How to insert another item programmatically into body?

Question

I am trying to build a free/busy body request to Google Calendar API via Python 3.8 . However, when I try to insert a new item into the body request, I am getting a bad request and can't use it.

This code is working:

SUBJECTA = '[email protected]'

SUBJECTB =  '[email protected]'


    body = {
  "timeMin": now,
  "timeMax": nownext,
  "timeZone": 'America/New_York',
  "items": [{'id': SUBJECTA},{"id": SUBJECTB} ]
}

Good Body result:

{'timeMin': '2019-11-05T11:42:21.354803Z', 
'timeMax': '2019-11-05T12:42:21.354823Z', 
'timeZone': 'America/New_York', 
'items': [{'id': '[email protected]'}, 
{'id': '[email protected]'}]}

However, While using this code:

items = "{'ID': '[email protected]'},{'ID': '[email protected]'},{'ID': '[email protected]'}"

  body = { 
  "timeMin": now,
  "timeMax": nownext,
  "timeZone": 'America/New_York',
  "items":  items 
}

The Body results contain additional quotes at the start and end position, failing the request:

{'timeMin': '2019-11-05T12:04:41.189784Z', 
'timeMax': '2019-11-05T13:04:41.189804Z', 
'timeZone': 'America/New_York', 
'items': ["{'ID': [email protected]},{'ID': 
[email protected]},{'ID': 
[email protected]},{'ID': 
[email protected]},{'ID': 
[email protected]}"]} 

What is the proper way to handle it and send the item list in an accurate way?

Answer 1

• In your situation, the value of items is given by the string of "{'ID': '[email protected]'},{'ID': '[email protected]'},{'ID': '[email protected]'}".
• You want to use as the object by parsing the string value with python.
  • The result value you expect is [{'ID': '[email protected]'}, {'ID': '[email protected]'}, {'ID': '[email protected]'}].
• You have already been able to use Calender API.

If my understanding is correct, how about this answer? Please think of this as just one of several answers.

Sample script:

import json  # Added

items = "{'ID': '[email protected]'},{'ID': '[email protected]'},{'ID': '[email protected]'}"

items = json.loads(("[" + items + "]").replace("\'", "\""))  # Added

body = { 
  "timeMin": now,
  "timeMax": nownext,
  "timeZone": 'America/New_York',
  "items": items
}

print(body)

Result:

If now and nownext are the values of "now" and "nownext", respectively, the result is as follows.

{
  "timeMin": "now",
  "timeMax": "nownext",
  "timeZone": "America/New_York",
  "items": [
    {
      "ID": "[email protected]"
    },
    {
      "ID": "[email protected]"
    },
    {
      "ID": "[email protected]"
    }
  ]
}

Note:

• If you can retrieve the IDs as the string value, I recommend the following method as a sample script.

  ids = ['[email protected]', '[email protected]', '[email protected]']
  items = [{'ID': id} for id in ids]
  

If I misunderstood your question and this was not the result you want, I apologize.