This document provides an overview of REST architecture and how to use Python to interact with and build REST APIs. Whether you’re looking to consume data from existing APIs or create your own, this guide covers essential concepts and tools to get you started.
REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style that defines a set of constraints for creating web services. It relies on stateless, client-server communication and uses standard HTTP methods to perform CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete) on resources.
- REST Principles: Stateless interactions, resource-based URLs, and standard HTTP methods.
- REST APIs: Interfaces that allow communication with web services using REST principles.
Python's requests library simplifies consuming data from REST APIs. You can perform various HTTP operations to interact with APIs.
- GET: Retrieve data from a server.
- POST: Send new data to the server.
- PUT: Update existing data on the server.
- PATCH: Partially update data on the server.
- DELETE: Remove data from the server.
Creating your own REST API in Python can be achieved using various frameworks. This guide introduces some popular tools for building REST APIs.
- Flask: A lightweight WSGI web application framework. Ideal for small to medium-sized applications.
- Django REST Framework (DRF): A powerful toolkit for building Web APIs with Django.
- FastAPI: A modern, fast (high-performance) web framework for building APIs
- Interacting With REST APIs and Python
- Understanding REST APIs
- Consuming APIs - GET and POST
- Consuming APIs - PUT PATCH and DELETE
- Designing REST APIs
- Designing Data Exchange and Responses
- Designing Error Responses
- Building REST APIs: Flask
- Expanding and Using Flask App
- Getting to Know DRF
- Loading and Serializing Data With DRF
- Adding URLs and Using the API
- Using FastAPI
- Using the FastAPI API
- Interacting With REST APIs and Python