akinator.py

An API wrapper for the online game, Akinator, written in Python

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Copyright © 2019 NinjaSnail1080

Licensed under the MIT License (see LICENSE.txt for details).

Akinator.com is an online game where you think of a character, real or fiction, and by asking you questions the site will try to guess who you're thinking of. This library allows for easy access to the Akinator API and makes writing programs that use it much simpler.

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Installing

To install the regular library without async support, just run the following command:

python3 -m pip install -U akinator.py

Otherwise, to get asynchronous support, do:

python3 -m pip install -U akinator.py[async]

To get async support plus faster performance (via the aiodns and cchardet libraries), do:

python3 -m pip install -U akinator.py[fast_async]

Requirements

• Python ≥3.5.3
• requests
• aiohttp (Optional, for async)
• aiodns and cchardet (Optional, for faster performance with async)

Usually pip will handle these for you.

Quick Examples

Here's a quick little example of the library being used to make a simple, text-based Akinator game:

import akinator

aki = akinator.Akinator()

try:
    q = aki.start_game()
except (akinator.AkiServerDown, akinator.AkiTechnicalError):
    try:
        q = aki.start_game("en2")
    except (akinator.AkiServerDown, akinator.AkiTechnicalError):
        q = aki.start_game("en3")

while aki.progression <= 80:
    a = input(q + "\n\t")
    if a == "b":
        try:
            q = aki.back()
        except akinator.CantGoBackAnyFurther:
            pass
    else:
        q = aki.answer(a)
aki.win()

correct = input(f"It's {aki.name} ({aki.description})! Was I correct?\n{aki.picture}\n\t")
if correct.lower() == "yes" or correct.lower() == "y":
    print("Yay\n")
else:
    print("Oof\n")

Here's the same game as above, but using the async version of the library instead:

from akinator.async_aki import Akinator
import akinator
import asyncio

aki = Akinator()

async def main():
    try:
        q = await aki.start_game()
    except (akinator.AkiServerDown, akinator.AkiTechnicalError):
        try:
            q = await aki.start_game("en2")
        except (akinator.AkiServerDown, akinator.AkiTechnicalError):
            q = await aki.start_game("en3")

    while aki.progression <= 80:
        a = input(q + "\n\t")
        if a == "b":
            try:
                q = await aki.back()
            except akinator.CantGoBackAnyFurther:
                pass
        else:
            q = await aki.answer(a)
    await aki.win()

    correct = input(f"It's {aki.name} ({aki.description})! Was I correct?\n{aki.picture}\n\t")
    if correct.lower() == "yes" or correct.lower() == "y":
        print("Yay\n")
    else:
        print("Oof\n")

loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
loop.run_until_complete(main())
loop.close()

Documentation

Because this library is relatively simple and only has a few functions to keep track of, all the documentation is going to go here in the README, instead of on a separate site like readthedocs.io or something.

The async version of this library works almost exactly the same as the regular, non-async one. Both have the same classes, names of functions, etc. Any differences will be noted.

Version Information:

>>> import akinator
>>> akinator.__version__

Alternatively, you can view the VERSION.txt file

class Akinator()

A class that represents an Akinator game.

The first thing you want to do after creating an instance of this class is to call Akinator.start_game().

To get the regular Akinator class, make sure you've put import akinator at the top of your code. From there you can easily access the class via akinator.Akinator().

To get the async version of the class, make sure you have import akinator.async_aki or from akinator.async_aki import Akinator in your code and you'll be able to get the async Akinator class just as easily (Refer to the code examples above).

Functions

Note: In the async version, all the below functions are coroutines and must be awaited

start_game(language=None)

Start an Akinator game. Run this function first before the others. Returns a string containing the first question

The language parameter can be left as None for English, the default language, or it can be set to one of the following (case-insensitive):

• en: English (default)
• en2: Second English server. Use if the main one is down
• en3: Third English server. Use if the other two are down
• en_animals: English server for guessing animals. Here, Akinator will attempt to guess the animal you're thinking instead of a character
• en_objects: English server for guessing objects. Here, Akinator will attempt to guess the object you're thinking instead of a character
• ar: Arabic
• cn: Chinese
• de: German
• de_animals: German server for guessing animals
• es: Spanish
• es2: Second Spanish server. Use if the main one is down
• es_animals: Spanish server for guessing animals
• fr: French
• fr2: Second French server. Use if the main one is down
• fr_animals: French server for guessing animals
• fr_objects: French server for guessing objects
• il: Hebrew
• it: Italian
• it_animals: Italian server for guessing animals
• jp: Japanese
• jp_animals: Japanese server for guessing animals
• kr: Korean
• nl: Dutch
• pl: Polish
• pt: Portuguese
• ru: Russian
• tr: Turkish

You can also put the name of the language spelled out, like spanish, korean, french_animals, etc.

If you put something else entirely, then then the InvalidLanguageError exception will be raised

answer(ans)

Answer the current question, which you can find with Akinator.question. Returns a string containing the next question

The ans parameter must be one of these (case-insensitive):

• yes or y or 0 for YES
• no or n or 1 for NO
• i or idk or i dont know or i don't know or 2 for I DON'T KNOW
• probably or p or 3 for PROBABLY
• probably not or pn or 4 for PROBABLY NOT

If it's something else, then the InvalidAnswerError exception will be raised

back()

Goes back to the previous question. Returns a string containing that question

If you're on the first question and you try to go back, the CantGoBackAnyFurther exception will be raised

win()

Get Aki's first guess for who the character you're thinking of is based on your answers to the questions so far.

This function defines 3 new class variables:

• name: The name of the character Aki guessed
• description: A short description of that character
• picture: A direct link to an image of the character

This function will also return a dictionary containing the above values plus some additional ones. Here's an example of what the dict looks like:

{'absolute_picture_path': 'https://photos.clarinea.fr/BL_15_en/600/partenaire/y/2367495__1053312468.jpg',
 'corrupt': '0',
 'description': 'Entrepreneur',
 'flag_photo': 0,
 'id': '52848',
 'id_base': '2367495',
 'name': 'Elon Musk',
 'picture_path': 'partenaire/y/2367495__1053312468.jpg',
 'proba': '0.804791',
 'pseudo': 'X',
 'ranking': '605',
 'relative': '0',
 'valide_contrainte': '1'}

It's recommended that you call this function when Aki's progression is above 80%. You can get his current progression via Akinator.progression

Variables

These variables contain important information about the Akinator game. Please don't change any of these values in your program. It'll definitely break things.

server

The server this Akinator game is using. Depends on what you put for the language param in Akinator.start_game() (e.g., "srv2.akinator.com:9162", "srv6.akinator.com:9127", etc.)

session

A number, usually in between 0 and 100, that represents the game's session

signature

A usually 9 or 10 digit number that represents the game's signature

uid

The game's UID (unique identifier) for authentication purposes

frontaddr

An IP address encoded in Base64; also for authentication purposes

timestamp

A POSIX timestamp for when Akinator.start_game() was called

question

The current question that Akinator is asking the user. Examples of questions asked by Aki include: Is your character's gender female?, Is your character more than 40 years old?, Does your character create music?, Is your character real?, Is your character from a TV series?, etc.

progression

A floating point number that represents a percentage showing how close Aki thinks he is to guessing your character. I recommend keeping track of this value and calling Akinator.win() when it's above 80 or 90. In most cases, this is about when Aki will have it narrowed down to one choice, which will hopefully be the correct one.

step

An integer that tells you what question Akinator is on. This will be 0 on the first question, 1 on the second question, 2 on the third, 3 on the fourth, etc.

The first 6 variables—server, session, signature, uid, frontaddr, and timestamp—will remain unchanged, but the last 3—question, progression, and step—will change as you go on.

Note: There are 3 more variables that will be defined when the function Akinator.win() is called for the first time. These variables are documented above, underneath that function in the Functions section

Exceptions

Exceptions that are thrown by the library

InvalidAnswerError

Raised when the user inputs an invalid answer into Akinator.answer(ans). Subclassed from ValueError

InvalidLanguageError

Raised when the user inputs an invalid language into Akinator.start_game(language=None). Subclassed from ValueError

AkiConnectionFailure

Raised if the Akinator API fails to connect for some reason. Base class for AkiTimedOut, AkiNoQuestions, AkiServerDown, and AkiTechnicalError

AkiTimedOut

Raised if the Akinator session times out. Derived from AkiConnectionFailure

AkiNoQuestions

Raised if the Akinator API runs out of questions to ask. This will happen if Akinator.step is at 79 and the answer function is called again. Derived from AkiConnectionFailure

AkiServerDown

Raised if Akinator's servers are down for the region you're running on. If this happens, try again later or use a different language. Derived from AkiConnectionFailure

AkiTechnicalError

Raised if Aki's servers had a technical error. If this happens, try again later or use a different language. Derived from AkiConnectionFailure

CantGoBackAnyFurther:

Raised when the user is on the first question and tries to go back further by calling Akinator.back()

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