RESTFUL API

Question 1

What are the key parts of a RESTFUL API?

Answer 1

1) Response data is represented in JSON format.
2) stateless.
3) use HTTP methods for client-server communications..
4) uses logical URIs to organize resources.

Question 2

What is REST or RESTFUL API?

Answer 2

A Restful API is a type of software architecture and method for users to request data or information from a server using HTTP methods. We use rest to develop web services. APIs in general are applications that exist to transfer data between application.

Question 3

What are HTTP methods supported by REST

Answer 3

GET, POST, DELETE, PUT, OPTIONS, HEAD

Question 4

What are resources in REST architecture?

Answer 4

resources are the logical URLs that represent the location of the piece of data being requested by the client. The resource should contain all the required information.

Question 5

What do we mean when we say Rest is stateless

Answer 5

REST is stateless therefore the server has no state (or session data).

Question 6

What is Django rest framework?

Answer 6

DRF is a framework built on Django that allows developers to quickly create restful APIs. We use it in django to create resources that expose our application data per users/service request. services can be browsers, mobile applications, web applications etc.

Question 7

What are some of the features of DRF?

Answer 7

1) It has a web browsable API
2) It provides authentication and authorization out of the box.
3) Serializer classes that allow you to quickly map your model fields to serializer fields. supports both ORM and non-ORM sources.
4) Easily customizable.
5) Great documentation and user community.

Question 8

What is a serializer?

Answer 8

A serializer is responsible for transforming objects into JSON. the serializer class defines how attributes on your object should be mapped to serializer fields.

Question 9

Name a few subclasses of the Serializer class?

Answer 9

from rest_framework import serializers

1) Serializer.
2) ModelSerializer.
3) HyperLinkedModelSerializer.

Question 10

Describe the ModelSerializer.

Answer 10

The ModelSerializer is a subclass of Serializer. it automatically maps model fields to serializer fields. creates a simple .create( ) and .update( ) methods. and automatically creates validation for your serializer field based on the model validation

Question 11

what does this serializer attribute return? RandomSerializer(model_instance).data

Answer 11

returns the model instance as python native data-types.

Question 12

how do you deserialize JSON objects in DRF?

Answer 12

1) RandomSerializer(data=jsondata)
2) RandomSerializer(data=jsondata).is_valid( )
3) RandomSerializer(data-jsondata).validated_data( )

Question 13

How do we deal with nested objects in DRF?

Answer 13

The Serializer class itself is a type of field and can be used to represent nested relationships. we can do this by simply assigning a field to an instance of a serializer class or subclass.

class CommentSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
    user = UserSerializer(required=False)

Question 14

how do you add an extra context to your serializers in DRF?

Answer 14

when we call our Serializer we simply pass the parameter context
ex.
serializer = AccountSerializer(account, context={‘request’: request})

we access the context in our Serializer class with self.context

Question 15

What is the HyperlinkModelSerializer?

Answer 15

The HyperlinkedModelSerializer class is similar to the ModelSerializer class except that it uses hyperlinks to represent relationships, rather than primary keys.

By default the serializer will include a url field instead of a primary key field.

Question 16

how are permissions determined in DRF?

Answer 16

Permissions are determined by a list of permission classes. one i’m familiar with is DjangoModelPermissionsOrAnonReadOnly. just like DjangoModelPermissions except it allows unauthenticated users Read only access to the API.

Question 17

what happens if a permission check in DRF fails?

Answer 17

When the permissions checks fail either a “403 Forbidden” or a “401 Unauthorized” response will be returned

Question 18

what is ReadOnlyViewSet in DRF?

Answer 18

The ReadOnlyModelViewSet class also inherits from GenericAPIView. As with ModelViewSet it also includes implementations for various actions, but unlike ModelViewSet only provides the ‘read-only’ actions, .list() and .retrieve().

Question 19

What are some best practices when it comes to DRF.

Answer 19

1) API should be readable, and web browsable.
2) Intuitive and provides good documentation.
3) Always use SSL.
4) Provide versioning.
5) Filtering and search where appropriate.
6) Return only what’s needed.
7) Must return JSON.
8) gzip.
9) Provide pagination support.

Question 20

Describe DRFs workflow.

Answer 20

The Django ORM generates and handles DB models and queries. DRF Serializes data from the Django ORM and permits access.

Question 21

What does it mean for an HTTP method to be “safe”?

Answer 21

An HTTP method is safe if it doesn’t alter the state of the server. In other words, a method is safe if it leads to a read-only operation. ex: GET, OPTIONS, HEAD

unsafe method ex: PUT & DELETE