It is HTTP-based:

$ curl 'https://api.dreamhost.com/?key=AN_API_KEY&unique_id=1234567&cmd=dns-list_records'

That's not very Pythonic.

>>> from dreamhostapi import DreamHostAPI
>>> api = DreamHostAPI('MY_API_KEY')
>>> api.dns.list_records()

That's more Pythonic.

>>> dir(api)
['API_URL', '__class__', '__delattr__', '__dict__', '__doc__', '__format__',
'__getattr__', '__getattribute__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__module__',
'__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__setattr__',
'__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', '__weakref__', '_call', 'key']

It doesn't know whether an API command (method) exists until you try to use it.

(On the bright side, if DreamHost adds a new API command you can just call it, without dreamhostapi needing to be updated.)

>>> from dreamhostapi import InteractiveAPI
>>> api = InteractiveAPI('MY_API_KEY')
>>> dir(api)
['account', 'announcement_list', 'api', 'dns', 'domain', 'dreamhost_ps',
'jabber', 'mail', 'mysql', 'oneclick', 'rewards', 'services', 'user']
>>> dir(api.dns)
['add_record', 'list_records', 'remove_record']

It finds out which API commands are available when you create it. Doing that work when you don't intend to dir() it would be a waste, so that's in this class instead of the main DreamHostAPI class.

If the method you're calling doesn't actually exist in the API, it will raise an AttributeError.

To use the API, you need an API key. It's a string of letters and numbers. You create one in the Web Panel API section of DreamHost's Web Panel. (Just go to the Panel and search for "API".) It lets you select which API commands the key will be able to use.

You supply the API key as the parameter when creating a DreamHostAPI or InteractiveAPI object:

>>> from dreamhost import DreamHostAPI
>>> api = DreamHostAPI('THE_API_KEY_GOES_HERE')

DreamHost has organized related API commands into API "modules": dns, account, etc.

API modules map to attributes on the DreamHostAPI object: api.dns, api.account, etc.

The various commands are methods of those module attributes: api.dns.list_records(), api.dns.add_record(...), etc.

If a command needs arguments, like api.dns.add_record(...), you must supply them as named parameters to the method:

>>> api.dns.add_record(record='example.com', type='A', value='1.2.3.4')

The required and optional arguments for most commands are listed in DreamHost's wiki. (Why just "most"? See Problems below.)

All returned data are Unicode strings, usually in a list or a dict or a combination of the two.

If an API command fails, it will raise an APIError:

>>> api.dns.add_record()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "dreamhostapi/module.py", line 31, in method
    raise APIError(response['data'])
dreamhostapi.exceptions.APIError: no_record

If the command you're calling doesn't actually exist in the API, an AttributeError will be raised.

If you try to call a command that the current API key doesn't have permission to use, you'll get an APIError with the message this_key_cannot_access_this_cmd:

>>> api = API('DNS_ONLY_KEY')
>>> api.account.list_accounts()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "dreamhostapi/module.py", line 31, in method
    raise APIError(response['data'])
dreamhostapi.exceptions.APIError: this_key_cannot_access_this_cmd

This is true even if the command doesn't exist:

>>> api = API('DNS_ONLY_KEY')
>>> api.account.foobar()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "dreamhostapi/module.py", line 31, in method
    raise APIError(response['data'])
dreamhostapi.exceptions.APIError: this_key_cannot_access_this_cmd

This doesn't raise an AttributeError because the API key doesn't have access to the account API module commands — the permission error supercedes the command-doesn't-exist error.

DreamHost's wiki doesn't currently (2014-06-08) have any information about these API commands:

• account-list_accounts
• domain-list_certificates
• dreamhost_ps-add_key
• dreamhost_ps-list_keys
• dreamhost_ps-remove_key
• oneclick-catalog
• oneclick-describe_app
• oneclick-destroy_custom
• oneclick-install_custom
• oneclick-list_custom
• oneclick-update
• oneclick-update_all
• user-list_users_no_pw

This makes it trickier to know how to use these commands. Try using api.api.list_accessible_cmds() to get a bit more information.

Unfortunately, though list_accessible_cmds() has the ability to communicate some pretty useful information—required and optional arguments, and name/order of returned data—it currently doesn't actually do much of that. In many places, it just says see_docs.