# "API Client" Exercise ## Prerequisites * [APIs](https://prof-rossetti.gitbook.io/intro-to-python/notes/software/apis) * ["Web Requests" Exercise](https://prof-rossetti.gitbook.io/intro-to-python/exercises/web-requests) ## Business Prompt In previous "grocery store" exercises, we have been processing grocery product data from a local CSV file. This allowed managers at different locations to keep their own inventory of products. But to improve consistency of record-keeping across stores, the store owner now wants managers at all stores to share the same inventory of products. As a lead developer on your team, the professor has deployed the "Groceries API" web service to a public server available at . He explains, each store can use its own "API Client" application to issue HTTP requests to the API, and the API will perform the corresponding operations on a shared CSV inventory of products stored on the server. ## Objective Your objective is to write a command-line Python application that will allow users in any store to create, read, update, and destroy products from this shared inventory. ## Challenges First, read the [API Documentation](https://github.com/prof-rossetti/products-api-flask/blob/csv/DOCS.md), which describes how to make requests to perform certain CRUD operations. > NOTE: You'll see some `curl` examples in there, but that is a command-line utility, and there aren't actually any Python code examples in there. The parts of the documentation you should focus on for each operation are: "what kind of request do I need to make?" (e.g. GET, POST, etc.), and "which URL do I make the request to?" After consulting the docs, issue an appropriate HTTP request in Python to satisfy each of the challenges below. ### List Products API Documentation: [List Products](https://github.com/prof-rossetti/products-api-flask/blob/csv/DOCS.md#list-products) Request information about all products, then loop through and print the "id" and "name" of each. ### Show a Product API Documentation: [Show Product](https://github.com/prof-rossetti/products-api-flask/blob/csv/DOCS.md#show-product) Choose a product identifier from the list, then request information about that specific product, then print all the product's attributes. ### Destroy a Product API Documentation: [Destroy Product](https://github.com/prof-rossetti/products-api-flask/blob/csv/DOCS.md#destroy-product) Request to delete the previously-selected product from the inventory. ### Create a new Product API Documentation: [Create Product](https://github.com/prof-rossetti/products-api-flask/blob/csv/DOCS.md#create-product) Request to create a new product in the inventory. ### Update a Product API Documentation: [Update Product](https://github.com/prof-rossetti/products-api-flask/blob/csv/DOCS.md#update-product) Request to update the new product you recently created. ## [Solutions](https://github.com/prof-rossetti/intro-to-python/tree/f09f436ca11c0a9d85f2e02ce9726af7b60bf3e5/exercises/api-client/solution.py) --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://prof-rossetti.gitbook.io/intro-to-python/exercises/api-client.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.