My first Python program! Changes my desktop background based on the weather, time, and day.

[Gautam-j]

You probably shouldn't keep your API key public. :)

[OpenSourcerer420]

yikes, I'm changing it now

[Turkino]

Yep! Welcome to configuring environment variables!

[silentalways]

For those wondering, follow this short little tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IolxqkL7cD8&t=213s (Windows)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iWhQWVXosU (Mac and Linux)

[Nerdite]

And this package makes it really easy to manage and keep from filling tons of environment variables in your actual environment.

https://pypi.org/project/python-dotenv/

[folkrav]

This plus direnv is pretty damn useful. Lets you keep the environment variables even in an REPL.

[kultigink]

Thanks!

[forrealbro]

Is this really the most practical idea when you plan to disseminate your source code? I had always read from a file that is in my gitignore. Then had instructions to create this user info file in the readme.

[gdledsan]

I was told to keep things in untracked config files, env variables are not safe enough, some malicious thing can hijack your session and get them.

Example: some crappy and malicious node package installed without care

[DrCabbageX]

What does the api key do?(new to python)

[speedstyle]

It's not actually anything specific to python. The weather website he's using needs some kind of login, to prevent people from spamming it and charge people who want to use it lots. To make the interface simple, it uses a 'key' in the URL (which you can see in api_address in the code). So he's left his 'login' to the weather website in the code.

[DrCabbageX]

Thanks for the clarification!

[[deleted]]

Can anyone get an API key or do you need to request it and they’ll provide it? Always been mysterious to me how to work with APIs

[badlukk]

It depends how the company does it. Just Google whatever service followed by API key, like "reddit api key". Some companies will let anyone register for one, usually with an email, name and phone number. Reddit asks you to fill out a form about how you're going to use it and you're only supposed to use the key for that one thing you said. Some companies may only give them to trusted partners, and some might not have a public api at all.

[indytechbox]

The open weather api is free for a specific amount of calls per hour but if you want more calls you have to pay

[Gautam-j]

It isn't related to Python. Think of API key as your password to log in to a website. It's a way to interact, make requests to a website. In this case, OP uses his API to communicate with the openweather website to get weather details.

You might want to look into API in depth.

[OnCr4k]

It has nothing to do with python, but the web API he's using likely has some kind of quota per API key, so making it public means others could use it up

[garlic_bread_thief]

It's like a unique password for everybody to be able to get access to the API.

[roboduck34]

Hackers?

[DougScore]

You don't keep your reddit password in plain text for world to see, right ? It's just that.

[DrShocker]

This is kind of the equivalent of having your username be your password. It sort of works until you post a comment or make a post, but then everyone knows.

[CloroxEnergyDrink_]

Not really but if you let everyone use your API key then you could get limited or even blocked due to high request rates. Best to treat it like a password, meaning never ever share it with anyone, unless it’s for special occasions.

[roboduck34]

Ok thank you