Received an empty Json response using Python Requests

Question

On zhihu, a Chinese Q&A community similar to Quora,I am writing a small program to create a list of users who follow a particular user. On the page showing this information, by scrolling down to the bottom, the browser sends a post request and receives a response in json to extend the followers list.

A snippet of the received json is (copied from firebug):

{"r":0,"msg":["<div class=\"zm-profile-card zm-profile-section-item zg-clear no-hovercard\">\n<div class=\"zg-right\">\n<button data-follow=\"m:button\" data-id=\"f09ebe71535bd89a43dd979c77cf3676\" class=\"zg-btn zg-btn-unfollow zm-rich-follow-btn small nth-0\">\u53d6\u6d88\u5173\u6ce8<\/button>.....

I have little knowledge about json but I am sure that 'msg' contains information about followers.

In my program, I use Python Requests module to send this post request to server.

payload={"method":"next","params":params,"_xsrf":_xsrf}#form data 
response=session.post('http://www.zhihu.com/node/ProfileFollowersListV2',data=payload,headers=header)

response has a status code 200, but response.json() returns:

{u'msg': [], u'r': 0}

where the 'msg' is empty. Can anyone help me with this?

You're sure it's POST and not GET that the browser is doing? — John Zwinck
– John Zwinck, Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 6:36
Looks like you should be registered and logged in to view someone's followers. Right? — alecxe
– alecxe, Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 6:37
thanks for the comments. I am sure it's POST request as I saw it in firebug. — user3571189
– user3571189, Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 14:22

alxia · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-16 17:50:40Z

1

I encountered this very problem when I tried to get the content in the returned json file. To solve this, you just need to adjust one thing.

payload={"method":"next","params":params,"_xsrf":_xsrf}

Notice the params. You didn't show us what exactly it was. Since you and I have the same question, I'd assume that your params looks like this,

params = json.dumps({"offset":20,"order_by":"created","hash_id":"blablabla"})

Here is the big one. Your value of "offset" must be an integer, 20 in this case, but definitely not a string, say something like "20". It's really hard to tell what goes wrong when every element is double quoted.

Remember,the value of "offset" must be an integer!

"offset":20

answered Mar 16, 2016 at 17:50

alxia

112 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Received an empty Json response using Python Requests

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related