# Getting started

Getting started with DataHub for Python is simple and you can write a simple script which prints out data in just 6 lines of Python.

## API Key

To access DataPoint you need to register with the Met Office and get yourself an API key. The process is simple and just ensures that you don’t abuse the service. You will need access to the Site-Specific forecast API.

## Connecting to DataHub

Now that you have an API key you can import the module:

    import datapoint

And create a connection to DataHub:

    manager = datapoint.Manager(api_key="aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeeee")

This creates a manager object which manages the connection and interacts with DataHub.

## Getting data from DataHub

So now that you have a Manager object with a connection to DataHub you can request some data. To do this, use the manager object:

    forecast = manager.get_forecast(51, 0, "hourly", convert_weather_code=True)

This takes four parameters: the latitude and longitude of the location you want a forecast for, a forecast type of “hourly” and an instruction to convert the numeric weather code to a string description. We’ll discuss the forecast types later on.

This Forecast Object which has been returned to us contains lots of information which we will cover in a later section, right now we’re just going to get the data for the current time:

    current_weather = forecast.now()

This is a dict which contains many different details about the weather but for now we’ll just print out one field.

    print(current_weather["feelsLikeTemperature"])

And there you have it. If you followed all the steps you should have printed out the current weather for your chosen location.

## Further Examples

For more code examples please have a look in the examples folder in the GitHub project.