Retrieve user gists using a generator

get_user_gists.py

import sys
import json
import requests
import re
from urlparse import urlparse, parse_qs


GITHUB_URL = 'https://api.github.com'
GIST_URL = GITHUB_URL + "/users/{0}/gists"


def get_number_of_gists(user_id):
    link_url = '\A(?P<next>.*),(?P<last>.*)\Z'
    link_url_regex = re.compile(link_url)

    def get_url(value):
        _url = '\A.*<(?P<url>.*)>.*$'
        _url_regex = re.compile(_url)
        m = _url_regex.match(value)
        return dict(m.groupdict().iteritems())['url']

    url = GIST_URL.format(user_id)

    first_gist = requests.get(url, params={'page': 1, 'per_page': 1 })
    
    links = first_gist.headers['link']
    m = link_url_regex.match(links)

    if m:
        page_url = get_url(dict(m.groupdict().iteritems())['last'])
        parsed = urlparse(page_url)
        return int(parse_qs(parsed.query)['page'].pop())
    else:
        raise ValueError("Unable to retrieve the number of gists")


def xgists(user_id):
    """
    Creates a generator returning a user gist in every iteration
    """
    url = GIST_URL.format(user_id)
    _params = {'per_page': 1}

    for i in xrange(get_number_of_gists(user_id)):
        response = requests.get(url, params=_params.update({'page': i+1}))
        if response.status_code == 200:
            gist = json.loads(response.content)
            yield gist
        else:
            raise ValuError("Error while retrieving a gist")


if len(sys.argv) < 2:
    print "Please include as argument the github user id"
    exit(1)

user_id = sys.argv[1]

for gist in xgists(user_id):
    print json.dumps(gist, indent=2)