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implementing-rest - DjangoRESTframework.wiki

Introduction

Django REST framework is a lightweight REST framework for Django, that aims to make it easy to build well-connected, self-describing RESTful Web APIs.

Browse example APIs created with Django REST framework: http://api.django-rest-framework.org/

Features:

  • Automatically provides a Django admin style browse-able self-documenting API. http://api.django-rest-framework.org
  • Clean, simple, views for Resources, using Django's new class based views.
  • Support for ModelResources with out-of-the-box default implementations and input validation.
  • Pluggable emitters, parsers, validators and authenticators - Easy to customise.
  • Content type negotiation using HTTP Accept headers.
  • Optional support for forms as input validation.
  • Modular architecture - MixIn classes can be used without requiring the Resource or ModelResource classes.

The django-rest-framework project is hosted as a mercurial repository on bitbucket https://bitbucket.org/tomchristie/django-rest-framework and is available on PyPI. http://pypi.python.org/pypi/djangorestframework

For questions, thoughts and feedback please head on over to the discussion group. http://groups.google.com/group/django-rest-framework

Bug reports are greatful received on the issue tracker. https://bitbucket.org/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues?sort=version

If you're feeling particularly enthusiastic there's even a blog. http://blog.django-rest-framework.org

Requirements

  • Python (2.5, 2.6, 2.7 supported)
  • Django (1.2, 1.3 supported)

Installation & Setup

You can install Django REST framework using pip or easy_install:

pip install djangorestframework

Or download the current release from BitBucket:

Or get the latest development version using mercurial::

hg clone https://bitbucket.org/tomchristie/django-rest-framework

To install Django REST framework to your site-packages directory, run the setup.py script:

python setup.py install

To add django-rest-framework to a Django project:

  • Ensure that the djangorestframework directory is on your PYTHONPATH.
  • Add djangorestframework to your INSTALLED_APPS.

Getting Started

Using Django REST framework can be as simple as adding a few lines to your urlconf and adding a permalink to your model.

urls.py:

``` from django.conf.urls.defaults import patterns, url from djangorestframework import ModelResource, RootModelResource from models import MyModel

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    url(r'^$', RootModelResource.as_view(model=MyModel)),
    url(r'^(?P<pk>[^/]+)/$', ModelResource.as_view(model=MyModel), name='my-model'),
 )

```

models.py:

``` class MyModel(models.Model):

    # (Rest of model definition...)

    @models.permalink
    def get_absolute_url(self):
        return ('my-model', (self.pk,))

```

For more information see the official documentation: http://django-rest-framework.org