Converting cookie string into Python dict

Question

In Fiddler, I captured an HTTPS request with the following cookie string sent from the client (visible in Inspectors > Raw):

Cookie: devicePixelRatio=1; ident=exists; __utma=13103r6942.2918; __utmc=13103656942; __utmz=13105942.1.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided); mp_3cb27825a6612988r46d00tinct_id%22%3A%201752338%2C%22%24initial_referrer%22%3A%20%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pion_created_at%22%3A%20%222015-08-03%22%2C%22platform%22%3A%20%22web%22%2C%%22%3A%20%%22%7D; t_session=BAh7DUkiD3Nlc3NpbWVfZV9uYW1lBjsARkkiH1BhY2lmaWMgVGltZSAoVVMgJiBDYW5hZGEpBjsAVEkiFXNpZ25pbl9wZXJzb25faWQGOwBGaQMSvRpJIhRsYXN0X2xvZ2luX2RhdGUGOwBGVTogQWN0aXZlU3VwcG9ydDo6VGltZVdpdGhab25lWwhJdToJVGltZQ2T3RzAAABA7QY6CXpvbmVJIghVVEMGOwBUSSIfUGFjaWZpZWRfZGFzaGJvYXJkX21lc3NhZ2UGOwBGVA%3D%3D--6ce6ef4bd6bc1a469164b6740e7571c754b31cca

I'd like to use this cookie in a Python Requests request. (I modified the cookie slightly, so that it can't be used by readers for nefarious purposes!).

However, Requests appears to use a dictionary format for sending cookies, and I'm having trouble converting the above string/blob into a dictionary format.

My question is:

• Is there an automated way to convert a string (like the cookie I captured in Fiddler) into a dictionary in Python?

Answer 1

You should be able to use SimpleCookie which is available in the standard Python library:

from http.cookies import SimpleCookie

rawdata = 'devicePixelRatio=1; ident=exists; __utma=13103r6942.2918; __utmc=13103656942; __utmz=13105942.1.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided); mp_3cb27825a6612988r46d00tinct_id%22%3A%201752338%2C%22%24initial_referrer%22%3A%20%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pion_created_at%22%3A%20%222015-08-03%22%2C%22platform%22%3A%20%22web%22%2C%%22%3A%20%%22%7D; t_session=BAh7DUkiD3Nlc3NpbWVfZV9uYW1lBjsARkkiH1BhY2lmaWMgVGltZSAoVVMgJiBDYW5hZGEpBjsAVEkiFXNpZ25pbl9wZXJzb25faWQGOwBGaQMSvRpJIhRsYXN0X2xvZ2luX2RhdGUGOwBGVTogQWN0aXZlU3VwcG9ydDo6VGltZVdpdGhab25lWwhJdToJVGltZQ2T3RzAAABA7QY6CXpvbmVJIghVVEMGOwBUSSIfUGFjaWZpZWRfZGFzaGJvYXJkX21lc3NhZ2UGOwBGVA%3D%3D--6ce6ef4bd6bc1a469164b6740e7571c754b31cca'
cookie = SimpleCookie()
cookie.load(rawdata)

# Even though SimpleCookie is dictionary-like, it internally uses a Morsel object
# which is incompatible with requests. Manually construct a dictionary instead.
cookies = {k: v.value for k, v in cookie.items()}

If you are using Python 2, you will have to import from Cookie instead of http.cookies.

Docs:

https://docs.python.org/2/library/cookie.html

https://docs.python.org/3/library/http.cookies.html