django-rest-framework

django-rest-framework Best Practices

This guide outlines our definitive standards for building APIs with Django REST Framework (DRF). Adhere to these rules to ensure consistency, security, and performance across all projects.

1. Code Organization and Structure

Always structure your API within a dedicated Django app, typically named api. Centralize DRF-specific settings and use DefaultRouter for URL management.

• Dedicated api/ app: Isolate API logic.
• api_settings.py: Store all DRF global settings here, then import into settings.py.
• urls.py with DefaultRouter: Automate URL patterns for ViewSets.

# project_root/api/apps.py
from django.apps import AppConfig

class ApiConfig(AppConfig):
    default_auto_field = 'django.db.models.BigAutoField'
    name = 'api'

# project_root/api/settings.py
REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    'DEFAULT_AUTHENTICATION_CLASSES': [
        'rest_framework_simplejwt.authentication.JWTAuthentication',
    ],
    'DEFAULT_PERMISSION_CLASSES': [
        'rest_framework.permissions.IsAuthenticated',
    ],
    'DEFAULT_PAGINATION_CLASS': 'rest_framework.pagination.PageNumberPagination',
    'PAGE_SIZE': 25,
    'DEFAULT_FILTER_BACKENDS': ['django_filters.rest_framework.DjangoFilterBackend'],
    'DEFAULT_SCHEMA_CLASS': 'drf_spectacular.openapi.AutoSchema', # For OpenAPI
}

# project_root/settings.py
from .api.settings import REST_FRAMEWORK as API_REST_FRAMEWORK
REST_FRAMEWORK = API_REST_FRAMEWORK
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ...
    'rest_framework',
    'rest_framework_simplejwt',
    'django_filters',
    'drf_spectacular', # For OpenAPI
    'api',
]

# project_root/api/urls.py
from rest_framework.routers import DefaultRouter
from .views import UserViewSet, ProductViewSet
from django.urls import path, include

router = DefaultRouter()
router.register(r'users', UserViewSet, basename='user')
router.register(r'products', ProductViewSet, basename='product')

urlpatterns = [
    path('', include(router.urls)),
]

# project_root/project_name/urls.py
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include
from drf_spectacular.views import SpectacularAPIView, SpectacularSwaggerView

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('api/v1/', include('api.urls')), # Versioned API namespace
    path('api/schema/', SpectacularAPIView.as_view(), name='schema'),
    path('api/schema/swagger-ui/', SpectacularSwaggerView.as_view(url_name='schema'), name='swagger-ui'),
]