API Retrieval for JSON (SIMPLE)

import urllib.request
import urllib.response
from urllib.error import HTTPError
import json
from os.path import join

'''
This is a very shortened Python class for retrieving API data
from just about anywhere. This bit of code works for 90% of
anything I do. There caveats though:

Caveats:
    1) __init__() builds the API URL for you with "&" as the delimiter
        A clear example of what it does is commented out:
            self.options = "&".join(myList)
    2) Take a close look at the kinds of variables your API provider
        wants to see
    3) options_dict is a Python dict (see the example) below for weather
        that makes it easy to see variable names and values you want to pass
    4) startswith_url will probably need to be specially constructed
        manually after seeing what base URL queries the API provider
        expects. In the larger Python class that I use I have methods
        for constructing all kinds of custom URLs but this is much
        more complex. Best to keep it simple!
    5) This snippet only pulls JSON data. XML can be retrieved almost the
        same way -- I would recommend xmltodict (what I use). I can provide
        a larger version of this Python class later if you want.


'''
class APIRetrieve:
    def __init__(self,startswith_url,options_dict,debug=False):
        #self.options = "&".join(myList)
        self.debug = debug
        self.options = []
        self.data = {}
        options_list = []
        for key in options_dict:
            options_list.append("%s=%s" % (key,options_dict[key]))
            options = "&".join(options_list)
        self.full_url = ("%s&%s" % (startswith_url,options))
        if (debug == True):
            print ("%s" % self.full_url)

    def APIRequestJSON(self):
        req = urllib.request.Request(self.full_url)
        try:
            response = urllib.request.urlopen(req).read().decode("utf-8")
            self.data=json.loads(response)
        except HTTPError as e:
            print(e.read().decode("utf-8"))

        return self.data

'''
 The following function will pull a simple weather query from Open Weather
 You can create your own API call by checking the needs of your API provider
 and entering into the options = {} dictionary.

 In this case we are passing the APPID with the access key provided to us after
 registering with Open Weather. We are also passing one variable (zip = 98230).
 The variable for your account ID may be named something other than APPID -- check
 the API provider's documentation. Common examples are APIKEY, KEY, ID, etc.

 Once APIRetrieve constructs the & delimited URL it will look like:
    http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?&APPID=df58cfc63456b48a97f21a63f561b572&zip=98230

 You can enter this URL into a web browser just to test it.

 As mentioned (above) in the APIRetrieve class comments base_url will need to be
 manually assembled per your API provider's instructions.

 All options (name=value) can be neatly placed inside the options={} dict. You can put as many
 variables into options as the API allows.


'''
def test_json_weather():
     base_url = "http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?"
     options = {
        'zip' : '98230',
        'APPID' : 'df58cfc63456b48a97f21a63f561b572'
        }
     api_weather = APIRetrieve(base_url,options,True)
     current_weather = api_weather.APIRequestJSON()
     print(current_weather)


test_json_weather()

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