Simple Rest API Server

A simple REST Api backend server written with Django and Django Rest Framework for use with Javascript frontend frameworks.

It has a very simple app already included called "example". It can be used with frontend JS frameworks like Angular or React. In fact, it pairs very well with my own angular-tour-of-events.

Set Up

Clone project into a folder.

Install Python 3.8.1 using pyenv (see the Pyenv section on this page for notes on how to install pyenv: https://dev.prodigi.us/post/python-package-and-version-management/).

$ pyenv install 3.8.1              # Install Python 3.8.1
$ pyenv virtualenv rest-api-server # Set up a virtual environment called rest-api-server
$ pyenv local rest-api-server      # Designates this space as virtual environment container
$ pip install -r requirements.txt  # Installs necessary packages

Run rest-api-server

$ python manage.py runserver

View Rest API Response

In a browser go to http://localhost:8000/api/events

How to Create an App

Change to the project folder.

$ ./manage.py startapp todo

Open rest_api_server/settings.py. Add the app name 'todo' to the end of INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'rest_framework',
    'corsheaders',
    'example',
    'todo',
]

Save the settings.py file.

Open todo/models.py and add an example model:

from django.db import models


class Todo(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField('Title', max_length=50)
    description = models.TextField('Description')
    created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    due = models.DateTimeField()

    def __str__(self):
        return self.title

We can migrate our model to the database.

$ ./manage.py makemigrations
Migrations for 'todo':
  todo/migrations/0001_initial.py
    - Create model Todo

$ ./manage.py migrate
Operations to perform:
  Apply all migrations: admin, auth, contenttypes, example, sessions, todo
Running migrations:
  Applying todo.0001_initial... OK

Add the 'Todo' model to the Django admin by opening the todo/admin.py file and adding:

from django.contrib import admin
from .models import Todo


admin.site.register(Todo)

In the todo app folder, create a new file called serializers.py and add the following:

from rest_framework import serializers, viewsets
from .models import Todo


class TodoSerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Todo
        fields = [
            'title',
            'description',
            'created',
            'due',
        ]


class TodoViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Todo.objects.all()
    serializer_class = TodoSerializer

Create an entry in rest_api_server/urls.py:

...
from todo.serializers import TodoViewSet # <- Import the TodoViewSet from the serializers module.


class UserSerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):
    ...


router = routers.DefaultRouter()
...
router.register(r'todos', TodoViewSet) # <- Register the TodoViewSet as 'todos'

Start the Django development server:

$ ./manage.py runserver

In the web browser go to http://localhost:8000/api/todos/. There will be an empty list showing for todos but you can add them either with the Rest API interface or using the Django admin console.

To login to the Django development server, use admin / admin.