The
programmers must be able to read and understand the API to effectuate
communication and interactions between different software applications.
Django REST framework (DRF) is designed as a powerful and flexible
toolkit to help programmers to create APIs rapidly. Also, it makes it
easier for developers to build web APIs that can be accessed through a
web browser directly.
Important Features of Django REST Framework
Web-browsable API
As
noted earlier, the web programmers must be able to read the API to
effectuate communication between applications. DRF can be used as a
powerful toolkit for developing APIs that are readable for programmers.
When HTML format is requested, DRF generates HTML output for each
resource. The HTML output can be read by the programmers as well as web
browsers. The programmers can further browse through the resources
easily, and submit data to the resources through PUT, POST and DELETE.
Serialization
DRF
is designed with a built in model serialization. The model
serialization enables developers effectuate representation of data
without writing longer lines of code. At the same time, it further
allows programmers to get the data delivered in a number of formats. The
latest version of DRF also comes with simpler model serializers that
are both easy to understand and easy to debug. The model serializers
further allow programmers to switch between the explicit Serializer
class and implicit ModelSerializer class.
Authentication Policies
To
protect the website, developers have to check the incoming requests
based on specific identifying criterions like who is making the request
or if the request is properly signed. The developers mention a set of
identifying criterions to decide about permitting or declining a
request. DRF allows programmers to avail a set of predefined
authentication schemes. The developers also have option to create and
implement custom authentication themes. Whenever the view starts, DRF
run the authentication scheme immediately. Thus, each time the
authentication is performed before the proceeding of other code begins.
Customization
DRF
allows programmers to use the class based as well as function based
views. The regular function based views make it easier for developers to
customize request processing. They can use the function based views to receive an instance of Request
instead of the normal Django HTTPRequest. Likewise, the views can also
be used to return a Response instead of the normal Django HTTPResponse.
At the same time, the developers can use the api_view decorator to
define a set of HTTP methods that the view will respond to. Thus, it
becomes easier for programmers to configure request processing according
to their specific needs.
Extensive Documentation
While
using DRF, programmers can save time and efforts by referring to the
extensive documentation, and availing the support of a large community.
At the same time, they also have option to choose from several
approaches to API documentation. Likewise, the Django REST framework can
also be integrated with a variety of popular API documentation tools
like Swagger and Apiary. Thus, the skilled Django developers can use these tools to make the browsable APIs self-describing and reusable.
The
version 3.0 of the Django REST framework also comes with several new
features including a new BaseSerializer class, simple model serializers,
and printable illustrations on serializers. It further enables web
developers to customize the requests handled by the APIs using a Meta
API. So the developers can use Django REST framework version 3 to
create, maintain and debug their application in a faster and more
efficient way.
