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Django RESTful Web Services
Django RESTful Web Services

Django RESTful Web Services: The easiest way to build Python RESTful APIs and web services with Django

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Django RESTful Web Services

Working with Models, Migrations, Serialization, and Deserialization

In this chapter, we will define the requirements for our first RESTful Web Service. We will start working with Django, Django REST framework, Python, configurations, models, migrations, serialization, and deserialization. We will create a RESTful Web Service that performs CRUD (short for Create, Read, Update and Delete) operations on a simple SQLite database. We will be:

  • Defining the requirements for our first RESTful Web Service
  • Creating our first model
  • Running our initial migration
  • Understanding migrations
  • Analyzing the database
  • Understanding Django tables
  • Controlling, serialization, and deserialization
  • Working with the Django shell and diving deeply into serialization and deserialization

Defining the requirements for our first RESTful Web Service

Imagine a team of developers working on a mobile app for iOS and Android and requires a RESTful Web Service to perform CRUD operations with toys. We definitely don't want to use a mock web service and we don't want to spend time choosing and configuring an ORM (short for Object-Relational Mapping). We want to quickly build a RESTful Web Service and have it ready as soon as possible to start interacting with it in the mobile app.

We really want the toys to persist in a database but we don't need it to be production-ready. Therefore, we can use the simplest possible relational database, as long as we don't have to spend time performing complex installations or configurations.

Django REST framework, also known as DRF, will allow us to easily accomplish this task and start making HTTP requests to the first...

Creating our first model

Now, we will create a simple Toy model in Django, which we will use to represent and persist toys. Open the toys/models.py file. The following lines show the initial code for this file with just one import statement and a comment that indicates we should create the models:

from django.db import models 
 
# Create your models here. 

The following lines show the new code that creates a Toy class, specifically, a Toy model in the toys/models.py file. The code file for the sample is included in the hillar_django_restful_02_01 folder in the restful01/toys/models.py file:

from django.db import models 
 
 
class Toy(models.Model): 
    created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True) 
    name = models.CharField(max_length=150, blank=False, default='') 
    description = models.CharField(max_length=250, blank=True, default='') 
    toy_category...

Running our initial migration

Now, it is necessary to create the initial migration for the new Toy model we recently coded. We will also synchronize the SQLite database for the first time. By default, Django uses the popular self-contained and embedded SQLite database, and therefore we don't need to make changes in the initial ORM configuration. In this example, we will be working with this default configuration. Of course, we will upgrade to another database after we have a sample web service built with Django. We will only use SQLite for this example.

We just need to run the following Python script in the virtual environment that we activated in the previous chapter. Make sure you are in the restful01 folder within the main folder for the virtual environment when you run the following command:

    python manage.py makemigrations toys  

The following lines show the output...

Analyzing the database

In most modern Linux distributions and macOS, SQLite is already installed, and therefore you can run the sqlite3 command-line utility.

In Windows, if you want to work with the sqlite3.exe command-line utility, you have to download the bundle of command-line tools for managing SQLite database files from the downloads section of the SQLite webpage at http://www.sqlite.org/download.html. For example, the ZIP file that includes the command-line tools for version 3.20.1 is sqlite-tools-win32-x8 6-3200100.zip. The name for the file changes with the SQLite version. You just need to make sure that you download the bundle of command-line tools and not the ZIP file that provides the SQLite DLLs. After you unzip the file, you can include the folder that includes the command-line tools in the PATH environment variable, or you can access the sqlite3.exe command...

Controlling, serialization, and deserialization

Our RESTful Web Service has to be able to serialize and deserialize the Toy instances into JSON representations. In Django REST framework, we just need to create a serializer class for the Toy instances to manage serialization to JSON and deserialization from JSON. Now, we will dive deep into the serialization and deserialization process in Django REST framework. It is very important to understand how it works because it is one of the most important components for all the RESTful Web Services we will build.

Django REST framework uses a two-phase process for serialization. The serializers are mediators between the model instances and Python primitives. Parser and renderers handle as mediators between Python primitives and HTTP requests and responses. We will configure our mediator between the Toy model instances and Python primitives...

Working with the Django shell and diving deeply into serialization and deserialization

We can launch our default Python interactive shell in our virtual environment and make all the Django project modules available before it starts. This way, we can check that the serializer works as expected. We will do this to understand how serialization works in Django.

Run the following command to launch the interactive shell. Make sure you are within the restful01 folder in the terminal, Command Prompt, or Windows Powershell:

python manage.py shell

You will notice a line that says (InteractiveConsole) is displayed after the usual lines that introduce your default Python interactive shell. The following screenshot shows the Django shell launched in a Windows command prompt:

Enter the following code in the Python interactive shell to import all the things we will need to test the Toy model...

Defining the requirements for our first RESTful Web Service


Imagine a team of developers working on a mobile app for iOS and Android and requires a RESTful Web Service to perform CRUD operations with toys. We definitely don't want to use a mock web service and we don't want to spend time choosing and configuring an ORM (short for Object-Relational Mapping). We want to quickly build a RESTful Web Service and have it ready as soon as possible to start interacting with it in the mobile app.

We really want the toys to persist in a database but we don't need it to be production-ready. Therefore, we can use the simplest possible relational database, as long as we don't have to spend time performing complex installations or configurations.

Django REST framework, also known as DRF, will allow us to easily accomplish this task and start making HTTP requests to the first version of our RESTful Web Service. In this case, we will work with a very simple SQLite database, the default database for a new...

Creating our first model


Now, we will create a simple Toy model in Django, which we will use to represent and persist toys. Open the toys/models.py file. The following lines show the initial code for this file with just one import statement and a comment that indicates we should create the models:

from django.db import models 
 
# Create your models here. 

The following lines show the new code that creates a Toy class, specifically, a Toy model in the toys/models.py file. The code file for the sample is included in the hillar_django_restful_02_01 folder in the restful01/toys/models.py file:

from django.db import models 
 
 
class Toy(models.Model): 
    created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True) 
    name = models.CharField(max_length=150, blank=False, default='') 
    description = models.CharField(max_length=250, blank=True, default='') 
    toy_category = models.CharField(max_length=200, blank=False, default='') 
    release_date = models.DateTimeField() 
    was_included_in_home...
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Key benefits

  • Create efficient real-world RESTful web services with the latest Django framework
  • Authenticate, secure, and integrate third-party packages efficiently in your Web Services
  • Leverage the power of Python for faster Web Service development

Description

Django is a Python web framework that makes the web development process very easy. It reduces the amount of trivial code, which simplifies the creation of web applications and results in faster development. It is very powerful and a great choice for creating RESTful web services. If you are a Python developer and want to efficiently create RESTful web services with Django for your apps, then this is the right book for you. The book starts off by showing you how to install and configure the environment, required software, and tools to create RESTful web services with Django and the Django REST framework. We then move on to working with advanced serialization and migrations to interact with SQLite and non-SQL data sources. We will use the features included in the Django REST framework to improve our simple web service. Further, we will create API views to process diverse HTTP requests on objects, go through relationships and hyperlinked API management, and then discover the necessary steps to include security and permissions related to data models and APIs. We will also apply throttling rules and run tests to check that versioning works as expected. Next we will run automated tests to improve code coverage. By the end of the book, you will be able to build RESTful web services with Django.

Who is this book for?

This book is for Python developers who want to create RESTful web services with Django; you need to have a basic working knowledge of Django but no previous experience with RESTful web services is required.

What you will learn

  • • The best way to build a RESTful Web Service or API with Django and the Django REST Framework
  • • Develop complex RESTful APIs from scratch with Django and the Django REST Framework
  • • Work with either SQL or NoSQL data sources
  • • Design RESTful Web Services based on application requirements
  • • Use third-party packages and extensions to perform common tasks
  • • Create automated tests for RESTful web services
  • • Debug, test, and profile RESTful web services with Django and the Django REST Framework
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Table of Contents

12 Chapters
Installing the Required Software and Tools Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Working with Models, Migrations, Serialization, and Deserialization Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating API Views Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Using Generalized Behavior from the APIView Class Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Understanding and Customizing the Browsable API Feature Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Working with Advanced Relationships and Serialization Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Using Constraints, Filtering, Searching, Ordering, and Pagination Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Securing the API with Authentication and Permissions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Applying Throttling Rules and Versioning Management Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Automating Tests Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Solutions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.1
(8 Ratings)
5 star 25%
4 star 25%
3 star 0%
2 star 37.5%
1 star 12.5%
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Vicente Marçal Jun 11, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Excelente tratamento apresentando de forma prática como utilizar o Django com Django Rest Framework para a criação de RESTful APIs. Não deve faltar na biblioteca do Desenvolvedor Python/Django.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Cliente Amazon2 Apr 13, 2022
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Utile per capire le API rest su Django rest framework, ovviamente va fatta qualche modifica a livello di codice per fare funzionare il progetto, ma niente di complesso. Consigliato
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Ryan McGuinness Apr 02, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
This is a great book, and a much needed supplement for the online documentation. There are several more advanced topics that are not covered and require a lot of digging. Otherwise a great read with very clear step-by-step instructions.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Amazon Customer May 15, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
Great book with lots of examples. I would definitely recommend it.I would've liked to see a Django project with more than one app. I also would've liked to see a more thorough deployment strategy.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
EG Jun 02, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
The book is a shallow introduction to Django Restful API. The approach the author took is not educational. He put a bunch of code at the beginning of a chapter and devote the rest of the chapter to give poor explanations for the written code. If you have to read this book (unfortunately at the moment there are not many alternatives) I recommend you to get an introduction to APIs from somewhere else. Honestly, simply skip the first 7 chapters of the book and check out the official introduction instead. Last three chapters have some value though.Author loves copy-and-paste. Here is just one example excerpt (out of many) from book:"The PilotCompetitionSerializer class declares a pilot attribute that holds an instance of serializers.SlugRelatedField with its queryset argument set to Pilot.objects.all() and its slug_field argument set to 'name'. We created the pilot field as a models.ForeignKey instance in the Competition model and we want to display the Pilot's name as the description (slug field) for the related Pilot.The PilotCompetitionSerializer class declares a drone attribute that holds an instance of serializers.SlugRelatedField with its queryset argument set to Drone.objects.all() and its slug_field argument set to 'name'. We created the drone field as a models.ForeignKey instance in the Competition model and we want to display the drone's name as the description (slug field) for the related Drone."It is pretty boring to read such a book.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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