Python3 script to access Alma APIs

getbibs.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import sys
from argparse import ArgumentParser
from io import BytesIO

import requests
from lxml import etree

DFLT_ENDPOINT = 'https://api-na.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com'


def get_bibs(mms_ids, endpoint=DFLT_ENDPOINT, api_key=None, pretty=False):
    session = requests.Session()
    session.headers.update({
        'Authorization': f'apikey {api_key}'
    })
    bib_url = f'{endpoint}/almaws/v1/bibs'
    response = session.get(bib_url, params={'mms_id': ','.join(mms_ids)})
    if pretty:
        doc = etree.parse(BytesIO(response.content))
        print(etree.tostring(
            doc.getroot(), encoding="utf-8", pretty_print=True
        ).decode('utf-8'))
    else:
        print(response.content.decode('utf-8'))


def create_parser(program_name):
    parser = ArgumentParser(
        prog=program_name,
        description="Utility to get bibs from ExLibris"
    )
    parser.add_argument('--endpoint', metavar='URL', default=DFLT_ENDPOINT,
                        help='Change the endpoint for bib utility')
    parser.add_argument('--api-key', metavar='KEY', default=None, required=True,
                        help='The API key defines the institution to query')
    parser.add_argument('--pretty', action='store_true', default=False,
                        help='Pretty print the XML')
    parser.add_argument('mms_id', nargs='+')

    return parser


def main_guts(args):
    parser = create_parser(args[0])
    opts = parser.parse_args(args[1:])
    return get_bibs(
        opts.mms_id,
        endpoint=opts.endpoint,
        api_key=opts.api_key,
        pretty=opts.pretty
    )


def main():
    rc = main_guts(sys.argv)
    if rc:
        sys.exit(rc)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

To use this, you would need to install the Python package "requests" and "lxml" as follows:

pip install requests lxml

Once you have installed this, you can call the API for an MMS_ID, for example 991125260000541, as follows:

python getbibs.py --api-key l8xx111111111 991125260000541