14.5 Watson Developer Cloud Python SDK

In this section, you’ll install the modules required for the next section’s full-implementation Watson case study. For your coding convenience, IBM provides the Watson Developer Cloud Python SDK (software development kit). Its watson_developer_cloud module contains classes that you’ll use to interact with Watson services. You’ll create objects for each service you need, then interact with the service by calling the object’s methods.

To install the SDK²⁶ open an Anaconda Prompt (Windows; open as Administrator), Terminal (macOS/Linux) or shell (Linux), then execute the following command²⁷:

26. For detailed installation instructions and troubleshooting tips, see https:github.com/watson-developer-cloud/python-sdk/blob/develop/README.md.

27. Windows users might need to install Microsoft’s C++ build tools from https:visualstudio.microsoft.com/visual-cpp-build-tools/, then install the watson-developer-cloud module.

pip install --upgrade watson-developer-cloud

Modules We’ll Need for Audio Recording and Playback

You’ll also need two additional modules for audio recording (PyAudio) and playback (PyDub). To install these, use the following commands²⁸:

28. Mac users might need to first execute conda install -c conda-forge portaudio.

pip install pyaudio
pip install pydub

SDK Examples

On GitHub, IBM provides sample code demonstrating how to access Watson services using the Watson Developer Cloud Python SDK’s classes. You can find the examples at:

https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/python-sdk/tree/master/examples

Self Check

1. (True/False) The Watson Developer Cloud Python SDK’s watson_developer_cloud module contains classes for interacting with each of the Watson services.
   Answer: True.