In a flustered, last-minute, push to get the Fire Eagle Python API binding ready to ship, I had to switch it to use HTTPS (and point to fireeagle.yahooapis.com, natch).

Given that I’m relatively new to Python, it took a moment to realise I had simply to switch from httplib.HTTPConnection to httplib.HTTPSConnection. This would have all been fine, save one issue: apparently, the otherwise wonderful MacPorts doesn’t appear to link OpenSSL in Python by default (which, naturally, is a requirement for HTTPS).

Without OpenSSL linked, trying to use HTTPSConnection (or, one would imagine, any SSL-related task) results in an error akin to AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'ssl'.

To rectify this is, actually, very simple: run sudo port install py25-socket-ssl in the Terminal (assuming you’re using Python 2.5: other versions of Python will require different ports).