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UTF-8 decode error when downloading files

You may encounter the following message when attempting to download files from the API:

'utf-8' codec can't decode byte

Unfortunately, the requested file may not be compatible with UTF-8 encoding, and it may consequently cause the Python client to throw the decode error above.

The Python client attempts to decode any payload to string formats using UTF-8 within the request call of rest.py. This is done in line 220 in swagger_client/rest.py, utilizing the following Python 3 code:

if six.PY3:
    r.data = r.data.decode('utf8')

To solve this, you need to modify the rest.py file of the Swagger client in a way that is appropriate to your project’s needs. Alternatively, it is also possible to download files via HTTP or HTTPS, using a different library.

The second approach is demonstrated in several of the Python sample projects, such as in lines 163–165 in DocumentClassificationSample/execute.py.