Need some advise on how to use a RESTful API

[Mario Osorio]

I need to work on a django app that will eventually benefit from a RESTful API so it can be used from any web browser as well a from apps writtens for iOS and Android.

Being so new to django development I don't even have any ideas on how to use a RESTful API, for example,

1. Should I begin the development use a RESTful API, or should I add ir when needed? ( it IS going to be used anyways)
2. Of course I understand I'm adding another layer of work to the final product but, can someone please explain how bad deep and how complicated this layer might be?
3. I've found a couple of online tutorials and I'll soon be working on them, but I honestly think there is nothing quite like reading the opinions of different people as to what the workflow with a RESTful API in django implies. I think a simple overview of the general workflow will answer most of the questions I have in mind right now.

Thanks a lot in advanced!

[Doug Blank]

I'm not an expert, but I just happen to be working on something similar.

I already had the URLs set up so that the HTML was being rendered,
edited, saved, etc. So, then I wanted to add a RESTful API, mirroring
the same URLs. A regular URL looks like:

http://localhost:8000/person/764526236

I decided to make the REST API look like:

http://localhost:8000/person/764526236/?format=json

That was as easy as something like this (person is the view, 764526236
is the handle):

try:
obj = Person.objects.get(handle=handle)
except:
raise Http404(_("Requested %s does not exist.") % view)
if not check_access(request, context, obj, act):
raise Http404(_("Requested %s does not exist.") % view)
if "format" in request.GET:
if request.GET["format"] == "json":
person = db.get_person_from_handle(obj.handle)
content = str(person.to_struct())
response = HttpResponse(content, mimetype="application/json")
return response

The 'if "format"' handles the different formats.

Hope that helps (or someone can point us both in a better direction).

-Doug

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[Anders Petersson]

I usually write the web application first, without consuming my own API, and when I need to build versions for other formats, such as mobile native apps, I create an API and consume this from the App.

There are several framework to make creating an API for you application easier, popular examples are Tastypie [1] and django-rest-framework [2].

There are alot of buzz about building a service infrastructure for apps, but really, you shouldnt start there if you're new. If you're using class-based-views, subclassing them and generating JSON instead will be very easy. 

[1] https://readthedocs.org/projects/django-tastypie/

[2] http://django-rest-framework.org/

[Nick Apostolakis]

Hello there,
In my point of view, when you develop an app using a rest full api you go through the same moves as when writing the web app using the native interface.
In my case I have created both. I wrote first the web interface and then the api, but a different approach would be to write first the api and then use a restful capable framework in order to create the web interface if needed, along with the mobile restful capable clients. It depends on your workflow.

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