SIMPLE REST API EXAMPLE - Python - DJANGO - Django Rest Framework

This is a sample of how make a simple rest-api with Python, Django and django-rest-framework Django REST framework is a powerful and flexible toolkit for building Web APIs.

Requirements

• Python 3.6
• Django (2.2.1)
• Django REST Framework

Installation

	pip install django
	pip install djangorestframework

Installation

How this is a example, to make data ready to read, this application contains a SQLite database file in your environment.

Structure

A RESTfull API's, are definide by endpoints. This structure allow end users and applications, access data from our application using the HTTP methods - GET, POST, PUT, DELETE.

We have one single resource, employee, so we will use the following URLS - /employee/ and /employee/<id> for detailed element, or specific method, respectively:

The resource can list, add, update and remove employees

Endpoint	HTTP Method	Result
employee	GET	Get a list of all employees
employee/:id	GET	Get a single employee
employee	POST	Insert a new employee
employee/:id	PUT	Update a employee
employee/:id	DELETE	Delete a employee

Using the API

We can test the API using curl or httpie. Httpie is a user friendly http client that's written in Python.

You can install httpie using pip:

pip install httpie

First, we have to start up Django's development server.

	python manage.py runserver

Calling the below endpoints from another terminal

Endpoint	HTTP Method	Result
employee	GET	Get a list of all employees

	http http://127.0.0.1:8000/employee/

we list all employees

{
    "name": "Thales G",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "department": "Engenharia"
},
{
    "name": "Kleber Alves",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "department": "Laboratório de Ciência de dados"
},
{
    "name": "Thiago Bueno",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "department": "Engenharia"
},
{
    "name": "Ariane C",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "department": "Hospotal das Clinicas"
},
{
    "name": "Leonardo",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "department": "UFSCAR"
}

Endpoint	HTTP Method	Result
employee/:id	GET	Get a single employee

	http http://127.0.0.1:8000/employee/4

We get the employee with id = 4

{
    "name": "Kleber Alves",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "department": "Laboratório de Ciência de dados"
}

Endpoint	HTTP Method	Result
employee	POST	Insert a new employee

http --json -v POST localhost:8000/employee/ name=John [email protected] department=helthcare

We can insert a new employee in our API with post method

See the return below

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Allow: GET, POST, OPTIONS
Content-Length: 67
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2019 12:58:28 GMT
Server: WSGIServer/0.2 CPython/3.5.3
Vary: Accept, Cookie
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN

{
    "department": "helthcare",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "name": "John"
}

Endpoint	HTTP Method	Result
employee	PUT	Update a existing employee

http --json -v PUT localhost:8000/employee/5 name=Carlos [email protected] department=Finance

We can update a new employee in our API with PUT method

See the return below

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Allow: PUT, GET, DELETE, OPTIONS
Content-Length: 69
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2019 13:05:36 GMT
Server: WSGIServer/0.2 CPython/3.5.3
Vary: Accept, Cookie
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN

{
    "department": "Finance",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "name": "Carlos"
}

Endpoint	HTTP Method	Result
employee	DELETE	Delete a existing employee

	http --json -v DELETE localhost:8000/employee/5

We can update a new employee in our API with PUT method

See the return below

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
Allow: PUT, GET, DELETE, OPTIONS
Content-Length: 0
Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2019 13:14:47 GMT
Server: WSGIServer/0.2 CPython/3.5.3
Vary: Accept, Cookie
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN

Administration page

This application contains too a very simple administration page, when you can see your datas and manage your employees, to do CRUD operations.

The index page will cal the CRUD Administration View.

You can check in URL below

	http://localhost:8000