Why use Django REST Framework instead of returning normal HttpResponse in views?-CodePudding

I'm new to Python and I've seen a lot of tutorials which jump into the Django REST Framework when discussing how to create REST APIs without explaining why they need this library. I don't see the purpose of using the Django Rest Framework when I can just define API endpoints in views and return a simple HttpResponse to send data to a client.

What does the Django Rest Framework accomplish that I can't do simply using HttpResponse? Why is it worth learning?

I was going to use the library as it was included in the video, but it seemed more complex than I needed and I decided to try creating an API without Django REST Framework

def getStats(request):
    print('--------STARTING Stats----------')
    
    # Take some GET variable
    version = request.GET.get('version')
    
    # Get some data
    with open('static/data.json') as f:
        data = json.load(f)
        
    # Filter the data
    if version is not None:
        data = list(filter(lambda x: x['version'] == version, data))
        print("FILTERED DATA", len(data))
    
    # Perform some operations on the data
    data = calculateStats(data)
    
    # Return an HTTP response
    return HttpResponse(json.dumps(data))

This code seemed to work as needed and I get the feeling that I could make this view more robust if needed based on the demands of my application.

CodePudding user response：

The DRF is a complete toolkit for building RESTful APIs in Django, including authentication, serialization, etc. You can do without it but, in the end of the day, the DRF will save you a lot of time.

It fits well with the Django architecture and it's also quite extensible, so you won't be locked-in to some obscure extension, as it happens sometimes.

Perhaps this old reddit post from Tom Christie (DRF's creator) can shed some more light:

Django REST framework isn't required, but it helps you get a lot of things right that will be time consuming and error prone if you're working from core Django.

CodePudding user response：

Your example is very simple. When you have more complex logic with orm, permissions, serialization, and others. You will see the benefits of django restframework. You can build a crud very fast using viewsets that guarantee permissions, filters, with the REST API structure using POST, GET, PATCH, PUT, DELETE. You can list, create, update and delete. I recommend that you do the restframework tutorial https://www.django-rest-framework.org/tutorial/quickstart/ and it will become clear to you if is the right choice or not.

You can also use it for your example like this:

    from rest_framework import status
    from rest_framework.decorators import api_view
    from rest_framework.response import Response

    @api_view(['GET'])
    def getStats(request):
        print('--------STARTING Stats----------')
    
        # Take some GET variable
        version = request.GET.get('version')
    
        # Get some data
        with open('static/data.json') as f:
            data = json.load(f)
    
        # Filter the data
        if version is not None:
            data = list(filter(lambda x: x['version'] == version, data))
            print("FILTERED DATA", len(data))
    
        # Perform some operations on the data
        data = calculateStats(data)
    
        # Return an HTTP response
        return Response(json.dumps(data, status=status.HTTP_200_OK)