Requests and redirections, waste of time? [closed] Code Answer

Let’s say that I perform a GET request on a URL (this one for example: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.accounts.5b00398), and that I trace the request:

response = requests.get(url, timeout=10)
if response.history:
    print("Request was redirected")
    for resp in response.history:
        print("Status code, URL: {}, {}".format(resp.status_code, resp.url))
    print("Final destination:")
    print("Status code, URL: {}, {}".format(resp.status_code, response.url))
else:
    print("Request was not redirected")

The output is:

Request was redirected
Status code, URL: 302, http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.accounts.5b00398
Status code, URL: 302, http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.accounts.5b00398?cookieSet=1
Final destination:
Status code, URL: 302, http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.accounts.5b00398

I would like to know a few things:

• why does the server redirects me to the url + cookieSet=1 ? To give me a cookie ?
• Does this redirection take time ?
• If so, could I request the cookie page in the first place ?
• If I have to perform several requests on the same server, should I use a session, if the server gives me a cookie ?

Answer

• why does the server redirects me to the url + cookieSet=1 ? To give me a cookie ?

Ask the web site programmer.

• Does this redirection take time ?

Sure, every request takes some time.

• If so, could I request the cookie page in the first place ?

Yes, you can.

• If I have to perform several requests on the same server, should I use a session, if the server gives me a cookie ?

Probably a session would reduce the redirects