Shapefile to geoJSON with Ogre and Python Requests

shapefile_to_json.py

    def shapefile_to_json(self, shp_path=None, json_out=None): 
        '''Write a shapefile to geoJSON via Ogre
        
        Make a HTTP POST request to the Ogre converter: 
        http://ogre.adc4gis.com/ to transform shapefiles
        to geoJSON for Vincent.
        
        Parameters: 
        -----------
        shp_path: string, default None
            Path to zipped shapefiles. Must contain .shp, .dbf, and .shx. 
            .prj is optional
        json_out: string, default None
            Path to write geoJSON output. If None, will default to same
            path as shp_path  
            
        Examples: 
        ---------
        >>>vis.shapefile_to_json(shp_path=r'countries.zip')      
        
        '''
        import requests
        url = r'http://ogre.adc4gis.com/convert'
        shp_data = {'upload': open(shp_path, 'rb')}
        print('Calling Ogre to perform shapefile to geoJSON conversion...')
        try: 
            r = requests.post(url, files=shp_data)
        except:
            print("There was an error with the HTTP request")
            raise
        r.raise_for_status()
        if json_out: 
            path = '.'.join([name, 'json'])
        else: 
            dir, zip = os.path.split(shp_path)
            geoJSON = '.'.join([zip.split('.')[0], 'json'])
            path = '/'.join([dir, geoJSON])
        print('Writing to geoJSON. This may take some time if your shapefile'
              ' is high resolution.')
        with open(path, 'w') as f: 
            json.dump(r.json, f, sort_keys=True, indent=4,
                          separators=(',', ': '))