**A toolkit for building well-connected, self-describing Web APIs.**
**WARNING: This documentation is for the 2.0 redesign of REST framework. It is a work in progress.**
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.
## Requirements
REST framework requires the following:
* Python (2.6, 2.7)
* Django (1.3, 1.4, 1.5)
* [URLObject][urlobject] (2.0.0+)
The following packages are optional:
* [Markdown][markdown] (2.1.0+) - Markdown support for the self describing API.
* [PyYAML][yaml] (3.10+) - YAML content type support.
If you're installing using `pip`, all requirements and optional packages will be installed by default.
## Installation
**WARNING: These instructions will only become valid once this becomes the master version**
Add `djangorestframework` to your `INSTALLED_APPS`.
INSTALLED_APPS = (
...
'djangorestframework',
)
If you're intending to use the browserable API you'll want to add REST framework's login and logout views. Add the following to your root `urls.py` file.
The tutorial will walk you through the building blocks that make up REST framework. It'll take a little while to get through, but it'll give you a comprehensive understanding of how everything fits together, and is highly recommended reading.
