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diff --git a/docs/tutorial/1-serialization.md b/docs/tutorial/1-serialization.md index ba64f2aa..e1c0009c 100644 --- a/docs/tutorial/1-serialization.md +++ b/docs/tutorial/1-serialization.md @@ -2,19 +2,19 @@ ## Introduction -This tutorial will cover creating a simple pastebin code highlighting Web API. Along the way it will introduce the various components that make up REST framework, and give you a comprehensive understanding of how everything fits together. +This tutorial will cover creating a simple pastebin code highlighting Web API. Along the way it will introduce the various components that make up REST framework, and give you a comprehensive understanding of how everything fits together. -The tutorial is fairly in-depth, so you should probably get a cookie and a cup of your favorite brew before getting started.<!-- If you just want a quick overview, you should head over to the [quickstart] documentation instead. --> +The tutorial is fairly in-depth, so you should probably get a cookie and a cup of your favorite brew before getting started. If you just want a quick overview, you should head over to the [quickstart] documentation instead. --- -**Note**: The final code for this tutorial is available in the [tomchristie/rest-framework-tutorial][repo] repository on GitHub. There is also a sandbox version for testing, [available here][sandbox]. +**Note**: The code for this tutorial is available in the [tomchristie/rest-framework-tutorial][repo] repository on GitHub. The completed implementation is also online as a sandbox version for testing, [available here][sandbox]. --- ## Setting up a new environment -Before we do anything else we'll create a new virtual environment, using [virtualenv]. This will make sure our package configuration is keep nicely isolated from any other projects we're working on. +Before we do anything else we'll create a new virtual environment, using [virtualenv]. This will make sure our package configuration is kept nicely isolated from any other projects we're working on. :::bash mkdir ~/env @@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ To get started, let's create a new project to work with. cd tutorial Once that's done we can create an app that we'll use to create a simple Web API. -We're going to create a project that python manage.py startapp snippets @@ -61,10 +60,10 @@ We'll also need to add our new `snippets` app and the `rest_framework` app to `I INSTALLED_APPS = ( ... 'rest_framework', - 'snippets' + 'snippets', ) -We also need to wire up the root urlconf, in the `tutorial/urls.py` file, to include our snippet views. +We also need to wire up the root urlconf, in the `tutorial/urls.py` file, to include our snippet app's URLs. urlpatterns = patterns('', url(r'^', include('snippets.urls')), @@ -74,19 +73,20 @@ Okay, we're ready to roll. ## Creating a model to work with -For the purposes of this tutorial we're going to start by creating a simple `Snippet` model that is used to store code snippets. Go ahead and edit the `snippets` app's `models.py` file. +For the purposes of this tutorial we're going to start by creating a simple `Snippet` model that is used to store code snippets. Go ahead and edit the `snippets` app's `models.py` file. Note: Good programming practices include comments. Although you will find them in our repository version of this tutorial code, we have omitted them here to focus on the code itself. from django.db import models from pygments.lexers import get_all_lexers from pygments.styles import get_all_styles - - LANGUAGE_CHOICES = sorted([(item[1][0], item[0]) for item in get_all_lexers()]) - STYLE_CHOICES = sorted((item, item) for item in list(get_all_styles())) + + LEXERS = [item for item in get_all_lexers() if item[1]] + LANGUAGE_CHOICES = sorted([(item[1][0], item[0]) for item in LEXERS]) + STYLE_CHOICES = sorted((item, item) for item in get_all_styles()) class Snippet(models.Model): created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True) - title = models.CharField(max_length=100, default='') + title = models.CharField(max_length=100, blank=True, default='') code = models.TextField() linenos = models.BooleanField(default=False) language = models.CharField(choices=LANGUAGE_CHOICES, @@ -105,11 +105,11 @@ Don't forget to sync the database for the first time. ## Creating a Serializer class -The first thing we need to get started on our Web API is provide a way of serializing and deserializing the snippet instances into representations such as `json`. We can do this by declaring serializers that work very similarly to Django's forms. Create a file in the `snippets` directory named `serializers.py` and add the following. +The first thing we need to get started on our Web API is provide a way of serializing and deserializing the snippet instances into representations such as `json`. We can do this by declaring serializers that work very similar to Django's forms. Create a file in the `snippets` directory named `serializers.py` and add the following. from django.forms import widgets from rest_framework import serializers - from snippets import models + from snippets.models import Snippet, LANGUAGE_CHOICES, STYLE_CHOICES class SnippetSerializer(serializers.Serializer): @@ -119,44 +119,53 @@ The first thing we need to get started on our Web API is provide a way of serial code = serializers.CharField(widget=widgets.Textarea, max_length=100000) linenos = serializers.BooleanField(required=False) - language = serializers.ChoiceField(choices=models.LANGUAGE_CHOICES, + language = serializers.ChoiceField(choices=LANGUAGE_CHOICES, default='python') - style = serializers.ChoiceField(choices=models.STYLE_CHOICES, + style = serializers.ChoiceField(choices=STYLE_CHOICES, default='friendly') def restore_object(self, attrs, instance=None): """ - Create or update a new snippet instance. + Create or update a new snippet instance, given a dictionary + of deserialized field values. + + Note that if we don't define this method, then deserializing + data will simply return a dictionary of items. """ if instance: # Update existing instance - instance.title = attrs['title'] - instance.code = attrs['code'] - instance.linenos = attrs['linenos'] - instance.language = attrs['language'] - instance.style = attrs['style'] + instance.title = attrs.get('title', instance.title) + instance.code = attrs.get('code', instance.code) + instance.linenos = attrs.get('linenos', instance.linenos) + instance.language = attrs.get('language', instance.language) + instance.style = attrs.get('style', instance.style) return instance # Create new instance - return models.Snippet(**attrs) + return Snippet(**attrs) The first part of serializer class defines the fields that get serialized/deserialized. The `restore_object` method defines how fully fledged instances get created when deserializing data. +Notice that we can also use various attributes that would typically be used on form fields, such as `widget=widgets.Textarea`. These can be used to control how the serializer should render when displayed as an HTML form. This is particularly useful for controlling how the browsable API should be displayed, as we'll see later in the tutorial. + We can actually also save ourselves some time by using the `ModelSerializer` class, as we'll see later, but for now we'll keep our serializer definition explicit. ## Working with Serializers -Before we go any further we'll familiarise ourselves with using our new Serializer class. Let's drop into the Django shell. +Before we go any further we'll familiarize ourselves with using our new Serializer class. Let's drop into the Django shell. python manage.py shell -Okay, once we've got a few imports out of the way, let's create a code snippet to work with. +Okay, once we've got a few imports out of the way, let's create a couple of code snippets to work with. from snippets.models import Snippet from snippets.serializers import SnippetSerializer from rest_framework.renderers import JSONRenderer from rest_framework.parsers import JSONParser + snippet = Snippet(code='foo = "bar"\n') + snippet.save() + snippet = Snippet(code='print "hello, world"\n') snippet.save() @@ -164,15 +173,15 @@ We've now got a few snippet instances to play with. Let's take a look at serial serializer = SnippetSerializer(snippet) serializer.data - # {'pk': 1, 'title': u'', 'code': u'print "hello, world"\n', 'linenos': False, 'language': u'python', 'style': u'friendly'} + # {'pk': 2, 'title': u'', 'code': u'print "hello, world"\n', 'linenos': False, 'language': u'python', 'style': u'friendly'} -At this point we've translated the model instance into python native datatypes. To finalise the serialization process we render the data into `json`. +At this point we've translated the model instance into Python native datatypes. To finalize the serialization process we render the data into `json`. content = JSONRenderer().render(serializer.data) content - # '{"pk": 1, "title": "", "code": "print \\"hello, world\\"\\n", "linenos": false, "language": "python", "style": "friendly"}' + # '{"pk": 2, "title": "", "code": "print \\"hello, world\\"\\n", "linenos": false, "language": "python", "style": "friendly"}' -Deserialization is similar. First we parse a stream into python native datatypes... +Deserialization is similar. First we parse a stream into Python native datatypes... import StringIO @@ -189,9 +198,15 @@ Deserialization is similar. First we parse a stream into python native datatype Notice how similar the API is to working with forms. The similarity should become even more apparent when we start writing views that use our serializer. +We can also serialize querysets instead of model instances. To do so we simply add a `many=True` flag to the serializer arguments. + + serializer = SnippetSerializer(Snippet.objects.all(), many=True) + serializer.data + # [{'pk': 1, 'title': u'', 'code': u'foo = "bar"\n', 'linenos': False, 'language': u'python', 'style': u'friendly'}, {'pk': 2, 'title': u'', 'code': u'print "hello, world"\n', 'linenos': False, 'language': u'python', 'style': u'friendly'}] + ## Using ModelSerializers -Our `SnippetSerializer` class is replicating a lot of information that's also contained in the `Snippet` model. It would be nice if we could keep out code a bit more concise. +Our `SnippetSerializer` class is replicating a lot of information that's also contained in the `Snippet` model. It would be nice if we could keep our code a bit more concise. In the same way that Django provides both `Form` classes and `ModelForm` classes, REST framework includes both `Serializer` classes, and `ModelSerializer` classes. @@ -203,8 +218,6 @@ Open the file `snippets/serializers.py` again, and edit the `SnippetSerializer` model = Snippet fields = ('id', 'title', 'code', 'linenos', 'language', 'style') - - ## Writing regular Django views using our Serializer Let's see how we can write some API views using our new Serializer class. @@ -212,7 +225,7 @@ For the moment we won't use any of REST framework's other features, we'll just w We'll start off by creating a subclass of HttpResponse that we can use to render any data we return into `json`. -Edit the `snippet/views.py` file, and add the following. +Edit the `snippets/views.py` file, and add the following. from django.http import HttpResponse from django.views.decorators.csrf import csrf_exempt @@ -223,14 +236,13 @@ Edit the `snippet/views.py` file, and add the following. class JSONResponse(HttpResponse): """ - An HttpResponse that renders it's content into JSON. + An HttpResponse that renders its content into JSON. """ def __init__(self, data, **kwargs): content = JSONRenderer().render(data) kwargs['content_type'] = 'application/json' super(JSONResponse, self).__init__(content, **kwargs) - The root of our API is going to be a view that supports listing all the existing snippets, or creating a new snippet. @csrf_exempt @@ -240,7 +252,7 @@ The root of our API is going to be a view that supports listing all the existing """ if request.method == 'GET': snippets = Snippet.objects.all() - serializer = SnippetSerializer(snippets) + serializer = SnippetSerializer(snippets, many=True) return JSONResponse(serializer.data) elif request.method == 'POST': @@ -283,28 +295,57 @@ We'll also need a view which corresponds to an individual snippet, and can be us snippet.delete() return HttpResponse(status=204) -Finally we need to wire these views up. Create the `snippets/urls.py` file: +Finally we need to wire these views up. Create the `snippets/urls.py` file: from django.conf.urls import patterns, url urlpatterns = patterns('snippets.views', url(r'^snippets/$', 'snippet_list'), - url(r'^snippets/(?P<pk>[0-9]+)/$', 'snippet_detail') + url(r'^snippets/(?P<pk>[0-9]+)/$', 'snippet_detail'), ) -It's worth noting that there's a couple of edge cases we're not dealing with properly at the moment. If we send malformed `json`, or if a request is made with a method that the view doesn't handle, then we'll end up with a 500 "server error" response. Still, this'll do for now. +It's worth noting that there are a couple of edge cases we're not dealing with properly at the moment. If we send malformed `json`, or if a request is made with a method that the view doesn't handle, then we'll end up with a 500 "server error" response. Still, this'll do for now. ## Testing our first attempt at a Web API -**TODO: Describe using runserver and making example requests from console** +Now we can start up a sample server that serves our snippets. + +Quit out of the shell... + + quit() + +...and start up Django's development server. + + python manage.py runserver + + Validating models... + + 0 errors found + Django version 1.4.3, using settings 'tutorial.settings' + Development server is running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/ + Quit the server with CONTROL-C. + +In another terminal window, we can test the server. + +We can get a list of all of the snippets. + + curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/snippets/ + + [{"id": 1, "title": "", "code": "foo = \"bar\"\n", "linenos": false, "language": "python", "style": "friendly"}, {"id": 2, "title": "", "code": "print \"hello, world\"\n", "linenos": false, "language": "python", "style": "friendly"}] + +Or we can get a particular snippet by referencing its id. + + curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/snippets/2/ + + {"id": 2, "title": "", "code": "print \"hello, world\"\n", "linenos": false, "language": "python", "style": "friendly"} -**TODO: Describe opening in a web browser and viewing json output** +Similarly, you can have the same json displayed by visiting these URLs in a web browser. ## Where are we now We're doing okay so far, we've got a serialization API that feels pretty similar to Django's Forms API, and some regular Django views. -Our API views don't do anything particularly special at the moment, beyond serve `json` responses, and there's some error handling edge cases we'd still like to clean up, but it's a functioning Web API. +Our API views don't do anything particularly special at the moment, beyond serving `json` responses, and there are some error handling edge cases we'd still like to clean up, but it's a functioning Web API. We'll see how we can start to improve things in [part 2 of the tutorial][tut-2]. |