HERE API API in Python

HERE API API in Python

This guide shows you how to integrate the HERE API into your Python application. Location services including maps, geocoding, routing, and fleet tracking.

Prerequisites

  • Python installed on your system
  • An HERE API API key (sign up at https://here.com)
  • Basic familiarity with HTTP APIs

Installation

pip install requests python-dotenv

Basic Usage

import os
import requests

API_KEY = os.environ.get("API_KEY", "YOUR_API_KEY")
BASE_URL = "https://api.here.com"

headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

response = requests.get(f"{BASE_URL}/v1/resources", headers=headers)
print(f"Status: {response.status_code}")
print(response.json())

Error Handling

import requests
import time

def call_api_with_retry(url, headers, max_retries=3):
    for attempt in range(max_retries):
        try:
            response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, timeout=30)
            if response.status_code == 429:
                retry_after = int(response.headers.get("Retry-After", 60))
                print(f"Rate limited. Waiting {retry_after}s...")
                time.sleep(retry_after)
                continue
            response.raise_for_status()
            return response.json()
        except requests.exceptions.Timeout:
            print(f"Timeout on attempt {attempt + 1}")
        except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
            print(f"Error: {e}")
            if attempt == max_retries - 1:
                raise
        time.sleep(2 ** attempt)

result = call_api_with_retry(
    f"{BASE_URL}/v1/resources",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"}
)

Advanced Usage

import os
import requests
from typing import Optional, Dict, List
import logging

logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

class HereClient:
    """Advanced client for HERE API."""

    def __init__(self, api_key: str, base_url: str = "https://api.here.com"):
        self.api_key = api_key
        self.base_url = base_url.rstrip("/")
        self.session = requests.Session()
        self.session.headers.update({
            "Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}",
            "Content-Type": "application/json",
            "User-Agent": "HERE API/1.0"
        })

    def list_resources(self, params: Dict = None) -> List[Dict]:
        """List resources with pagination."""
        all_results = []
        cursor = None
        while True:
            if cursor:
                params = params or {}
                params["cursor"] = cursor
            response = self.session.get(
                f"{self.base_url}/v1/resources",
                params=params,
                timeout=30
            )
            response.raise_for_status()
            data = response.json()
            all_results.extend(data.get("data", []))
            cursor = data.get("next_cursor")
            if not cursor:
                break
        return all_results

    def create_resource(self, data: Dict) -> Dict:
        """Create a new resource."""
        response = self.session.post(
            f"{self.base_url}/v1/resources",
            json=data,
            timeout=30
        )
        response.raise_for_status()
        return response.json()

client = HereClient(os.environ["API_KEY"])
resources = client.list_resources(params={"limit": 50})
print(f"Found {len(resources)} resources")

Best Practices

  • Store your API key in an environment variable, never in source code
  • Implement retry logic with exponential backoff for 429 and 5xx errors
  • Set reasonable timeouts (10-30 seconds) for all API calls
  • Log request IDs from response headers for debugging
  • Cache responses where appropriate to reduce API calls

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