{"id":9941,"library":"micawber","title":"micawber","description":"micawber is a small Python library for extracting rich content (like videos, images, or summaries) from URLs using the oEmbed specification. It includes a set of pre-configured providers for common services like YouTube, Vimeo, and Flickr. The latest version is 0.6.2, released in 2017, and it appears to be in maintenance mode, stable but not actively developed.","status":"maintenance","version":"0.6.2","language":"en","source_language":"en","source_url":"https://github.com/coleifer/micawber","tags":["oembed","url-parsing","content-extraction","media","embed","rich-content"],"install":[{"cmd":"pip install micawber","lang":"bash","label":"Install micawber"}],"dependencies":[{"reason":"Required for parsing HTML content returned by some OEmbed providers.","package":"BeautifulSoup4"},{"reason":"Required for making HTTP requests to OEmbed provider endpoints.","package":"requests"}],"imports":[{"note":"The simplest way to get a pre-configured Micawber instance with default providers.","symbol":"bootstrap_basic","correct":"from micawber import bootstrap_basic"},{"note":"For more granular control over providers and caching.","symbol":"Micawber","correct":"from micawber import Micawber"},{"note":"Direct import from the providers submodule. The top-level 'from micawber import bootstrap_basic' is a convenient alias.","wrong":"from micawber import bootstrap_basic (not strictly wrong, but the top-level import is more common for convenience)","symbol":"bootstrap_basic","correct":"from micawber.providers import bootstrap_basic"}],"quickstart":{"code":"import micawber\nfrom micawber.cache import Cache\n\n# Configure Micawber with default providers and an in-memory cache\nm = micawber.bootstrap_basic(cache=Cache())\n\n# Example URL (using a real OEmbed example, this is usually a video)\nyoutube_url = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ'\n\n# Request OEmbed data for a URL\ntry:\n    response = m.request(youtube_url)\n    print(f\"Title: {response.get('title')}\")\n    print(f\"Type: {response.get('type')}\")\n    print(f\"HTML: {response.get('html', 'No HTML provided')[:50]}...\")\nexcept Exception as e:\n    print(f\"Error requesting OEmbed data: {e}\")\n\n# Alternatively, parse text containing URLs and replace them with rich content\ntext_with_url = f'Check out this video: {youtube_url} and some other stuff.'\nhtml_output = m.parse_text(text_with_url)\nprint(\"\\n--- Parsed Text HTML Output ---\")\nprint(html_output[:200] + '...') # Print first 200 chars for brevity\n","lang":"python","description":"Initialize micawber with default OEmbed providers and an in-memory cache. Then, use `m.request()` to fetch OEmbed data for a specific URL or `m.parse_text()` to automatically find URLs within text and replace them with embedded content."},"warnings":[{"fix":"Manually update providers by extending `micawber.providers.bootstrap_basic()` with custom patterns or using `micawber.Micawber` with an updated list of `Provider` objects.","message":"The built-in OEmbed provider list has not been updated since the library's last release in 2017. New services or changes to existing service endpoints may cause `micawber` to fail to retrieve content or retrieve incorrect data for certain URLs.","severity":"gotcha","affected_versions":"0.6.0-0.6.2"},{"fix":"Initialize `micawber.Micawber` with a cache backend, e.g., `micawber.bootstrap_basic(cache=micawber.cache.Cache())` for an in-memory cache or integrate a custom cache system.","message":"`micawber` does not configure a cache by default when using `micawber.bootstrap_basic()` or `micawber.Micawber()` without a `cache` argument. This can lead to repeated network requests for the same URL, impacting performance and potentially causing rate-limiting issues with external APIs.","severity":"gotcha","affected_versions":"0.1.0-0.6.2"},{"fix":"Implement robust `try-except KeyError` blocks and always use `.get()` with default values when accessing dictionary keys from the OEmbed response to handle missing data gracefully. Validate the presence of critical keys before use.","message":"If an OEmbed provider returns an error, an incomplete response, or malformed data, `micawber` might raise a `KeyError` when accessing expected fields (e.g., 'title', 'html') or return an incomplete dictionary without explicit error status.","severity":"gotcha","affected_versions":"0.1.0-0.6.2"}],"env_vars":null,"last_verified":"2026-04-17T00:00:00.000Z","next_check":"2026-07-16T00:00:00.000Z","problems":[{"fix":"Verify if the URL's service supports OEmbed. If it does, check the official OEmbed endpoint and consider manually adding a custom provider pattern to your `micawber.Micawber` instance.","cause":"The URL provided does not match any of `micawber`'s configured OEmbed providers, or the provider's endpoint has changed since `micawber`'s last update.","error":"No provider found for URL: http://example.com/some-unsupported-url"},{"fix":"Access dictionary keys using `.get('key', None)` or `.get('key', 'Default Value')` to prevent `KeyError`. Print the full `response` dictionary to debug what data was actually received.","cause":"The OEmbed response received from the provider was missing the expected key, indicating an incomplete or malformed response, or the content could not be retrieved by the provider.","error":"KeyError: 'title' (or 'html', 'thumbnail_url', etc.)"},{"fix":"Verify your internet connectivity and the status of the OEmbed provider's server. Implement retry logic with exponential backoff for network requests to handle transient connection issues.","cause":"A network issue (e.g., DNS resolution failure, firewall, server unavailability, or client-side connection reset) occurred while `micawber` was attempting to fetch content from an OEmbed provider.","error":"requests.exceptions.ConnectionError: ('Connection aborted.', ConnectionResetError(104, 'Connection reset by peer'))"}]}