User-Agent and Referer Headers [Universal Feed Parser]
Keywords: RSS, Atom, CDF, XML, feed, parser, Python

# Universal Feed Parser

Parse RSS and Atom feeds in Python. 3000 unit tests. Open source.

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## User-Agent and Referer Headers

###

Universal Feed Parser sends a default User-Agent string when it requests a feed from a web server.

The default User-Agent string looks like this:

    UniversalFeedParser/4.1 +http://feedparser.org/

If you are embedding Universal Feed Parser in a larger application, you should change the User-Agent to your application name and URL.

### Example: Customizing the User-Agent

    >>> import feedparser
    >>> d = feedparser.parse('http://feedparser.org/docs/examples/atom10.xml', \
    ...         agent='MyApp/1.0 +http://example.com/')

You can also set the User-Agent once, globally, and then call the `parse` function normally.

### Example: Customizing the User-Agent permanently

    >>> import feedparser
    >>> feedparser.USER_AGENT = "MyApp/1.0 +http://example.com/"
    >>> d = feedparser.parse('http://feedparser.org/docs/examples/atom10.xml')

Universal Feed Parser also lets you set the referrer when you download a feed from a web server. This is discouraged, because it is a violation of RFC 2616. The default behavior is to send a blank referrer, and you should never need to override this.

### Example: Customizing the referrer

    >>> import feedparser
    >>> d = feedparser.parse('http://feedparser.org/docs/examples/atom10.xml', \
    ...     referrer='http://example.com/')

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