using pyodata to get json output structure format same as browser results

[ashdsi]

From the browser, when I access the URL https://services.odata.org/V2/Northwind/Northwind.svc/Customers?$format=json, I get the JSON response with results and _next objects. I'm expecting to get a similar output in python v3.9 but the output format is different.

How should I pass the parameter for format=json and where, so I can get the same output structure as what the browser returns with _results field

Here's the example python script and it's response

import pyodata
import requests

SERVICE_URL = 'https://services.odata.org/V2/Northwind/Northwind.svc/Customers'

northwind = pyodata.Client(SERVICE_URL, requests.Session())

theservicedata = getattr(northwind.entity_sets, 'Customers')

data = theservicedata.get_entities().count(inline=True).execute()

for each in data:
    print(vars(each))

Sample Output

{
   "_logger":"<Logger pyodata.service (WARNING)>",
   "_service":<pyodata.v2.service.Service object at 0x7ff5fed4e8e0>,
   "_entity_set":"EntitySet(Customers)",
   "_entity_type":"EntityType(Customer)",
   "_key_props":[
      "StructTypeProperty(CustomerID)"
   ],
   "_cache":{
      "CustomerID":"ERNSH",
      "CompanyName":"Ernst Handel",
      "ContactName":"Roland Mendel",
      "ContactTitle":"Sales Manager",
      "Address":"Kirchgasse 6",
      "City":"Graz",
      "Region":"",
      "PostalCode":"8010",
      "Country":"Austria",
      "Phone":"7675-3425",
      "Fax":"7675-3426",
      "Orders":[

      ],
      "CustomerDemographics":[

      ]
   },
   "_entity_key":"(""ERNSH"")",
   "_etag":"None"
}

[phanak-sap]

Hi @ashdsi

for quite easy question it is not an easy answer. It the end, it would depend on the question why exactly you want to have the JSON response from odata api at hand. I will point out some generic recommendation since there is no one good answer here.

• pyodata library was created to NOT work with URLs and JSONs, but wrap odata service from its metadata as python objects api. So if your case is really to request some specific URL, get response as JSON and work later with just the JSON, use a HTTP library, like requests. Pyodata is a wrapper library, so you do not need to handle exactly this in a python code working with some odata APi.
• your script is dropping everything that is in the pyodata python object for the odata api response, that is not the raw JSON from the response. print(vars(each)) - this is also not quite the expected usage of pyodata.
• have you read the Documentation? Generic how to query and what data to expect? E.g. you work with entities as objects from the response, https://github.com/SAP/python-pyodata/blob/master/docs/usage/querying.rst#get-entities-matching-a-filter instead of grabbing raw vars(data) For the specifics of working with _next keys, it is here - https://github.com/SAP/python-pyodata/blob/master/docs/usage/querying.rst#query-server-side-paginations-using-the-__next-field
• you may also reference first the tests for the service.py module. JSON response is basically an input, which is transformed by pyodata to tree of objects, referenceable by the "dot notation".
• the JSON response is within the library stored here: https://github.com/SAP/python-pyodata/blob/9f2dae53869e117d67e83ebcbe38cb8dee32f156/pyodata/v2/service.py#L141 But this is where it is stored AFTER returned by the HTTP networking library of your choice, e.g. mostly Requests, like in your case. This class is more important for inner workings of the library and the end API for a python programmer should be the parsed objects. Or again, probably better to use the HTTP networking library directly, if such parsed objects from JSON are for no use to you. It would be basically just wasting CPU and memory to use pyodata only(!) to grab the odata response JSON.

[phanak-sap]

Hi @ashdsi I am closing this since no response for a week and this is essentially a generic question issue. Feel free to reopen if necessary.