Django REST Framework

Django REST framework is a powerful and flexible toolkit for building Web APIs.

Some reasons you might want to use REST framework:

REST framework is a collaboratively funded project. If you use REST framework commercially we strongly encourage you to invest in its continued development by signing up for a paid plan.

Every single sign-up helps us make REST framework long-term financially sustainable.

Many thanks to all our wonderful sponsors, and in particular to our premium backers, Sentry, Stream, ESG, Rollbar, Cadre, Kloudless, Lights On Software, Retool, and bit.io.

REST framework requires the following:

Python (3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9)

Django (2.2, 3.0, 3.1)

We highly recommend and only officially support the latest patch release of each Python and Django series.

The following packages are optional:

PyYAML, uritemplate (5.1+, 3.0.0+) - Schema generation support.

Markdown (3.0.0+) - Markdown support for the browsable API.

Pygments (2.4.0+) - Add syntax highlighting to Markdown processing.

django-filter (1.0.1+) - Filtering support.

django-guardian (1.1.1+) - Object level permissions support.

Install using pip , including any optional packages you want...

pip install djangorestframework pip install markdown # Markdown support for the browsable API. pip install django-filter # Filtering support

...or clone the project from github.

git clone https://github.com/encode/django-rest-framework

Add 'rest_framework' to your INSTALLED_APPS setting.

INSTALLED_APPS = [ ... 'rest_framework', ]

If you're intending to use the browsable API you'll probably also want to add REST framework's login and logout views. Add the following to your root urls.py file.

urlpatterns = [ ... path('api-auth/', include('rest_framework.urls')) ]

Note that the URL path can be whatever you want.

Let's take a look at a quick example of using REST framework to build a simple model-backed API.

We'll create a read-write API for accessing information on the users of our project.

Any global settings for a REST framework API are kept in a single configuration dictionary named REST_FRAMEWORK . Start off by adding the following to your settings.py module:

REST_FRAMEWORK = { # Use Django's standard `django.contrib.auth` permissions, # or allow read-only access for unauthenticated users. 'DEFAULT_PERMISSION_CLASSES': [ 'rest_framework.permissions.DjangoModelPermissionsOrAnonReadOnly' ] }

Don't forget to make sure you've also added rest_framework to your INSTALLED_APPS .

We're ready to create our API now. Here's our project's root urls.py module:

from django.urls import path, include from django.contrib.auth.models import User from rest_framework import routers, serializers, viewsets # Serializers define the API representation. class UserSerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer): class Meta: model = User fields = ['url', 'username', 'email', 'is_staff'] # ViewSets define the view behavior. class UserViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet): queryset = User.objects.all() serializer_class = UserSerializer # Routers provide an easy way of automatically determining the URL conf. router = routers.DefaultRouter() router.register(r'users', UserViewSet) # Wire up our API using automatic URL routing. # Additionally, we include login URLs for the browsable API. urlpatterns = [ path('', include(router.urls)), path('api-auth/', include('rest_framework.urls', namespace='rest_framework')) ]

You can now open the API in your browser at http://127.0.0.1:8000/, and view your new 'users' API. If you use the login control in the top right corner you'll also be able to add, create and delete users from the system.

Can't wait to get started? The quickstart guide is the fastest way to get up and running, and building APIs with REST framework.

See the Contribution guidelines for information on how to clone the repository, run the test suite and contribute changes back to REST Framework.

For support please see the REST framework discussion group, try the #restframework channel on irc.freenode.net , search the IRC archives, or raise a question on Stack Overflow, making sure to include the 'django-rest-framework' tag.

For priority support please sign up for a professional or premium sponsorship plan.

For updates on REST framework development, you may also want to follow the author on Twitter.

Follow @_tomchristie

If you believe you’ve found something in Django REST framework which has security implications, please do not raise the issue in a public forum.

Send a description of the issue via email to rest-framework-security@googlegroups.com. The project maintainers will then work with you to resolve any issues where required, prior to any public disclosure.

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