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pythonjsonpython-requestsqgis

Copy text with formatting from a ArcGIS map server query to a text file, while maintaining formatting, using Python 3?

I am trying to automate a process by which I can query an ArcGIS map server, take the resulting text and save it as a .json file.

The map server can be queried through an API.

api = "https://csg.esri-southafrica.com/server/rest/services/CSGSearch/MapServer/2/query?where=1%3D1&text=&objectIds=&time=&geometry=2053965%2C-4019103%2C2054056%2C-4019169+&geometryType=esriGeometryEnvelope&inSR=3857&spatialRel=esriSpatialRelIntersects&relationParam=&outFields=*&returnGeometry=true&returnTrueCurves=false&maxAllowableOffset=&geometryPrecision=&outSR=3857&returnIdsOnly=false&returnCountOnly=false&orderByFields=&groupByFieldsForStatistics=&outStatistics=&returnZ=false&returnM=false&gdbVersion=&returnDistinctValues=false&resultOffset=&resultRecordCount=&queryByDistance=&returnExtentsOnly=false&datumTransformation=&parameterValues=&rangeValues=&f=pjson"

This URL is not that important but when I run this in a browser it gives this response:

    {
     "displayFieldName": "SP_NAME",
     "fieldAliases": {
      "OBJECTID": "OBJECTID",
      "GID": "Geometry Identifier",
      "PRCL_KEY": "26 Digit Code",
      "PRCL_TYPE": "Parcel Type",
      "LSTATUS": "Legal Status",
      "WSTATUS": "Work Status",
      "GEOM_AREA": "Geometry Area",
      "COMMENTS": "Comments",
      "TAG_X": "Longitude",

    etc.etc.etc

If I copy this text to notepad and save as "any_file.json". I can then load this in QGIS and save it as a shapefile.

I have been using the following code to try and achieve this

import requests


mainapi = "https://csg.esri-southafrica.com/server/rest/services/CSGSearch/MapServer/2/query?where=1%3D1&text=&objectIds=&time=&geometry=2053965%2C-4019103%2C2054056%2C-4019169+&geometryType=esriGeometryEnvelope&inSR=3857&spatialRel=esriSpatialRelIntersects&relationParam=&outFields=*&returnGeometry=true&returnTrueCurves=false&maxAllowableOffset=&geometryPrecision=&outSR=3857&returnIdsOnly=false&returnCountOnly=false&orderByFields=&groupByFieldsForStatistics=&outStatistics=&returnZ=false&returnM=false&gdbVersion=&returnDistinctValues=false&resultOffset=&resultRecordCount=&queryByDistance=&returnExtentsOnly=false&datumTransformation=&parameterValues=&rangeValues=&f=pjson"

r = str(requests.get(mainapi).json())

#Write response to json text file
with open("csg_erven.json", "w") as f:
    f.write(r)

The results in the .json file are not formatted

they appear as such:

{'displayFieldName': 'SP_NAME', 'fieldAliases': {'OBJECTID': 'OBJECTID', 'GID': 'Geometry Identifier', 'PRCL_KEY':

I am new to coding in general, but I am assuming the formatting is crucial here. How can I copy the text with formatting? Is it an encoding issue?

When I manually copy the formatted text from a browser it works fine, but the single line text does not work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Solution

  • Looks to me like there's a bit of a mixup in how you're saving the file. Try using the json library rather than converting to a string and saving as text which could lead to problems

    import json
with open('csg_erven.json', 'w') as f:
    json.dump(requests.get(mainapi).json(), f)