OpenRefine-column-addition-OpenTree-TNRS-match_names

import urllib
import urllib2

try:
  # Base url for the TNRS match_names API
  url = 'http://api.opentreeoflife.org/v2/tnrs/match_names'
  # Encode data value to be looked up as an array of names:
  data = '{"names": ["'+value+'"]}'
  print "Looking up: " + data
  # Set HTTP headers:
  headers = { 'Content-Type' : 'application/json' }
  # Make the call using HTTP POST
  req = urllib2.Request(url, data, headers)
  response = urllib2.urlopen(req)
  # Return the JSON value
  return response.read()
except (Error):
  print 'Exception occurred'

This is a Jython snippet that can be used for a column addition operation to call the OpenTreeOfLife TNRS API and store the JSON result.
It's a bit more complex than a regular OpenRefine column addition as the OpenTree API only responds to HTTP POST. OpenRefine's function to add a column by fetching URLs can only use HTTP GET.