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| author | José Padilla | 2014-11-28 12:14:40 -0400 |
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| committer | José Padilla | 2014-11-28 12:14:40 -0400 |
| commit | 0cc990792c63caa8fa8fea62cea53b0d28157b55 (patch) | |
| tree | 7ea80a203cc8718150cd55e4403f3f4771160281 /docs/api-guide/metadata.md | |
| parent | 1aa77830955dcdf829f65a9001b6b8900dfc8755 (diff) | |
| parent | 3a5b3772fefc3c2f2c0899947cbc07bfe6e6b5d2 (diff) | |
| download | django-rest-framework-0cc990792c63caa8fa8fea62cea53b0d28157b55.tar.bz2 | |
Merge branch 'version-3.1' into oauth_as_package
Conflicts:
requirements-test.txt
rest_framework/compat.py
tests/settings.py
tox.ini
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/api-guide/metadata.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/api-guide/metadata.md | 109 |
1 files changed, 109 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/api-guide/metadata.md b/docs/api-guide/metadata.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c3e51148 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/api-guide/metadata.md @@ -0,0 +1,109 @@ +<a class="github" href="metadata.py"></a> + +--- + +**Note**: This is the documentation for the **version 3.0** of REST framework. Documentation for [version 2.4](http://tomchristie.github.io/rest-framework-2-docs/) is also available. + +--- + +# Metadata + +> [The `OPTIONS`] method allows a client to determine the options and/or requirements associated with a resource, or the capabilities of a server, without implying a resource action or initiating a resource retrieval. +> +> — [RFC7231, Section 4.3.7.][cite] + +REST framework includes a configurable mechanism for determining how your API should respond to `OPTIONS` requests. This allows you to return API schema or other resource information. + +There are not currently any widely adopted conventions for exactly what style of response should be returned for HTTP `OPTIONS` requests, so we provide an ad-hoc style that returns some useful information. + +Here's an example response that demonstrates the information that is returned by default. + + HTTP 200 OK + Allow: GET, POST, HEAD, OPTIONS + Content-Type: application/json + + { + "name": "To Do List", + "description": "List existing 'To Do' items, or create a new item.", + "renders": [ + "application/json", + "text/html" + ], + "parses": [ + "application/json", + "application/x-www-form-urlencoded", + "multipart/form-data" + ], + "actions": { + "POST": { + "note": { + "type": "string", + "required": false, + "read_only": false, + "label": "title", + "max_length": 100 + } + } + } + } + +## Setting the metadata scheme + +You can set the metadata class globally using the `'DEFAULT_METADATA_CLASS'` settings key: + + REST_FRAMEWORK = { + 'DEFAULT_METADATA_CLASS': 'rest_framework.metadata.SimpleMetadata' + } + +Or you can set the metadata class individually for a view: + + class APIRoot(APIView): + metadata_class = APIRootMetadata + + def get(self, request, format=None): + return Response({ + ... + }) + +The REST framework package only includes a single metadata class implementation, named `SimpleMetadata`. If you want to use an alternative style you'll need to implement a custom metadata class. + +## Creating schema endpoints + +If you have specific requirements for creating schema endpoints that are accessed with regular `GET` requests, you might consider re-using the metadata API for doing so. + +For example, the following additional route could be used on a viewset to provide a linkable schema endpoint. + + @list_route(methods=['GET']) + def schema(self, request): + meta = self.metadata_class() + data = meta.determine_metadata(request, self) + return Response(data) + +There are a couple of reasons that you might choose to take this approach, including that `OPTIONS` responses [are not cacheable][no-options]. + +--- + +# Custom metadata classes + +If you want to provide a custom metadata class you should override `BaseMetadata` and implement the `determine_metadata(self, request, view)` method. + +Useful things that you might want to do could include returning schema information, using a format such as [JSON schema][json-schema], or returning debug information to admin users. + +## Example + +The following class could be used to limit the information that is returned to `OPTIONS` requests. + + class MinimalMetadata(BaseMetadata): + """ + Don't include field and other information for `OPTIONS` requests. + Just return the name and description. + """ + def determine_metadata(self, request, view): + return { + 'name': view.get_view_name(), + 'description': view.get_view_description() + } + +[cite]: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231#section-4.3.7 +[no-options]: https://www.mnot.net/blog/2012/10/29/NO_OPTIONS +[json-schema]: http://json-schema.org/ |
