Python_APIs_Intro

Notes for Lesson on 4/30

A simple FastAPI project demonstrating basic API endpoints for reading, iterating, and managing names and numbers.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Prerequisites
• Installation
• Usage
  • Running the API
  • Available Endpoints
  • Example Requests
• Files in This Project
• Contributing
• License

Overview

This project uses FastAPI to expose a few simple REST endpoints:

• Read a greeting message
• Read and increment a counter stored in number.txt
• Manage an in‑memory list of names
• Set and get a separate numeric value

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• pip

Installation

1. Clone the repo or download the files.
2. (Optional) Create a virtual environment:

   python -m venv .venv
   source .venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

Running the API

Start the server with Uvicorn:

uvicorn main:app --reload

By default, it listens on http://127.0.0.1:8000.

Available Endpoints

Method	Path	Description
GET	/	Returns a greeting JSON
GET	/iterate	Reads, returns, then increments number.txt
GET	/names	Returns JSON list of added names
POST	/addname/{name}	Appends name to list, returns name
PUT	/set_right_num/{s_num}	Sets internal right_num, returns it
GET	/right_num	Returns the current right_num

All endpoints are defined in main.py.

Example Requests

You can test endpoints via curl, Python requests, or the included Jupyter notebook.

Using curl

# Greeting
curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/

# Iterate number
curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/iterate

# Add a name
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/addname/elias

# Set right_num
curl -X PUT http://127.0.0.1:8000/set_right_num/6

# Get right_num
curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/right_num

Using Python requests

import requests

# Add a name
resp = requests.post("http://127.0.0.1:8000/addname/alice")
print(resp.json())

# Get names
resp = requests.get("http://127.0.0.1:8000/names")
print(resp.json())

Jupyter Notebook

Open and run request.ipynb for live examples.

Files in This Project

• main.py – FastAPI application
• requirements.txt – Python dependencies
• number.txt – Counter storage
• request.ipynb – Example usage notebook
• .gitignore – Ignored files list
• APIs in Python.pdf – Lesson material PDF
• LICENSE – MIT License
• CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md – Contributor Covenant

Contributing

Please open issues or pull requests via GitHub. Use the templates in .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.