Importing data from a JSON resource
This recipe will show us how we can read the JSON data format. Moreover, we will be using a remote resource in this recipe. It will add a tiny level of complexity to the recipe, but it will make it much more useful because, in real life, we will encounter more remote resources than local.
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is widely used as a platform-independent format to exchange data between systems or applications.
A resource, in this context, is anything we can read, be it a file or a URL endpoint (which can be the output of a remote process/program or just a remote static file). In short, we don't care who produced a resource and how; we just need it to be in a known format, such as JSON.
Getting ready
In order to get started with this recipe, we need the
requests module installed and importable (in PYTHONPATH) in our virtual environment. We have installed this module in Chapter 1, Preparing Your Working Environment.
We also need Internet connectivity...
