed that sometimes it comes back empty-handed or throws an error about a missing cookie. That’s where the DefaultCookiePolicy comes in! This handy little guy allows us to specify how we want our cookies to be handled by Requests.
First: let’s create a new Python file and import the necessary libraries. We’ll also set up some variables for our URL, headers, and data (if needed).
# Import the necessary libraries
import requests # Importing the requests library to make HTTP requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup # Importing the BeautifulSoup library for web scraping
# Set up variables for URL, headers, and data
url = 'https://www.example.com/' # The URL we want to make a request to
headers = { # A dictionary containing the headers we want to include in our request
"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/89.0.4382.90 Safari/537.36" # This header specifies the user agent, which helps the server identify the type of device making the request
}
data = { # A dictionary containing the data we want to send in our request
"username": "your_username", # The username we want to send
"password": "your_password" # The password we want to send
}
Now that we have our variables set up, let’s make a request to the URL and handle any cookies that might be returned using DefaultCookiePolicy.
We can do this by creating an instance of `Session()`, which allows us to maintain state across multiple requests (i.e., keep track of cookies). Then we’ll use the `get()` method with our session object, passing in the URL and headers as arguments. We’ll also set the `cookies` parameter to `requests.utils.dict_from_cookiejar(session.cookies)`, which will convert the cookie jar (which is a dictionary-like object that stores cookies) into a Python dictionary for easier access.
# Create a session object using the requests library
session = requests.Session()
# Make a GET request using the session object, passing in the URL and headers as arguments
response = session.get(url, headers=headers)
# Convert the cookie jar from the session object into a Python dictionary for easier access
cookies_dict = requests.utils.dict_from_cookiejar(session.cookies)
# Print out the cookies dictionary
print("Cookies:", cookies_dict)
If you run this code and check the output, you should see a dictionary of all the cookies that were returned by the server.
But what if we want to handle these cookies differently for subsequent requests? That’s where DefaultCookiePolicy comes in! We can set it using the `Session()` constructor or by calling the `cookies.set_policy(DefaultCookiePolicy())` method on an existing session object.
Here are some examples of how you might use this feature:
– Ignore all cookies (i.e., don’t send any):
# Import the requests library
import requests
# Create a session object
s = requests.Session()
# Set the cookie policy to ignore all cookies
s.cookies.set_policy(requests.utils.CookiePolicy('ignore_all'))
# Make a GET request to the specified URL with the given headers
response = s.get(url, headers=headers)
# The session object allows us to persist certain parameters across requests, such as cookies
# The set_policy() method sets the cookie policy for the session
# The 'ignore_all' parameter tells the session to ignore all cookies
# This means that no cookies will be sent with the request, and any cookies received in the response will be discarded
# This is useful for maintaining privacy and avoiding tracking by websites
# The response variable stores the response from the GET request, which can then be used for further processing
– Accept all cookies (i.e., always send them):
# Import the requests library
import requests
# Create a session object
s = requests.Session()
# Set the cookie policy to accept all cookies
s.cookies.set_policy(requests.utils.CookiePolicy('accept_all'))
# Send a GET request to the specified URL with the given headers
response = s.get(url, headers=headers)
# The session object allows for persistent cookies to be used across multiple requests
# The cookie policy is set to accept all cookies, ensuring that all cookies are sent with each request
# The GET request is sent to the specified URL with the given headers, and the response is stored in the 'response' variable
– Only accept cookies that are marked as secure:
# Import the requests library
import requests
# Create a session object
s = requests.Session()
# Set the cookie policy to only accept cookies that are marked as secure
s.cookies.set_policy(requests.utils.CookiePolicy('strict_same_site', 'ignore'))
# Send a GET request to the specified URL with the given headers
response = s.get(url, headers=headers)
# The session object allows for persistent cookies to be used across multiple requests
# The set_policy method sets the cookie policy for the session
# The 'strict_same_site' policy only allows cookies to be sent in a first-party context
# The 'ignore' policy allows for cookies to be sent in a cross-site context
# The GET request is used to retrieve data from the specified URL
# The headers parameter allows for custom headers to be added to the request
# The response variable stores the response from the GET request
– Only accept cookies that are marked as secure and have the same site domain:
# Import the requests library to make HTTP requests
import requests
# Create a session object to persist cookies across requests
s = requests.Session()
# Set the cookie policy to only accept cookies that are marked as secure and have the same site domain
s.cookies.set_policy(requests.utils.CookiePolicy('strict'))
# Make a GET request to the specified URL with the given headers
response = s.get(url, headers=headers)
With DefaultCookiePolicy and Session(), handling cookies in Python Requests library is a breeze. Just remember to always check the documentation for any updates or changes to this feature.
Later!