title: HTTPS get using "requests" module in Google App Engine fails
body: <p>I want to use the <code>requests</code> module in Google App Engine Python Standard Runtime Environment.</p>
  <p>Quote from <a href="https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/standard/python/tools/using-libraries-python-27" rel="nofollow noreferrer">official Google Cloud docs</a>:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>You can use third-party libraries that are pure Python code with no C extensions, <strong>by copying the library into your application directory. If the third-party library is already built-in, bundled with the runtime, you can use the library without copying it into your app.</strong></p>
  <p>Third party libraries must be implemented as pure Python code with no C extensions. If copied to your application directory, they count towards file quotas because the library is uploaded to App Engine along with your application code.</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p><code>requests</code> isn't bundled with GAE, so I added it into my application folder according to the instructions.</p>
  <p><code>requests</code> required a few other modules that don't come with GAE, so I added all of them to my application folder:</p>
  <ul>
  <li><code>certifi</code></li>
  <li><code>chardet</code></li>
  <li><code>idna</code></li>
  <li><code>urllib3</code></li>
  </ul>
  <p>Another problem came up. My request goes to the <a href="//api.stackexchange.com">Stack Exchange API</a>, which has the <code>https://</code> protocol. Here's the error:</p>
  <pre><code>SSLError: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='api.stackexchange.com', port=443): Max retries exceeded with url: /2.2/1?site=stackoverflow (Caused by SSLError(&quot;Can't connect to HTTPS URL because the SSL module is not available.&quot;,))
  </code></pre>
  <p>The <code>ssl</code> module is built into the GAE Python runtime, so I put the following in <code>app.yaml</code>:</p>
  <pre><code>libraries:
  - name: webapp2
    version: latest
  
  - name: ssl
    version: latest
  </code></pre>
  <p>It didn't work. I got the same error as before. I copied the SSL module folder into my application directory and did <code>import ssl</code> in <code>main.py</code>, but now it throws an exception asking for yet another module to be installed:</p>
  <pre><code>File &quot;/Users/williamqin/Projects/stackpromo/ssl/__init__.py&quot;, line 61, in &lt;module&gt;
  import _ssl2          # if we can't import it, let the error propagate
  ImportError: No module named _ssl2
  </code></pre>
  <p>I searched all over the web for the <code>_ssl2</code> Python module, but I couldn't find it anywhere!</p>
  <p>How do I properly use the <code>requests</code> module in Google App Engine?</p>