MMS: reduce rapid-fire requests to the MMS data server? #956
Description
We were notified by Dylan Jesernik at LASP that PySPEDAS has been generating bursts of 3 requests at a time to the MMS data server. The first POST request was going to an invalid endpoint (root on lasp.colorado.edu). The second get() request seems to be either a login to the web API, or perhaps just a verification of login credentials. The third request appears to be the actual download attempt for the desired data.
We've been asked if there's anything we can do to cut down on the excessive traffic. The post() request seems to be an outright error -- the code still works with that commented out. Obviously the third request for the actual data should be kept. The question is, can we eliminate that request entirely and catch any credential problems directly from the download request, or is it a necessary step of the API handshake. Are we doing it every time, even for public data? At the very least we should introduce a small delay between the verification step and the download step, to ease the load on their server without unduly burdening the user.,