Builds the full URL based on the base URL (``http://<host>:<port>``)
        and the provided `route`.

        Parameters
        ----------
        route: str
            route used by the TissueMAPS RESTful API
        params: dict, optional
            optional parameters that need to be included in the URL query string

        Returns
        -------
        str
            URL

def _build_url(self, route, params={}):
        '''Builds the full URL based on the base URL (``http://<host>:<port>``)
        and the provided `route`.

        Parameters
        ----------
        route: str
            route used by the TissueMAPS RESTful API
        params: dict, optional
            optional parameters that need to be included in the URL query string

        Returns
        -------
        str
            URL
        '''
        url = self._base_url + route
        if not params:
            logger.debug('url: %s', url)
            return url
        url = '{url}?{params}'.format(url=url, params=urlencode(params))
        logger.debug('url: %s', url)
        return url