How to test an API response for binary - json

Question

Question:What is the easiest way to test an API response for a binary response?
Context:I have a function that makes an API Call for some data. The response (api_response) of that API call will either be JSON or binary. If JSON, and if it contains percent_complete then the data is not yet ready, and my function uses the percent_complete key:pair value to update a progress bar for the user. If the response is JSON and contains meta, then my data is ready and has returned as a JSON object. If the response is binary, then my data is also ready, however has been returned as .xlsx [binary]. This is the response when the data is not ready and you will see percent_complete is utilized for a progress bar -
{
"data": {
"id": "2768510",
"type": "jobs",
"attributes": {
"job_type": "PORTFOLIO_VIEW_RESULTS",
"started_at": "2022-04-14T16:19:21Z",
"parameters": {
"end_date": "2022-04-14",
"output_type": "json",
"view_id": 304078,
"portfolio_id": 1,
"portfolio_type": "firm",
"start_date": "2022-04-14"
},
"percent_complete": 0.0,
"status": "In Progress"
},
"relationships": {
"creator": {
"links": {
"self": "/v1/jobs/2768510/relationships/creator",
"related": "/v1/jobs/2768510/creator"
},
"data": {
"type": "users",
"id": "731221"
}
}
},
"links": {
"self": "/v1/jobs/2768510"
}
},
"included": []
Current function:The following function continues to call the API every 5-seconds (using the 7-digit code in self, per the above API object) until meta is returned in a JSON object (therefore my data is returned as a JSON object) and returns the JSON object as api_response.Otherwise, the API call continues every 5-seconds and simply uses percent_complete to update a status bar (using enlighten library)
def api_call():
# Calling function containing the JOBS API endpoint for calling, until its RESPONSE == data requested.
endpoint_url = endpoint_initializer()
# Calling function containing API credentials
key, secret, url, group_url = ini_reader()
# Setting variable for use in progress bar, used to reflect API 'percent_complete' key pair value.
BAR_FORMAT = u'{id_value} {percentage:3.0f}%|{bar}| ' u'[{elapsed}<{eta}, {rate:.2f} %/s]'
manager = enlighten.get_manager()
date = dt.datetime.today().strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
print("------------------------------------\n","API URL constructed for:", date, "\n------------------------------------")
print("----------------------------------------------------------------------\n","Addepar Endpoint:", endpoint_url, "\n----------------------------------------------------------------------")
# Setting variable with counter for progress bar.
pbar = manager.counter(total=100, bar_format=BAR_FORMAT)
while True:
response = requests.get(url = endpoint_url, auth = HTTPBasicAuth(key, secret), headers = {"Vendor-firm": "665"})
api_response = json.loads(response.text)
if "meta" not in api_response:
id_value = "id"
res1 = [val[id_value] for key, val in api_response.items() if id_value in val]
id_value = "".join(res1)
percent_value = "percent_complete"
res2 = api_response["data"]["attributes"].get("percent_complete", '')*100
pbar.count = res2
pbar.update(incr=0, id_value=id_value)
time.sleep(5)
elif "meta" in api_response:
pbar.count = 100
pbar.update(incr=0, id_value=id_value)
pbar.close()
return api_response
How would I expand this function to test if the response (api_response) contains binary and if so, then return api_response?

Answer 1

A normal http-server should return an appropriate content-type. Please check:
response.headers['content-type']

Answer 2

Per Markus response, by accessing the Content-Type response.headers, I am able to trinagulate whether the response is binary (Content-Type: application/binary) or JSON (Content-Type: application/vnd.api+json).