Django REST framework

A toolkit for building well-connected, self-describing web APIs.

Author: Tom Christie. Follow me on Twitter.

Support: REST framework group, or #restframework on freenode IRC.

Full documentation for REST framework is available on http://django-rest-framework.org.

Overview

Django REST framework is a lightweight library that makes it easy to build Web APIs. It is designed as a modular and easy to customize architecture, based on Django's class based views.

Web APIs built using REST framework are fully self-describing and web browseable - a huge useability win for your developers. It also supports a wide range of media types, authentication and permission policies out of the box.

If you are considering using REST framework for your API, we recommend reading the REST framework 2 announcment which gives a good overview of the framework and it's capabilities.

There is also a sandbox API you can use for testing purposes, available here.

Requirements

Python (2.6.5+, 2.7, 3.2, 3.3)
Django (1.3, 1.4, 1.5)

Optional:

Markdown - Markdown support for the self describing API.
PyYAML - YAML content type support.
defusedxml - XML content-type support.
django-filter - Filtering support.

Installation

Install using pip, including any optional packages you want...

pip install djangorestframework
pip install markdown  # Markdown support for the browseable API.
pip install pyyaml    # YAML content-type support.
pip install defusedxml  # XML content-type support.
pip install django-filter  # Filtering support

...or clone the project from github.

git clone git@github.com:tomchristie/django-rest-framework.git
cd django-rest-framework
pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install -r optionals.txt

Add 'rest_framework' to your INSTALLED_APPS setting.

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    ...
    'rest_framework',        
)

If you're intending to use the browseable API you'll probably also want to add REST framework's login and logout views. Add the following to your root urls.py file.

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    ...
    url(r'^api-auth/', include('rest_framework.urls', namespace='rest_framework'))
)

Note that the URL path can be whatever you want, but you must include 'rest_framework.urls' with the 'rest_framework' namespace.

Development

To build the docs.

./mkdocs.py

To run the tests.

./rest_framework/runtests/runtests.py

To run the tests against all supported configurations, first install the tox testing tool globally, using pip install tox, then simply run tox:

tox

License

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

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