REST APIs with Django by Will Vincent ¶
See also
Introduction ¶
The internet is powered by RESTful APIs .
Behind the scenes even the simplest online task involves multiple computers interacting with one another.
An API (Application Programming Interface) is a formal way to describe two computers communicating directly with one another. And while there are multiple ways to build an API, web APIs–which allow for the transfer of data over the world wide web–are overwhelmingly structured in a RESTful (REpresentational State Transfer) pattern.
In this book you will learn how to build multiple RESTful web APIs of increasing complexity from scratch using Django and Django REST Framework.
The combination of Django and Django REST Framework is one of the most popular and customizable ways to build web APIs, used by many of the largest tech companies in the world including Instagram, Mozilla, Pinterest, and Bitbucket.
It is also uniquely well-suited to beginners because Django’s “batteries-included” approach masks much of the underlying complexity and security risks involved in creating any web API.
Why APIs ¶
Django was first released in 2005 and at the time most websites consisted of one large monolithic codebase.
The “back-end” consisted of database models, URLs, and views which interacted with the “front-end” templates of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that controlled the presentational layout of each web page.
However in recent years an “API-first” approach has emerged as arguably the dominant paradigm in web development .
This approach involves formally separating the back-end from the front-end. It means Django becomes a powerful database and API instead of just a website framework.
Today Django is arguably used more often as just a back-end API rather than a full monolithic website solution at large companies !
An obvious question at this point is, “Why bother?” Traditional Django works quite well on its own and transforming a Django site into a web API seems like a lot of extra work.
Plus, as a developer, you then have to write a dedicated front-end in another programming language.
This approach of dividing services into different components, by the way, is broadly known as Service-oriented architecture .
It turns out however that there are multiple advantages to separating the front-end from the back-end.
First , it is arguably much more “future-proof” because a back-end API can be consumed by any JavaScript front-end . Given the rapid rate of change in front-end libraries, React was only released in 2013, Vue in 2014 and Angular in 2016 !, this is highly valuable .
When the current front-end frameworks are eventually replaced by even newer ones in the years to come, the back-end API can remain the same . No major rewrite is required.
Second , an API can support multiple front-ends written in different languages and frameworks. Consider that JavaScript is used for web front-ends, while Android apps require the Java programming language, and iOS apps need the Swift programming language. With a traditional monolithic approach, a Django website cannot support these various front-ends. But with an internal API, all three can communicate with the same underlying database back-end !
Third , an API-first approach can be used both internally and externally.
When I worked at Quizlet back in 2010 we did not have the resources to develop our own iOS or Android apps. But we did have an external API available that more than 30 developers used to create their own flashcard apps powered by the Quizlet database. Several of these apps were downloaded over a million times, enriching the developers and increasing the reach of Quizlet at the same time. Quizlet is now a top 20 website in the U.S. during the school year.
The major downside to an API-first approach is that it requires more configuration than a traditional Django application.
However as we will see in this book, the fantastic Django REST Framework library removes much of this complexity.
Django REST Framework ¶
There are hundreds and hundreds of third-party apps available that add further functionality to Django. (You can see a complete, searchable list over at Django Packages.)
However Django REST Framework is arguably the killer app for Django .
It is mature, full of features, customizable, testable, and extremely well-documented. It also purposefully mimics many of Django’s traditional conventions, which makes learning it much faster. And it is written in the Python programming language, a wonderful, popular, and accessible language.
If you already know Django, then learning Django REST Framework is a logical next step. With a minimal amount of code, it can transform any existing Django application into a web API.