Python REST API Libraries You Should Know About (with Samples) 🐍

REST APIs have become a cornerstone of modern web development, and Python has some excellent libraries to help you build and manage these APIs with ease. In this post, we’ll dive into some of the best Python REST API libraries and provide sample code snippets to get you started. Let’s jump in!

Flask-RESTful (https://flask-restful.readthedocs.io/)

Flask-RESTful is an extension for Flask that simplifies the creation of RESTful APIs. It’s lightweight, easy to use, and has a small learning curve.

Sample code:

from flask import Flask 
from flask_restful import Api, Resource 

app = Flask(__name__) 
api = Api(app) 

class HelloWorld(Resource): 
    def get(self): 
        return {"message": "Hello, World!"} 
    
api.add_resource(HelloWorld, "/") 

if __name__ == "__main__": 
    app.run(debug=True)

Django REST framework (https://www.django-rest-framework.org/)

Django REST framework (DRF) is a powerful and flexible toolkit for building RESTful APIs in Django. It comes with out-of-the-box support for authentication, permissions, serialization, and more.

Sample code:

# models.py
from django.db import models

class Task(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    completed = models.BooleanField(default=False)

# serializers.py
from rest_framework import serializers
from .models import Task

class TaskSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Task
        fields = "__all__"

# views.py
from rest_framework import generics
from .models import Task
from .serializers import TaskSerializer

class TaskList(generics.ListCreateAPIView):
    queryset = Task.objects.all()
    serializer_class = TaskSerializer

# urls.py
from django.urls import path
from .views import TaskList

urlpatterns = [
    path("tasks/", TaskList.as_view(), name="tasks"),
]

FastAPI (https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/)

FastAPI is a modern, high-performance web framework for building APIs with Python. It’s fast, easy to use, and has built-in support for type hints, validation, and documentation.

Sample code:

from fastapi import FastAPI
from pydantic import BaseModel

app = FastAPI()

class Item(BaseModel):
    name: str
    description: str

@app.post("/items/")
async def create_item(item: Item):
    return item

Tornado (https://www.tornadoweb.org/)

Tornado is a Python web framework and asynchronous networking library. It’s designed for building high-performance, non-blocking web applications and RESTful APIs.

Sample code:

import tornado.ioloop
import tornado.web

class MainHandler(tornado.web.RequestHandler):
    def get(self):
        self.write("Hello, World!")

def make_app():
    return tornado.web.Application([
        (r"/", MainHandler),
    ])

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = make_app()
    app.listen(8888)
    tornado.ioloop.IOLoop.current().start()

These are just a few examples of the many Python libraries available for building RESTful APIs. With their help, you can quickly develop and deploy APIs that are efficient, maintainable, and scalable. Give them a try and let us know which one works best for you!

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