Django DRF Cookbook

A comprehensive collection of recipes, patterns, and solutions for building robust APIs with Django Rest Framework.

About This Cookbook

This cookbook contains reusable, real-world solutions for Django REST Framework from basic to advanced use cases. Each recipe is designed to solve a specific problem with clear examples and explanations.

How to Use

Each recipe follows a consistent format:

• Title: Concise and descriptive
• Problem: What you're solving
• Solution: Summary of the approach
• Code: The actual DRF code
• Notes: Caveats, performance, security tips

Table of Contents

1. Setup & Foundation

   • Project Setup and Installation
   • Basic Project Structure
   • Creating Your First API

2. Core Concepts

   • Request & Response
   • Parsers & Renderers
   • Exception Handling
   • Status Codes
   • Middleware
   • Model Fields: Types & Usage

3. Serializers Deep Dive

   • ModelSerializer vs Serializer
   • Nested Serializers
   • Writable Nested Serializers
   • SerializerMethodField
   • Custom Validation
   • To Representation and Create/Update Methods

4. Views & ViewSets

   • APIView vs GenericAPIView vs ViewSet
   • ModelViewSet CRUD Operations
   • Custom Actions with ViewSets
   • Function-Based Views

5. Routers & URLConf

   • DefaultRouter and SimpleRouter
   • Customizing Routes
   • Versioning APIs
   • Namespacing APIs

6. Authentication & Permissions

   • Basic Auth, TokenAuth, and JWT
   • Custom Permissions
   • Throttling
   • Role-Based Access Control
   • OAuth2 Integration

7. Advanced Querying & Filtering

   • Filtering with django-filter
   • Searching with SearchFilter
   • Ordering Results
   • Pagination Techniques
   • User-Based Filtering

8. Relations & Nested Resources

   • Many-to-Many and Reverse Relations
   • Inline Nested Writes
   • Nested Routing with drf-nested-routers
   • Optimizing Related Fields

9. Testing DRF APIs

   • Using APITestCase
   • Testing Endpoints with Authentication
   • Using APIClient
   • Test Data with Factory Boy

10. Performance & Optimization

    • Query Optimization
    • Caching Responses
    • Throttling Requests
    • Avoiding N+1 Queries

11. Real-World Patterns

    • User Registration & Login
    • Password Reset via Email
    • Social Authentication
    • File Upload
    • Notifications API
    • Soft Delete
    • Audit Trail
    • Activity Streams

12. API Documentation

    • Using drf-spectacular
    • Using drf-yasg
    • Generating Swagger & Redoc
    • Securing Documentation

13. Async & Background Tasks

    • Using Celery with DRF
    • Task Status Endpoint
    • Triggering Jobs from API

14. Deployment Considerations

    • Gunicorn + Nginx Setup
    • Environment Variable Management
    • Database Migrations
    • Static Files
    • Media Storage

15. Security Practices

    • Preventing Overposting
    • Disabling Browsable API
    • HTTPS-only Cookies
    • Rate Limiting
    • Preventing Information Leakage

16. Bonus Topics

    • GraphQL with graphene-django
    • WebSocket APIs with Channels
    • Multi-tenancy
    • Internationalization
    • CI/CD Pipeline

Project Status

This cookbook is a work in progress. The following sections are currently complete:

• Setup & Foundation (3/3 recipes)
• Serializers Deep Dive (6/6 recipes)
• Views & ViewSets (4/4 recipes)
• Routers & URLConf (2/4 recipes)
• Authentication & Permissions (2/5 recipes)
• Performance & Optimization (1/4 recipes)

See CONTRIBUTING.md for information on how to contribute.

Getting Started

To get started with this cookbook, you need a basic understanding of Django and Django REST Framework. The recipes are designed to be independent, so you can jump to any topic that interests you.

For the code examples to work, you'll need:

• Python 3.8+
• Django 4.0+
• Django REST Framework 3.13+

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a pull request with your own recipes or improvements to existing ones. Check out CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT License