OIM3640 - Problem Solving and Software Design

2025 Spring

Session 19 (4/03)

Today's Agenda

• Welcome/News/Announcements
• Introducing Term Project
• Lectures:
  • OpenAI API
  • Automation
• Revisit Quiz 4 (if time permits)

Welcome/News/Announcements

• Assignment 2:
  • Only 10 forks as of 8 AM today
  • Due 4/04, Friday 4/05, Saturday
• Assignment 3: Create a Web Application (will be introduced next class)
• Term Project posted
• Communications
  • Meet with me in person during office hours at least once this semester.
  • Email - specify course # in subject title, e.g., "OIM3640: GitHub settings"
  • Use Slack/GitHub when asking code-related questions
• Questions?

Introduction to Term Project

• Project Instruction
• Teaming: due 4/07, Monday
• Proposal: due 4/12, Saturday
• GitHub repository for project:
  • Only one creates a public project repository.
  • The other member needs to fork this repository as a collaborator.
  • Everyone needs to submit URL of GitHub repository to Canvas.

Fun Time

• r/ProgrammerHumor
• xkcd: Tasks
  • ChatGPT Solution to 1425
  • World's first-ever smart binoculars can identify 9,000 birds thanks to built-in AI

What we have learned so far...

• Variables, Expressions, Statements
• Types: int, float, string, boolean, Nonetype, string, list, dictionary, tuple, set
• Functions
• Conditional Statements
• Iterations
• Pseudo-code
• Debugging
• Error Handling
• APIs

Assignment 2 - Text Analysis Project

• Make sure you finish exercises in Case - Text Analysis
• Starter repository
• Examples:
  • The Office
  • Jeff Bezos's Amazon Shareholder Letters

API

API (Application Programming Interface)

• An API is a set of protocols, tools, and standards for building software applications, that allows different applications to communicate with each other.

• Example: Let's say you want to know the current price of Bitcoin

  • Human: Open a browser, search "Bitcoin price", and check websites.
  • Computer: Send a request to an API and get Bitcoin price in JSON format.
    • Example API endpoint: https://data-api.coindesk.com/spot/v1/latest/tick?market=coinbase&instruments=BTC-USD,ETH-USD

API Example: OpenWeather

• Create an API key from https://openweathermap.org/api
• Download the sample code, weather.py, from OIM3640/resources/code
• Use the urllib.request library to send HTTP requests to the OpenWeather API and retrieve data in JSON format
• Remember to protect sensitive data (e.g., API keys, API tokens, passwords)
  • Create .env file and store your API key, e.g., OPENWEATHER_API_KEY=...
  • Install python-dotenv in terminal: python -m pip install python-dotenv

  • import os
    from dotenv import load_dotenv
    
    load_dotenv()
    APIKEY = os.getenv("OPENWEATHER_API_KEY")
    

  • Add .env to .gitignore file to prevent committing it to a public repository.

OpenAI API Quick Start

Recommendations on API

• What is an API? In English, please.

• Rapid API Comics

• YouTube - What is an API and how does it work? (In plain English)

OpenAI API Quick Start

Automation

• Reddit discussions:
  • What are some things you have automated, using python?
  • How automation works
  • What are some real world applications or things at a job with Python?
  • What’s the coolest things you’ve done with python?
  • How and if you use python in your non coding jobs?
  • What's the best thing you've automated?
• Example - a Telegram Bot:
  • Official Telegram Bot
  • Python Telegram Bot library
  • schedule library - A simple to use API for scheduling jobs, made for humans

More APIs

• GitHub Repositories:
  • public-apis/public-apis
  • n0shake/Public-APIs
• Websites:
  • Free Public APIs
  • RapidAPI - Discover More APIs
  • ApiVault
  • APIs.guru
  • PublicAPIs.io

Q&A

• Questions from past exercises, quizzes, assignments.
• Issues on GitHub
• Any question today?