`request.json()` throwing "Response not interpretable as json" using requests

Question

import requests
import json

def get_movies_from_tastedive(movie):
    d = {"q":movie,"type":"movie","limit":"5"}
    movies = requests.get("https://tastedive.com/api/similar",params=d)
    x = movies.json()
    print(x)

I am running the above code trying to access TasteDive API but I keep getting this error:

{'error': 'Response not interpretable as json. Try printing the .text attribute'}

Why is this happening?

Answer 1

I too had the same issue in Coursera's system (even with requests_with_caching) where it worked on my machine. The fix is to change your parameters to reflect proper JSON formatting (i.e. space after each colon and comma):

Your code:

d = {"q":movie,"type":"movie","limit":"5"}

Proper code which fixed my issue (I had already swapped to requests_with_caching before):

d = {"q": movie, "type": "movie", "limit": "5"}

After this change my test began miraculously passing.

Answer 2

import requests_with_caching
import json

def get_movies_from_tastedive(name_movie):
    parameters = {'q':name_movie, 'type':'movies', 'limit':5}
    a = requests_with_caching.get( 'https://tastedive.com/api/similar', params = parameters)
    b = a.json()
    return b

print(get_movies_from_tastedive("Bridesmaids"))
print(get_movies_from_tastedive("Black Panther"))
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Output

found in permanent_cache
{'Similar': {'Info': [{'Name': 'Bridesmaids', 'Type': 'movie'}], 'Results': [{'Name': 'Baby Mama', 'Type': 'movie'}, {'Name': 'The Five-Year Engagement', 'Type': 'movie'}, {'Name': 'Bachelorette', 'Type': 'movie'}, {'Name': 'The Heat', 'Type': 'movie'}, {'Name': 'Date Night', 'Type': 'movie'}]}}
found in permanent_cache
{'Similar': {'Info': [{'Name': 'Black Panther', 'Type': 'movie'}], 'Results': [{'Name': 'Captain Marvel', 'Type': 'movie'}, {'Name': 'Avengers: Infinity War', 'Type': 'movie'}, {'Name': 'Ant-Man And The Wasp', 'Type': 'movie'}, {'Name': 'The Fate Of The Furious', 'Type': 'movie'}, {'Name': 'Deadpool 2', 'Type': 'movie'}]}}

Answer 3

Your problem looks very similar to the same I got on Data Collection and Processing with Python final assignment.

I fixed it using requests_with_caching instead of requests on Runestone's task

import requests_with_caching

def get_movies_from_tastedive(criteria):
    params = {'q': criteria, 'type': 'movies', 'limit': '5'}
    return requests_with_caching.get('https://tastedive.com/api/similar', params = params).json()

Answer 4

Actually you are the calling the API wrongly. first of all you need to use data= or json= depending on type of content you are sending to the API if it's form-data or JSON.

Secondly: movie is invalid value because it's need to be wrapped with "movie" < double quotation.

Below you should be able to call the API correctly :

import requests
import json

data = {
    "q": "movie",
    "type": "movie",
    "limit": "5"
}


def main(url):
    r = requests.get(url, json=data).json()
    print(r)
    #print(r.keys()) # to see the keys as it's now a JSON dict.
    dumper = json.dumps(r, indent=4)
    # print(dumper) #to see it in nice formatted tree.


main("https://tastedive.com/api/similar")

Output:

{'Similar': {'Info': [{'Name': '!!!', 'Type': 'music'}], 'Results': [{'Name': 'Meeting Of Important People', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'Soldout', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'La Tour Montparnasse Infernale', 'Type': 'movie'}, {'Name': 'Young & Sick', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'The Vanity Project', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'Thirsty Fish', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'Sombear', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'The High Court', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'Better Luck Next Time', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'Stars Of Track And Field', 
'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'Beachwood Sparks', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 
'Tinted Windows', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'Promise Of Redemption', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'The Music', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'Pretty Girls Make Graves', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'Zach Gill', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'Chappo', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'Kisses', 'Type': 'music'}, {'Name': 'Jarle Bernhoft', 'Type': 'music'}]}}

And for the dumper:

{
    "Similar": {
        "Info": [
            {
                "Name": "!!!",
                "Type": "music"
            }
        ],
        "Results": [
            {
                "Name": "Meeting Of Important People",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Soldout",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "La Tour Montparnasse Infernale",
                "Type": "movie"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Young & Sick",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "The Vanity Project",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Thirsty Fish",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Sombear",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "The High Court",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Better Luck Next Time",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Stars Of Track And Field",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Beachwood Sparks",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Tinted Windows",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Promise Of Redemption",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "The Music",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Pretty Girls Make Graves",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Zach Gill",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Chappo",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Kisses",
                "Type": "music"
            },
            {
                "Name": "Jarle Bernhoft",
                "Type": "music"
            }
        ]
    }
}

Answer 5

The endpoint doesn't return JSON. This probably means that you entered a file name having issues (maybe strange / not accepted characters?).

Please try this code to see what it returns, in my examples it returns always JSON data:

import requests
import json

def get_movies_from_tastedive(movie):
    d = {"q":movie,"type":"movie","limit":"5"}
    movies = requests.get("https://tastedive.com/api/similar",params=d)
    try:
        return movies.json()
    except Exception as e:
        print(e)
        return movies.text

print("Getting data for movie Seven:")
print(get_movies_from_tastedive("Seven"))
print("\nGetting data for movie Sevssssen:")
print(get_movies_from_tastedive("Sevssssen"))

Output

Getting data for movie Seven:
{u'Similar': {u'Info': [{u'Type': u'movie', u'Name': u'Seven'}], u'Results': [{u'Type': u'movie', u'Name': u'Primal Fear'}, {u'Type': u'movie', u'Name': u'The Usual Suspects'}, {u'Type': u'movie', u'Name': u'The Game'}, {u'Type': u'movie', u'Name': u'Insomnia'}, {u'Type': u'movie', u'Name': u'American History X'}]}}

Getting data for movie Sevssssen:
{u'Similar': {u'Info': [{u'Type': u'unknown', u'Name': u'sevssssen'}, {u'Type': u'unknown', u'Name': u'sevssssen'}], u'Results': []}}