Django Drf

ViewSet Pattern

from rest_framework import viewsets, status
from rest_framework.response import Response
from rest_framework.decorators import action

class UserViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = User.objects.all()
    serializer_class = UserSerializer
    filterset_class = UserFilter
    permission_classes = [IsAuthenticated]

    def get_serializer_class(self):
        if self.action == "create":
            return UserCreateSerializer
        if self.action in ["update", "partial_update"]:
            return UserUpdateSerializer
        return UserSerializer

    @action(detail=True, methods=["post"])
    def activate(self, request, pk=None):
        user = self.get_object()
        user.is_active = True
        user.save()
        return Response({"status": "activated"})

Serializer Patterns

from rest_framework import serializers

# Read Serializer
class UserSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    full_name = serializers.SerializerMethodField()

    class Meta:
        model = User
        fields = ["id", "email", "full_name", "created_at"]
        read_only_fields = ["id", "created_at"]

    def get_full_name(self, obj):
        return f"{obj.first_name} {obj.last_name}"

# Create Serializer
class UserCreateSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    password = serializers.CharField(write_only=True)

    class Meta:
        model = User
        fields = ["email", "password", "first_name", "last_name"]

    def create(self, validated_data):
        password = validated_data.pop("password")
        user = User(**validated_data)
        user.set_password(password)
        user.save()
        return user

# Update Serializer
class UserUpdateSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = User
        fields = ["first_name", "last_name"]

Filters

from django_filters import rest_framework as filters

class UserFilter(filters.FilterSet):
    email = filters.CharFilter(lookup_expr="icontains")
    is_active = filters.BooleanFilter()
    created_after = filters.DateTimeFilter(
        field_name="created_at",
        lookup_expr="gte"
    )
    created_before = filters.DateTimeFilter(
        field_name="created_at",
        lookup_expr="lte"
    )

    class Meta:
        model = User
        fields = ["email", "is_active"]

Permissions

from rest_framework.permissions import BasePermission

class IsOwner(BasePermission):
    def has_object_permission(self, request, view, obj):
        return obj.owner == request.user

class IsAdminOrReadOnly(BasePermission):
    def has_permission(self, request, view):
        if request.method in ["GET", "HEAD", "OPTIONS"]:
            return True
        return request.user.is_staff

Pagination

from rest_framework.pagination import PageNumberPagination

class StandardPagination(PageNumberPagination):
    page_size = 20
    page_size_query_param = "page_size"
    max_page_size = 100

# settings.py
REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    "DEFAULT_PAGINATION_CLASS": "api.pagination.StandardPagination",
}

URL Routing

from rest_framework.routers import DefaultRouter

router = DefaultRouter()
router.register(r"users", UserViewSet, basename="user")
router.register(r"posts", PostViewSet, basename="post")

urlpatterns = [
    path("api/v1/", include(router.urls)),
]

Testing

import pytest
from rest_framework import status
from rest_framework.test import APIClient

@pytest.fixture
def api_client():
    return APIClient()

@pytest.fixture
def authenticated_client(api_client, user):
    api_client.force_authenticate(user=user)
    return api_client

@pytest.mark.django_db
class TestUserViewSet:
    def test_list_users(self, authenticated_client):
        response = authenticated_client.get("/api/v1/users/")
        assert response.status_code == status.HTTP_200_OK

    def test_create_user(self, authenticated_client):
        data = {"email": "new@test.com", "password": "pass123"}
        response = authenticated_client.post("/api/v1/users/", data)
        assert response.status_code == status.HTTP_201_CREATED

Commands

python manage.py runserver
python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser
python manage.py shell

Keywords

django, drf, rest framework, viewset, serializer, api, rest api

When to Use

Django REST Framework patterns. Trigger: When building REST APIs with Django - ViewSets, Serializers, Filters.

Covers: ViewSet Pattern, Serializer Patterns, Read Serializer, Create Serializer, Update Serializer.