Being nice to the server: Wrapping a REST API for a cosmological distance/velocity calculator with Python

TL;DR

This paper introduces PyCF3, a Python client for the CosmicFlow-3 cosmological calculator, designed with caching, retries, and quality standards to improve user experience and server load management.

Contribution

The paper presents PyCF3, a new Python client that enhances access to CosmicFlow-3 with caching, retry mechanisms, and quality assurance, improving usability and server efficiency.

Findings

Reduced server load due to caching and retries

Improved user experience with faster calculations

Code adheres to quality assurance standards

Abstract

In this paper we present PyCF3, a python client for the cosmological distance-velocity calculator CosmicFlow-3. The project has a cache and retry system designed with the objective of reducing the stress on the server and mitigating the waiting times of the users in the calculations. We also address Quality Assurance code standards and availability of the code.