There are many modules available for developing Web Services clients or servers available for Python ¹⁾. These fall into two broad categories:

1. General purpose modules which implement Web Services technologies (i.e. REST or SOAP)
2. Service libraries which implement the client and/or server interface for a service type (e.g. OpenSearch ²⁾) or for a specific service.

A selection of modules commonly used to access Web Services are listed below.

Python modules which implement Web Services technologies, for example:

Purpose built libraries for a type of service or a specific service, for example:

BioPython includes support for a number of bioinformatics Web Services, for example:

Knowledge of the following is required for these tutorials:

• Python
• Extensible Markup Language (XML) ⁶⁾
  • XML Tutorial from w3schools.com
• XML Schema ⁷⁾
  • XML Schema Tutorial from w3schools.com

Tutorials on using a selection of popular Python modules to develop clients for Web Services:

• REST
  • urllib
• SOAP
  • SOAPpy
  • suds
  • ZSI

1. SOAP libraries for Python developers mailing list at http://www.python.org/
2. What’s the best SOAP client library for Python, and where is the documentation for it? thread at stackoverflow
3. Dive Into Python 3, Chapter 14: HTTP Web Services