APIs and Web Scraping

Introduction

• Now that you know file handling, let's learn to get data from the internet! This opens up endless automation possibilities.
• You'll learn to use APIs and extract data from websites.

What is an API?

• An API (Application Programming Interface) lets your program communicate with other services.
• Example: Get weather data, currency rates, news articles, or social media posts automatically.
• Python's `requests` library makes this simple. Install it: `pip install requests`

Making API Requests

• “`python
• import requests
• # Get data from an API
• response = requests.get('https://api.github.com/users/github')
• data = response.json() # Convert to Python dictionary
• print(data['name'])
• print(data['followers'])
• “`
• Real Use Cases:
• – Get crypto prices automatically
• – Check weather for your city
• – Fetch news headlines
• – Get exchange rates for currency conversion

Web Scraping Basics

• Web scraping means extracting data from websites. Install BeautifulSoup: `pip install beautifulsoup4`
• “`python
• import requests
• from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
• url = 'https://example.com'
• response = requests.get(url)
• soup = BeautifulSoup(response.content, 'html.parser')
• # Find all headings
• headings = soup.find_all('h1')
• for heading in headings:
• print(heading.text)
• “`

Automation Example: Price Monitor

• “`python
• import requests
• import time
• def check_crypto_price():
• url = 'https://api.coinbase.com/v2/prices/BTC-USD/spot'
• response = requests.get(url)
• data = response.json()
• price = data['data']['amount']
• print(f'Bitcoin Price: ${price}')
• return float(price)
• # Check price every hour
• while True:
• price = check_crypto_price()
• if price < 40000:
• print('🔔 Price Alert! Bitcoin below $40,000')
• time.sleep(3600) # Wait 1 hour
• “`

Freelance Opportunities

• Web scraping and API integration are highly demanded skills:
• Common Projects:
• – Scrape product prices from e-commerce sites
• – Extract contact information from business directories
• – Monitor competitor prices automatically
• – Collect data for research or analysis
• Earnings: $30-200 per small scraping project on Fiverr/Upwork