User¶
The User class provides access to Substack user profiles. It also handles renamed Substack handles by following redirects.
Class Definition¶
User(username: str, follow_redirects: bool = True)
Parameters¶
username(str): The Substack usernamefollow_redirects(bool): Whether to follow redirects when a handle has been renamed (default: True)
Methods¶
_fetch_user_data(force_refresh: bool = False) -> Dict[str, Any]¶
Fetch the raw user data from the API and cache it. Handles renamed accounts by following redirects when follow_redirects is True.
Parameters¶
force_refresh(bool): Whether to force a refresh of the data, ignoring the cache
Returns¶
Dict[str, Any]: Full user profile data
Raises¶
requests.HTTPError: If the user cannot be found even after redirect attempts
get_raw_data(force_refresh: bool = False) -> Dict[str, Any]¶
Get the complete raw user data.
Parameters¶
force_refresh(bool): Whether to force a refresh of the data, ignoring the cache
Returns¶
Dict[str, Any]: Full user profile data
get_subscriptions() -> List[Dict[str, Any]]¶
Get newsletters the user has subscribed to.
Returns¶
List[Dict[str, Any]]: List of publications the user subscribes to with domain info
_update_handle(new_handle: str) -> None¶
Update the user's handle and endpoint.
Parameters¶
new_handle(str): The new handle after redirect
Properties¶
id -> int¶
Get the user's unique ID number.
name -> str¶
Get the user's name.
profile_set_up_at -> str¶
Get the date when the user's profile was set up.
was_redirected -> bool¶
Check if this user's handle was redirected from the original.
Returns¶
bool: True if the handle was changed via redirect
Helper Functions¶
resolve_handle_redirect(old_handle: str, timeout: int = 30) -> Optional[str]¶
Resolve a potentially renamed Substack handle by following redirects.
Parameters¶
old_handle(str): The original handle that may have been renamedtimeout(int): Request timeout in seconds
Returns¶
Optional[str]: The new handle if renamed, None if no redirect or on error
Example Usage¶
from substack_api import User
# Create a user object (automatically handles redirects)
user = User("username")
# Create a user object without redirect handling
user_no_redirect = User("username", follow_redirects=False)
# Get basic user information
print(f"User ID: {user.id}")
print(f"Name: {user.name}")
print(f"Profile created: {user.profile_set_up_at}")
# Check if the user was redirected (handle was renamed)
if user.was_redirected:
print(f"Original handle '{user.original_username}' was redirected to '{user.username}'")
# Get the user's subscriptions
subscriptions = user.get_subscriptions()
# Get raw user data
user_data = user.get_raw_data()
# Using the standalone redirect resolver
from substack_api.user import resolve_handle_redirect
new_handle = resolve_handle_redirect("old_username")
if new_handle:
print(f"The handle has been renamed to: {new_handle}")