I’m encountering an issue with my Google App Engine (GAE) application while attempting to access the API of a streaming service. The strange part is that it works flawlessly on my local environment, but once deployed, I receive a 400 error.
Here’s a simple example of the code demonstrating this error:
import webapp2
import urllib2
class StreamHandler(webapp2.RequestHandler):
def get(self):
api_url = 'https://api.example-streaming.com/v1/channels/some_streamer'
response = urllib2.urlopen(api_url)
self.response.out.write(response.read())
app = webapp2.WSGIApplication([('/', StreamHandler)], debug=True)
When I test this locally, I receive the expected JSON with all the channel information, such as viewer count, game details, and stream status. However, during deployment to GAE, it only gives me a 400 error.
Additionally, I implemented this method in the main application:
def verify_stream_status(self, channel_name):
api_endpoint = 'https://api.example-streaming.com/v1/channels/%s' % channel_name
fetch_result = urlfetch.fetch(api_endpoint, headers={'User-Agent': 'MyApp-Agent'})
stream_data = urllib2.urlopen(fetch_result)
if stream_data.read().find('{"channel":null,') == 0:
return 'Offline'
else:
return 'Online'
However, I encounter the error: AttributeError: '_URLFetchResult' object has no attribute 'get_type'.
Does anyone have insights into why this API call performs well locally but fails on App Engine?
This is a classic GAE sandboxing issue. Your local environment can make direct socket connections, but GAE forces everything through their urlfetch service. The streaming API probably detects this difference and blocks GAE requests. I’ve seen this before - third-party APIs often whitelist based on user agents or IP ranges, and GAE requests get flagged as bots. Try adding authentication headers if the streaming service supports API keys. That usually fixes the 400 errors. For your AttributeError - you’re mixing up the HTTP libraries. The urlfetch.fetch() method returns a response object with a .content property. You can’t pass that to urllib2.urlopen(). Stick with urlfetch throughout your code and use fetch_result.content directly instead of trying to process it again.
Had this exact problem with Twitch’s API on GAE. It’s not just the library mixing - GAE handles SSL certificates and TLS handshakes differently than your local setup. Some streaming APIs are picky about SSL negotiation and GAE’s urlfetch service doesn’t always match what they want. Try validate_certificate=False in your urlfetch.fetch() parameters first. If that works, then figure out their SSL requirements with the streaming service. Also check if they need SNI support - older GAE urlfetch versions had problems with that. Your User-Agent header’s good, but make sure it doesn’t have characters that get URL-encoded differently on GAE vs locally.
check if the streaming API blocks GAE’s IP ranges - that’s usually what causes 400s that work locally. also, you’re mixing urllib2 with urlfetch wrong. just use fetch_result.content instead of passing it to urlopen again.
you’re mixing urllib2 and urlfetch APIs. on GAE, stick with urlfetch.fetch() since urllib2 works differently there. your second code snippet has an issue - fetch_result is already the response, so don’t pass it to urlopen again. just use fetch_result.content directly.
That 400 error is probably Google App Engine’s outbound request restrictions hitting you. GAE handles HTTP requests differently than your local setup. First - stick with urlfetch instead of urllib2. They don’t mix well on GAE. Second, streaming APIs often block cloud platforms or need specific headers that work locally but get stripped on GAE. Add proper Accept and Content-Type headers to your urlfetch.fetch() call. Also check if the streaming service has IP restrictions or rate limiting that affects GAE’s infrastructure. The AttributeError you’re getting? That confirms you’re mixing the two HTTP libraries - urlfetch returns different objects than urllib2 expects.