api-sim-data

This project simulates an API environment to capture and analyze network traffic data from both automated bots and human interactions. Note that this project captures data for educational/ML purposes.

Project Structure

• api.py: A Flask-based web server that exposes /login and /search endpoints. It logs details of every incoming request (Timestamp, IP, Endpoint, Method, etc.) to a CSV file.
• botsimulator.py: A python script that simulates bot behavior by sending automated, periodic requests to the API.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.x
• pip package manager

Install the required Python libraries:

pip install flask requests

How to Run

1. Start the API Server

Open a terminal in the project directory and run:

python api.py

This will start the server at http://127.0.0.1:5000 and create/reset the api_logs.txt file.

2. Capture Bot Data

While the API server is running, open a second terminal and run the bot simulator:

python botsimulator.py

This acts as a bot, sending requests with fixed time intervals to /login and /search.

3. Capture Human Data

To generate "Human" data, manually interact with the API while the server is running:

• Open your web browser and navigate to: http://127.0.0.1:5000/search
• Refresh the page at random intervals.
• You can also use tools like Postman or curl to send POST requests to http://127.0.0.1:5000/login.

Data Output

All traffic is logged to api_logs.txt in the root directory. The log includes:

• Timestamp
• IP Address
• Endpoint
• HTTP Method
• Response Code
• Request Time Gap (Placeholder)
• Label (Default: Unknown)

Sample Log Data

Here is a snippet of what the api_logs.txt file looks like:

Timestamp,IP Address,Endpoint,HTTP Method,Response Code,Request Time Gap,Label
2026-02-05T02:44:10.698723,127.0.0.1,/login,POST,200,0,Unknown
2026-02-05T02:44:29.200568,127.0.0.1,/search,GET,200,0,Unknown
2026-02-05T02:45:20.451665,127.0.0.1,/login,POST,200,0,Unknown
2026-02-05T02:45:36.588449,127.0.0.1,/search,GET,200,0,Unknown
2026-02-05T02:45:49.722016,127.0.0.1,/login,POST,200,0,Unknown