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Calling the WoRMS webservice from Python (example 1)

Step 1: Install Python 2
Go to www.python.org, download & install Python (Windows/Mac OS X/Linux).

Step 2: Install SOAPpy
Go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywebsvcs/files/SOAP.py, download & install SOAPpy

Step 3: Copy/paste the following code in a file 'worms.py'

#!/usr/bin/python

from SOAPpy import WSDL
import re
import sys

def get_Records(name, offset_number):
	a = wsdlObjectWoRMS.getAphiaRecords(name, like='true', fuzzy='true', marine_only='false', offset=offset_number)
	return(a)

def process_worms_output(records):
    for b in records:
            record = str(b)
            t_family = re.compile("family': '[A-Z][a-z]+idae")
            m_family = t_family.search(record)
            if m_family:
                family = m_family.group().replace("family': '","")
                t_name = re.compile("scientificname': '[A-Z][a-z]+[ a-z]*")
                m_name = t_name.search(record)
                if m_name:
                   name = m_name.group().replace("scientificname': '","")
                   t_authority = re.compile("authority': '[\(\)A-Za-z ]+")
                   m_authority = t_authority.search(record)
                   if m_authority:
                       authority = m_authority.group().replace("authority': '","")
                       t_valid = re.compile("valid_name': '[\(\)A-Za-z ]+")
                       m_valid = t_valid.search(record)
                       if m_valid:
                           valid = m_valid.group().replace("valid_name': '","")
                           print '\n', name, authority
                           print 'Accepted name:', valid
                           print family
                       else:
                           print '\n', name, authority
                           print 'Accepted name: None'
                           print family

def get_all_worms_records(taxon_name):
    start = 1
    max_capacity = 50
    records = []
    print 'get_all_worms_records: fetching records', start, 'to', max_capacity, 'for taxon', taxon_name
    a = get_Records(str(taxon_name), start)
    if not a == None:
        for i in a:
            records.append(i)
        while len(records) == max_capacity:
            start = start + 50
            max_capacity = max_capacity + 50
            print 'get_all_worms_records: fetching records', start, 'to', max_capacity, 'for taxon', taxon_name
            b = get_Records(str(taxon_name), start)
            if not b == None:
                for i in b:
                    records.append(i)
        print 'get_all_worms_records: returning', len(records), 'records for taxon', taxon_name
        process_worms_output(records)

wsdlObjectWoRMS = WSDL.Proxy('https://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=soap&wsdl=1')

if len(sys.argv) == 1:
    print '  USAGE: ./worms.py taxon_name1 taxon_name2 ... taxon_nameN'
    print '  EXAMPLE: ./worms.py Mytilus\ edulis Tellinidae'
    print '  ERROR: Enter one or more taxon names'

target_names = sys.argv[1:]
for a in target_names:
    get_all_worms_records(a)
    print '\n'

Step 4: Run the script from the command line [followed by taxon name(s)]:
./worms.py Mollusca

Download this example.
Download example with suds package.

Credits for this tutorial go to Andre F. Sartori (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, France) and Jonathan Pye (Ocean Tracking Network, Canada)

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Calling the matchAphiaRecordsByNames function from Python (example 2)

Since some users experienced issue while implementing the call 'matchAphiaRecordsByNames' with suds-py3, we have added another python example that covers this case. Enjoy!

Step 1: Install python 3
Go to www.python.org, download & install Python (Windows/Mac OS X/Linux).

Step 2: Install the suds-py3 library
Go to https://github.com/cackharot/suds-py3, follow the installation instructions.

Step 3: Copy/paste the following code in a file 'match_taxa.py' (and adapt as desired)

from suds import null, WebFault
from suds.client import Client
cl = Client('https://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=soap&wsdl=1')

scinames = cl.factory.create('scientificnames')
scinames["_arrayType"] = "string[]"
scinames["scientificname"] = ["Buccinum fusiforme", "Abra alba"]

array_of_results_array = cl.service.matchAphiaRecordsByNames(scinames, like="true", fuzzy="false", marine_only="false")
    for results_array in array_of_results_array:
        for aphia_object in results_array:
            print('%s %s %s' % (aphia_object.AphiaID, aphia_object.scientificname, aphia_object.genus))

Step 4: Run the script from the command line

./match_taxa.py