The APIs allow you to Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD<\/a>) a task. The tasks are stored in a database and we’re using the Django ORM (Object Relational Mapping) to deal with the database management.<\/p>\n In a new directory, create a Python 3 virtual environment so that you can install dependencies.<\/p>\n After activating the virtual environment, install the dependencies.<\/p>\n Django REST Framework<\/a>, or DRF, is a framework that makes it easy to create RESTful CRUD APIs. By default it gives access to useful features like browseable APIs, authentication management, serialization of data, and more.<\/p>\n Create the Django project using the django-admin CLI tool provided.<\/p>\n Next, create the application inside the project.<\/p>\n Now that the basic structure of the project is in place, you can enable the REST framework and the todo<\/em> application. Let’s add rest_framework<\/em> and todo<\/em> to the list of INSTALL_APPS<\/em> in the project’s settings.py<\/em>.<\/p>\n The next step of building our application is to set up the database. By default, Django uses the SQLite database management system. S<\/span>ince SQLite works well and is easy to use during development, let’s keep this default setting. <\/span>The second part of this series will look at how to replace SQLite with PostgreSQL to run the application in production.<\/span><\/p>\n By adding the following code to todo_app\/todo\/models.py<\/em>, you define which properties have a task. The application defines a task with a title, <\/em>a description<\/em> and a status.<\/em> The status of a task can only be one of the three following states: Backlog, Work in Progress<\/em> and Done.<\/em><\/p>\n Now create the database migration script that Django uses to update the database with changes.<\/p>\n Then you can apply the migration to the database.<\/p>\n This step creates a <\/em>file named db.sqlite3<\/em> in the root directory of the application. This is where SQLite stores the data.<\/p>\n Now that you can represent and store a task in the database, you need a way to access the data. This is where we start making use of Django REST Framework by using the ModelViewSet<\/a>. <\/em>The ModelViewSet<\/em> provides the following actions on a data model: list, retrieve, create, update, partial update, and destroy.<\/p>\n Let’s add our view to todo_app\/todo\/views.py<\/em>:<\/p>\n As you can see, the TaskViewSet<\/em> is using a Serializer<\/a>. In DRF, serializers convert the data modeled in the application models to a native Python datatype. This datatype can be later easily rendered into JSON or XML, <\/em>for example. Serializers are also used to deserialize JSON or other content types into the data structure defined in the model.<\/p>\n Let’s add our TaskSerializer<\/em> object by creating a new file in the project todo_app\/todo\/serializers.py<\/em>:<\/p>\n We’re using the generic ModelSerializer<\/a><\/em> from DRF, to automatically create a serializer with the fields that correspond to our Task model.<\/p>\n Now that we have a data model a view and way to serialize\/deserialize data, we need to map our view actions to URLs. That way we can use HTTP methods to manipulate our data.<\/p>\nDjango App and Rest Framework setup<\/h3>\n
$ mkdir todoapp && cd todoapp
$ python3 -m venv .venv
$ source .venv\/bin\/activate<\/pre>\n(.venv)$ pip install djangorestframework django<\/pre>\n
Create the Django project and application<\/h4>\n
(.venv) $ django-admin startproject todo_app . # Note the trailing '.'
(.venv) $ tree .
.
\u251c\u2500\u2500 manage.py
\u2514\u2500\u2500 todo_app
\u251c\u2500\u2500 __init__.py
\u251c\u2500\u2500 settings.py
\u251c\u2500\u2500 urls.py
\u2514\u2500\u2500 wsgi.py
1 directory, 5 files<\/pre>\n(.venv) $ cd todo_app
(.venv) $ django-admin startapp todo
(.venv) $ cd ..
(.venv) $ tree .
.
\u251c\u2500\u2500 manage.py
\u2514\u2500\u2500 todo_app
\u251c\u2500\u2500 __init__.py
\u251c\u2500\u2500 settings.py
\u251c\u2500\u2500 todo
\u2502 \u251c\u2500\u2500 admin.py
\u2502 \u251c\u2500\u2500 apps.py
\u2502 \u251c\u2500\u2500 __init__.py
\u2502 \u251c\u2500\u2500 migrations
\u2502 \u2502 \u2514\u2500\u2500 __init__.py
\u2502 \u251c\u2500\u2500 models.py
\u2502 \u251c\u2500\u2500 tests.py
\u2502 \u2514\u2500\u2500 views.py
\u251c\u2500\u2500 urls.py
\u2514\u2500\u2500 wsgi.py<\/pre>\ntodoapp\/todo_app\/settings.py<\/pre>\n
# Application definition
INSTALLED_APPS = [
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
'rest_framework',
'todo_app.todo',
]<\/pre>\n Application Model and Database<\/h3>\n
The Task Model<\/h4>\n
from django.db import models
class Task(models.Model):
STATES = ((\"todo\", \"Backlog\"), (\"wip\", \"Work in Progress\"), (\"done\", \"Done\"))
title = models.CharField(max_length=255, blank=False, unique=True)
description = models.TextField()
status = models.CharField(max_length=4, choices=STATES, default=\"todo\")
<\/pre>\n(.venv) $ PYTHONPATH=. DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=todo_app.settings django-admin makemigrations<\/pre>\n
(.venv) $ PYTHONPATH=. DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=todo_app.settings django-admin migrate<\/pre>\n
Access to the data<\/h3>\n
Creating a View<\/h4>\n
from rest_framework import viewsets
from todo_app.todo.models import Task
from todo_app.todo.serializers import TaskSerializer
class TaskViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
queryset = Task.objects.all()
serializer_class = TaskSerializer<\/pre>\nCreating a Serializer<\/h4>\n
from rest_framework.serializers import ModelSerializer
from todo_app.todo.models import Task
class TaskSerializer(ModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = Task
fields = \"__all__\"<\/pre>\nCreating a Router<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/build-a-django-restful-api-on-fedora.png\")
<\/figure>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/build-a-django-restful-api-on-fedora-1.png\")
<\/figure>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/build-a-django-restful-api-on-fedora-2.png\")
<\/figure>\n