djrest2

A small and simple REST library for Django based on class-based views.

djrest2 provides a lightweight alternative to Django REST Framework for simple REST API needs. It's built on Django's existing class-based views and provides automatic JSON serialization, request parsing, and proper HTTP status codes out of the box.

Installation

From PyPI

pip install djrest2

From Git Repository

pip install git+https://gitlab.levitnet.be/levit/djrest.git

Development Setup

This project uses uv for dependency management:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://gitlab.levitnet.be/levit/djrest.git
cd djrest

# Create virtual environment and install dependencies
uv sync --dev

# Run the sample application
cd sample
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py runserver

Quick Start Guide

1. Create API Views

from django.db import models
from djrest import ListCreateView, UpdateDeleteView

class Category(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)

class CategoryListCreateView(ListCreateView):
    model = Category
    fields = ('name',)

class CategoryUpdateDeleteView(UpdateDeleteView):
    model = Category
    fields = ('name',)

2. Configure URLs

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('api/categories/', views.CategoryListCreateView.as_view()),
    path('api/categories/<int:pk>/', views.CategoryUpdateDeleteView.as_view()),
]

3. Use the API

# List categories
curl http://localhost:8000/api/categories/

# Create a category
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/categories/ \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"name": "Electronics"}'

# Update a category
curl -X PUT http://localhost:8000/api/categories/1/ \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"name": "Updated Electronics"}'

# Delete a category
curl -X DELETE http://localhost:8000/api/categories/1/

API Reference

For comprehensive API documentation, generate the docs using django-classy-doc:

python sample/manage.py classify -o docs/api/$(python -c "from djrest.__version__ import __version__; print(__version__)")/

Core Classes

• JsonResponse: Extended Django JsonResponse that handles empty data for 204 status codes
• RestViewMixin: Base mixin providing JSON serialization, request parsing, and form handling
• ListCreateView: Combines Django's BaseListView and BaseCreateView for collection endpoints
• UpdateDeleteView: Extends BaseUpdateView with PUT/DELETE support for individual resources

Advanced Usage

Pagination

djrest2 supports pagination through Django's built-in pagination. When you add paginate_by to your view, the response will include pagination metadata:

class CategoryListCreateView(ListCreateView):
    model = Category
    fields = ('name',)
    paginate_by = 10  # Enable pagination with 10 items per page

Response format with pagination:

{
    "results": [
        {"pk": 1, "name": "Electronics"},
        {"pk": 2, "name": "Books"}
    ],
    "pagination": {
        "count": 25,
        "page": 1,
        "num_pages": 3
    }
}

Without pagination, only the results array is returned:

{
    "results": [
        {"pk": 1, "name": "Electronics"},
        {"pk": 2, "name": "Books"}
    ]
}

You can customize the pagination metadata by overriding get_pagination_metadata():

class CustomPaginatedView(ListCreateView):
    model = Product
    fields = ('name', 'price')
    paginate_by = 20

    def get_pagination_metadata(self, context):
        metadata = super().get_pagination_metadata(context)
        if metadata:
            # Add custom fields to pagination metadata
            metadata['page_size'] = self.paginate_by
        return metadata

Custom Serialization

class ProductListCreateView(ListCreateView):
    model = Product
    fields = ('name', 'price', 'category')

    def serialize_one(self, obj):
        data = super().serialize_one(obj)
        data['category_name'] = obj.category.name
        return data

Error Handling

class CustomAPIView(ListCreateView):
    model = MyModel
    fields = ('field1', 'field2')

    def handle_json_error(self, error):
        # Custom JSON error handling
        return self.response_class(
            {'custom_error': str(error)},
            status=400
        )

Authentication Integration

from django.contrib.auth.mixins import LoginRequiredMixin

class ProtectedCategoryView(LoginRequiredMixin, ListCreateView):
    model = Category
    fields = ('name',)

Configuration

Add these optional settings to your Django settings:

# Maximum JSON request body size (default: 10MB)
DJREST_MAX_JSON_SIZE = 10 * 1024 * 1024

Testing

Run tests using nox to test across multiple Python and Django versions:

# Run all tests
nox

# Run tests for specific Python/Django combination
nox -s "test-3.12(django='5.1')"

# Run linting
nox -s lint

# Generate documentation
nox -s docs

Or run tests directly:

cd sample
python manage.py test shop.tests

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature-name)
3. Make your changes
4. Run tests (nox)
5. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add feature')
6. Push to the branch (git push origin feature-name)
7. Create a Pull Request

Development Tools

This project uses:

• ruff for linting and formatting
• nox for testing across environments
• pre-commit for git hooks
• pytest for testing
• factory-boy for test data generation

Design Philosophy

dj-rest is designed to be minimal yet powerful. Read more about the motivation and design principles in Emma's blog post: Why do we need an external app for REST?

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.