Python POST XML not executed

Question

The Headers post fine but the associated XML seems to be taken as string data only, XML is not processed. XML string is of the form:

params = '''<?xml version="1.0" encoding"="UTF-8 "?>
<MainRequest>
<requestEnvelope><errorLanguage>en_US</errorLanguage>
</requestEnvelope></MainRequest>'''

The POST is of the form:

enc_params = urllib.quote(params)
request = urllib2.Request("https://myURL/",enc_params, headers)

The send of the XML is of the form:

%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%22%3D%22UTF-8%20%22%3F%3E%0A%3CMainReq
uest%3E%0A%3CrequestEnvelope%3E%3CerrorLanguage%3Een_US%3C/errorLanguage%3E%0A%3
C/requestEnvelope%3E

The error message then indicates XML content is missing.

Any ideas would be helpful.

Answer 1

Are you adding a content-type header? To tell the server your request is XML, add the following before sending the request:

request.add_header('Content-Type', 'text/xml')

Answer 2

Take out the "urllib.quote()" call. That's what created the string which starts "%3C%3Fxml". If you want to POST XML then just send that XML string as the data, along with the Content-Type that ataylor mentioned. (But in most cases that doesn't make a difference.)