Working with the client

Create an instance of the client

OpenAQ Python provides a synchronous client via the OpenAQ class and an asynchronous client via the AsyncOpenAQ class, for working with async/await within event loops. This guide will show the options on how to create an instance of the client class.

SyncAsync

from openaq import OpenAQ

client = OpenAQ(api_key='replace-with-a-valid-openaq-api-key')

from openaq import AsyncOpenAQ

client = AsyncOpenAQ(api_key='replace-with-a-valid-openaq-api-key')

openaq uses httpx under-the-hood to make http calls to the OpenAQ API. The OpenAQ client follows the same pattern as httpx for opening and closing connections. Once the client is instantiated an httpx.Client (or httpx.AsyncClient) is opened and must be explicitly closed after use. This allows for more efficient usage of network resources by maintaining an open connection.

SyncAsync

from openaq import OpenAQ

client = OpenAQ(api_key='replace-with-a-valid-openaq-api-key')
client.locations.get(2178)
client.close()

import asyncio

from openaq import OpenAQ

async def main():
    client = AsyncOpenAQ(api_key='replace-with-a-valid-openaq-api-key')
    await client.locations.get(2178)
    await client.close()

if __name__ ==  '__main__':
    loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
    loop.run_until_complete(main())

Alternatively we can use a context manager to handle closing the connection for us:

SyncAsync

from openaq import OpenAQ

with OpenAQ(api_key='replace-with-a-valid-openaq-api-key') as client:
    client.locations.get(2178)

import asyncio

from openaq import OpenAQ

async def main():
    async with AsyncOpenAQ(api_key='replace-with-a-valid-openaq-api-key') as client:
        await client.locations.get(2178)

if __name__ ==  '__main__':
    loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
    loop.run_until_complete(main())