How to create a simple REST API with Django?

Requirements

1. Poetry installed. Reference: https://python-poetry.org/docs/

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/python-poetry/poetry/master/get-poetry.py | python -

Purpose

This article serves as an illustration project for the Django-PyCharm series. Our goal in this article is to create a film API using Django REST Framework, with the following endpoints:

• GET /films/: List of Film records
• POST /films/: Create a Film record

The whole project repository can be found here: https://github.com/BesnardConsultingSAS/film-app-django

1. Setup the Django project

Setup the project folder

Setup the project folder by creating and entering the directory:

mkdir film_app_django && cd film_app_django

Generate poetry configuration

Run the command:

poetry init

This will generate an interactive session to define the parameters of your project. Press enter to use the defaults. Type no when prompted to define dependencies interactively.

Install Django

poetry add Django

Install Django Rest Framework

poetry add djangorestframework

Activate the environment

poetry shell

Initialize the Django App

poetry run django-admin startproject film_app .

The project tree should now look like this:

Add Django REST Framework to Settings

Add rest_framework to the INSTALLED_APPS field in film_app/settings.py

Apply Django Migrations

To apply migrations to the files, run:

python manage.py migrate

Running the application

python manage.py runserver

Your development server should start:

2. Creating the film app

Create a new Django app

python manage.py startapp film

You can optionally remove the admin.py and tests.py as we won’t be using them. Next, in film_app/settings.py , add the film app under INSTALLED_APPS.

Creating the model

In the models.py file, write:

Applying migrations

Apply the migrations by running the following commands:

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

Creating a serializer

In the film directory, create a serializers.py and write the following:

Creating the view

In the views.py file, type:

Creating the URL routes

Create the route

In the film app directory, add a urls.py file and write the following:

Connect the route to the main app’s URLs

Wire up the root url file to include the film app’s URLS. In film_app/urls.py, write:

Testing the film app

Retrieving a list of films

To test the film app, type:

python manage.py runserver

Navigate to http://localhost:8000/films/ and you will be able to view the film list (which is empty) and a form to add films.

Adding A Film

1. In the Content input, type:

{
 “title”: “The Godfather”,
 “year_published”: 1972
}

2. Next, click POST.

3. The request should succeed and the list of films should be updated.

That’s it!

You have now created a film API using Django REST Framework that can retrieve and create films. The project repository can be found here: https://github.com/BesnardConsultingSAS/film-app-django

References

• Django: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/intro/tutorial01/
• Django REST: https://www.django-rest-framework.org/tutorial/quickstart/
• Besnard Consulting SAS: https://www.besnard-consulting.com