--- layout: default navsection: sdk navmenu: Python title: "Python SDK" ... The Python SDK provides a generic set of wrappers so you can make API calls easily. It performs some validation before connecting to the API server: for example, it refuses to do an API call if a required parameter is missing. The library also includes some conveniences for use in Crunch scripts; see "Crunch utility libraries":crunch-utility-libraries.html for details. h3. Installation If you are logged in to an Arvados VM, the Python SDK should be installed. To use the Python SDK elsewhere, you can either install the Python SDK via PyPI or build and install the package using the arvados source tree. {% include 'notebox_begin' %} The Python SDK requires Python 2.7 {% include 'notebox_end' %} h4. Option 1: install with PyPI
$ sudo apt-get install python-pip python-dev libattr1-dev libfuse-dev pkg-config python-yaml
$ sudo pip install arvados-python-client
_If your version of @pip@ is 1.4 or newer, the @pip install@ command might give an error: "Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement arvados-python-client". If this happens, fix it by adding a @--pre@ flag:_
$ sudo pip install --pre arvados-python-client
h4. Option 2: install from distribution packages (Debian/Ubuntu only) First add @http://apt.arvados.org@ to your list of apt repositories:
$ echo "deb http://apt.arvados.org/ wheezy main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/apt.arvados.org.list
Then install the package:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install python-arvados-python-client
h4. Option 3: build and install from source
~$ sudo apt-get install python-dev libattr1-dev libfuse-dev pkg-config
~$ git clone https://github.com/curoverse/arvados.git
~$ cd arvados/sdk/python
~/arvados/sdk/python$ sudo python setup.py install
h4. Test installation If the SDK is installed and your @ARVADOS_API_HOST@ and @ARVADOS_API_TOKEN@ environment variables are set up correctly (see "api-tokens":{{site.baseurl}}/user/reference/api-tokens.html for details), @import arvados@ should produce no errors:
$ python
Python 2.7.4 (default, Sep 26 2013, 03:20:26) 
[GCC 4.7.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import arvados
>>> arvados.api('v1')
<apiclient.discovery.Resource object at 0x233bb50>
h3. Examples Get the User object for the current user:
current_user = arvados.api('v1').users().current().execute()
Get the UUID of an object that was retrieved using the SDK:
my_uuid = current_user['uuid']
Retrieve an object by ID:
some_user = arvados.api('v1').users().get(uuid=my_uuid).execute()
Create an object:
test_link = arvados.api('v1').links().create(
    body={'link_class':'test','name':'test'}).execute()
Update an object:
arvados.api('v1').links().update(
    uuid=test_link['uuid'],
    body={'properties':{'foo':'bar'}}).execute()
Get a list of objects:
repos = arvados.api('v1').repositories().list().execute()
len(repos['items'])
2
repos['items'][0]['uuid']
u'qr1hi-s0uqq-kg8cawglrf74bmw'
h3. Notes The general form of an API call is:
arvados.api(api_version).plural_resource_type().api_method(parameter=value, ...).execute()
Many API methods accept a parameter whose name is the same as the resource type. For example, @links.create@ accepts a parameter called @link@. This parameter should be given as @body@.
arvados.api('v1').links().create(
    uuid=test_link['uuid'],
    body={'properties':{'foo':'bar'}}).execute()
One way to make API calls slightly less verbose is:
arv = arvados.api('v1')
j = arv.jobs().list().execute()
The SDK retrieves the list of API methods from the server at run time. Therefore, the set of available methods is determined by the server version rather than the SDK version.