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                      <a href="#serializers">Serializers</a>
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            <h1 id="quickstart">Quickstart</h1>
<p>We're going to create a simple API to allow admin users to view and edit the users and groups in the system.</p>
<h2 id="project-setup">Project setup</h2>
<p>Create a new Django project named <code>tutorial</code>, then start a new app called <code>quickstart</code>.</p>
<pre><code># Create the project directory
mkdir tutorial
cd tutorial

# Create a virtualenv to isolate our package dependencies locally
virtualenv env
source env/bin/activate  # On Windows use `env\Scripts\activate`

# Install Django and Django REST framework into the virtualenv
pip install django
pip install djangorestframework

# Set up a new project with a single application
django-admin.py startproject tutorial .  # Note the trailing '.' character
cd tutorial
django-admin.py startapp quickstart
cd ..
</code></pre>
<p>Now sync your database for the first time:</p>
<pre><code>python manage.py migrate
</code></pre>
<p>We'll also create an initial user named <code>admin</code> with a password of <code>password</code>. We'll authenticate as that user later in our example.</p>
<pre><code>python manage.py createsuperuser
</code></pre>
<p>Once you've set up a database and initial user created and ready to go, open up the app's directory and we'll get coding...</p>
<h2 id="serializers">Serializers</h2>
<p>First up we're going to define some serializers. Let's create a new module named <code>tutorial/quickstart/serializers.py</code> that we'll use for our data representations.</p>
<pre><code>from django.contrib.auth.models import User, Group
from rest_framework import serializers


class UserSerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = User
        fields = ('url', 'username', 'email', 'groups')


class GroupSerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Group
        fields = ('url', 'name')
</code></pre>
<p>Notice that we're using hyperlinked relations in this case, with <code>HyperlinkedModelSerializer</code>.  You can also use primary key and various other relationships, but hyperlinking is good RESTful design.</p>
<h2 id="views">Views</h2>
<p>Right, we'd better write some views then.  Open <code>tutorial/quickstart/views.py</code> and get typing.</p>
<pre><code>from django.contrib.auth.models import User, Group
from rest_framework import viewsets
from tutorial.quickstart.serializers import UserSerializer, GroupSerializer


class UserViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    """
    API endpoint that allows users to be viewed or edited.
    """
    queryset = User.objects.all()
    serializer_class = UserSerializer


class GroupViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    """
    API endpoint that allows groups to be viewed or edited.
    """
    queryset = Group.objects.all()
    serializer_class = GroupSerializer
</code></pre>
<p>Rather than write multiple views we're grouping together all the common behavior into classes called <code>ViewSets</code>.</p>
<p>We can easily break these down into individual views if we need to, but using viewsets keeps the view logic nicely organized as well as being very concise.</p>
<p>For trivial cases you can simply set a <code>model</code> attribute on the <code>ViewSet</code> class and the serializer and queryset will be automatically generated for you.  Setting the <code>queryset</code> and/or <code>serializer_class</code> attributes gives you more explicit control of the API behaviour, and is the recommended style for most applications.</p>
<h2 id="urls">URLs</h2>
<p>Okay, now let's wire up the API URLs.  On to <code>tutorial/urls.py</code>...</p>
<pre><code>from django.conf.urls import url, include
from rest_framework import routers
from tutorial.quickstart import views

router = routers.DefaultRouter()
router.register(r'users', views.UserViewSet)
router.register(r'groups', views.GroupViewSet)

# Wire up our API using automatic URL routing.
# Additionally, we include login URLs for the browsable API.
urlpatterns = [
    url(r'^', include(router.urls)),
    url(r'^api-auth/', include('rest_framework.urls', namespace='rest_framework'))
]
</code></pre>
<p>Because we're using viewsets instead of views, we can automatically generate the URL conf for our API, by simply registering the viewsets with a router class.</p>
<p>Again, if we need more control over the API URLs we can simply drop down to using regular class based views, and writing the URL conf explicitly.</p>
<p>Finally, we're including default login and logout views for use with the browsable API.  That's optional, but useful if your API requires authentication and you want to use the browsable API.</p>
<h2 id="settings">Settings</h2>
<p>We'd also like to set a few global settings.  We'd like to turn on pagination, and we want our API to only be accessible to admin users.  The settings module will be in <code>tutorial/settings.py</code></p>
<pre><code>INSTALLED_APPS = (
    ...
    'rest_framework',
)

REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    'DEFAULT_PERMISSION_CLASSES': ('rest_framework.permissions.IsAdminUser',),
    'PAGE_SIZE': 10
}
</code></pre>
<p>Okay, we're done.</p>
<hr />
<h2 id="testing-our-api">Testing our API</h2>
<p>We're now ready to test the API we've built.  Let's fire up the server from the command line.</p>
<pre><code>python ./manage.py runserver
</code></pre>
<p>We can now access our API, both from the command-line, using tools like <code>curl</code>...</p>
<pre><code>bash: curl -H 'Accept: application/json; indent=4' -u admin:password http://127.0.0.1:8000/users/
{
    "count": 2,
    "next": null,
    "previous": null,
    "results": [
        {
            "email": "admin@example.com",
            "groups": [],
            "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8000/users/1/",
            "username": "admin"
        },
        {
            "email": "tom@example.com",
            "groups": [                ],
            "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8000/users/2/",
            "username": "tom"
        }
    ]
}
</code></pre>
<p>Or using the <a href="https://github.com/jakubroztocil/httpie#installation">httpie</a>, command line tool...</p>
<pre><code>bash: http -a username:password http://127.0.0.1:8000/users/

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
{
    "count": 2,
    "next": null,
    "previous": null,
    "results": [
        {
            "email": "admin@example.com",
            "groups": [],
            "url": "http://localhost:8000/users/1/",
            "username": "paul"
        },
        {
            "email": "tom@example.com",
            "groups": [                ],
            "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8000/users/2/",
            "username": "tom"
        }
    ]
}
</code></pre>
<p>Or directly through the browser...</p>
<p><img alt="Quick start image" src="../../../img/quickstart.png" /></p>
<p>If you're working through the browser, make sure to login using the control in the top right corner.</p>
<p>Great, that was easy!</p>
<p>If you want to get a more in depth understanding of how REST framework fits together head on over to <a href="../1-serialization">the tutorial</a>, or start browsing the <a href="../../../#api-guide">API guide</a>.</p>

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