Python post request for an API

Question

I'm a beginner and I'm getting a 422 error when running a code to extract data from an API endpoint. I Googled the code and realized it's an (Unprocessable Entity) status code, but I'm not sure how to fix it.

The documentation for the API is right here: https://github.com/fedspendingtransparency/usaspending-api/blob/master/usaspending_api/api_contracts/contracts/v2/search/spending_by_award.md

Can anyone please let me know how to modify my code?

import requests

url = "https://api.usaspending.gov"
endpoint = "/api/v2/search/spending_by_award"
criteria = {
    "filters": {
       "award_type_codes": ["10"],
       "agencies": [
            {
                 "type": "awarding",
                 "tier": "toptier",
                 "name": "Social Security Administration"
            },
            {
                 "type": "awarding",
                 "tier": "subtier",
                 "name": "Social Security Administration"
            }
       ],
       "legal_entities": [779928],
       "recipient_scope": "domestic",
       "recipient_locations": [650597],
       "recipient_type_names": ["Individual"],
       "place_of_performance_scope": "domestic",
       "place_of_performance_locations": [60323],
       "award_amounts": [
              {
                  "lower_bound": 1500000.00,
                  "upper_bound": 1600000.00
              }
       ],
       "award_ids": [1018950]
    },
    "fields": ["Award ID", "Recipient Name", "Start Date", "End Date", "Award Amount", "Awarding Agency", "Awarding Sub Agency", "Award Type", "Funding Agency", "Funding Sub Agency"],
    "sort": "Recipient Name",
    "order": "desc"
}

response = requests.post(f"{url}{endpoint}", params=criteria)

print(response.status_code)

Answer 1

You may modify the data type of several fields, i.e., the award_ids should be a array[string], recipient_locations consists of array[LocationObject]

For a working example:

import requests
import json

url = "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/search/spending_by_award"

payload = json.dumps({
  "filters": {
    "award_type_codes": [
      "10"
    ],
    "agencies": [
      {
        "type": "awarding",
        "tier": "toptier",
        "name": "Social Security Administration"
      },
      {
        "type": "awarding",
        "tier": "subtier",
        "name": "Social Security Administration"
      }
    ],
    "legal_entities": [
      779928
    ],
    "recipient_scope": "domestic",
    "recipient_type_names": [
      "Individual"
    ],
    "place_of_performance_scope": "domestic",
    "award_amounts": [
      {
        "lower_bound": 1500000,
        "upper_bound": 1600000
      }
    ],
    "award_ids": [
      "1018950"
    ]
  },
  "fields": [
    "Award ID",
    "Recipient Name",
    "Start Date",
    "End Date",
    "Award Amount",
    "Awarding Agency",
    "Awarding Sub Agency",
    "Award Type",
    "Funding Agency",
    "Funding Sub Agency"
  ],
  "sort": "Recipient Name",
  "order": "desc"
})
headers = {
  'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  'Cookie': 'cookiesession1=678A3E0DCDEFGHIJKLNOPQRSTUV08936'
}

response = requests.request("POST", url, headers=headers, data=payload)

print(response.text)

print(response.status_code)

Result:

{
    "limit": 10,
    "results": [],
    "page_metadata": {
        "page": 1,
        "hasNext": false,
        "last_record_unique_id": null,
        "last_record_sort_value": "None"
    },
    "messages": [
        [
            "For searches, time period start and end dates are currently limited to an earliest date of 2007-10-01.  For data going back to 2000-10-01, use either the Custom Award Download feature on the website or one of our download or bulk_download API endpoints as listed on https://api.usaspending.gov/docs/endpoints."
        ]
    ]
}