[Feature Request] Add Python Client Library for the API

[barremian]

What needs to be done

Add a Python client library to use the API.
Expands upon #8.

Why it needs to be done

Having a dedicated Python client library will simplify the process of interacting with the API. It will provide a more user-friendly and Pythonic interface for developers, reducing the need to manually handle HTTP requests and responses.

Is it a desired feature? If so, I'm interested in creating a PR. 😀

[gkamer8]

There are probably people tryna use it from the command line, JavaScript, and other places, so I wonder if there might be a better way than just pushing to pip. Maybe a Python package would wrap a utility that's available in more places. Idk. Suggestions welcome.

[barremian]

To ensure broader accessibility, albeit at the risk of scope creep, one approach could be to provide separate Python and JavaScript packages, each with its own dedicated CLI script. This would allow users to interact with the API in their preferred environment. However, this might introduce additional complexity. Would this align with your goals, or would a different approach be preferable?

[gkamer8]

Before jumping into it I'm going to see if there are existing cli tools to make processing the multipart mixed response easier. You should be able to just pipe what you need from a cURL request to a file. I could provide a template shell command.

If there's nothing good out there, I'd consider writing one basic client that can be thinly wrapped / compiled / distributed for different languages and environments.

[gkamer8]

Ok, I found ripmime, which does the job (munpack also sort of works but isn't as clean). I had to add some more headers to the response to make it work, which it now does. Now that people can quickly try it out from the command line or by running the reference implementation, I'm more willing to wait and see wrt any packages.

Still would make sense to do the package if many people request it.

[gkamer8]

@barremian if you wanted to make a PR to get a package going that would be more than welcome! I don't think I'll step on your toes atm. I would only ask that you try to make it as easy as possible to maintain for different package managers / languages.

For example, you might try to have it autogenerate from an OpenAPI spec. The only trouble with that approach is since the responses are a bit weird while the requests are easy, you would have to do it in a way that actually makes the response simpler to process rather than just replacing the one line request code. If all the package does is call the scape function and return a mess, it's not worth it. There might be other approaches here though. Also maybe I'm underestimating how good the auto-generators are, idk. Or maybe we can submit a PR to the auto generators. Lots of possibilities, I'm just spitballing.

[barremian]

Hi @gkamer8, the ripmime solution looks great. I agree that we should hold off on the Python/JavaScript package for now, unless there is user demand. I'll explore autogenerators in the meantime.