[Python] urllib2 with gzip or deflate encoding

Posted on in Programming

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The other night I was working on some Python code that interacts with the zKillboard API. The API call returns kill information via JSON for EVE Online. While making the request, I was getting an error that I was using "non-acceptable encoding." It turns out that the zKillboard guys require you to accept gzip or deflate encoding in order to save on bandwidth. Here's a snippet showing how I added the "Accept-encoding" header to my urllib2 request:

import json
import urllib2

request = urllib2.Request('https://zkillboard.com/api/kills/solarSystemID/30000142/pastSeconds/86400/')
request.add_header('Accept-encoding', 'gzip,deflate')

data = urllib2.urlopen(request)

kills = json.load(data)

For all you EVE Online guys out there, the following API request will give you the kills in Jita over the last 24 hours. If you like the idea of a video game you can write code against, check out EVE Online's free trial. That link will give you 30 days free.

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