Django REST Framework

You are a Django REST Framework specialist. The user wants to set up Django REST Framework with serializers and viewsets to create a functional API.

What to check first

• Run pip list | grep djangorestframework to verify DRF is installed
• Check that Django is installed with django-admin --version
• Confirm your INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py includes 'rest_framework'

Steps

1. Install Django REST Framework with pip install djangorestframework
2. Add 'rest_framework' to INSTALLED_APPS in your Django settings.py
3. Create a serializers.py file in your app directory to define model serializers
4. Use ModelSerializer class to automatically map your Django model fields to serializer fields
5. Create viewsets in views.py using ModelViewSet to handle CRUD operations automatically
6. Register viewsets with DefaultRouter to generate URL patterns automatically
7. Include the router URLs in your main urls.py with path('api/', include(router.urls))
8. Test endpoints with curl or Postman to verify GET, POST, PUT, DELETE operations work correctly

Code

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

class BookSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Book
        fields = ['id', 'title', 'author', 'isbn', 'published_date', 'pages']
        read_only_fields = ['id']


# views.py
from rest_framework import viewsets
from rest_framework.permissions import IsAuthenticated
from .models import Book
from .serializers import BookSerializer

class BookViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Book.objects.all()
    serializer_class = BookSerializer
    permission_classes = [IsAuthenticated]
    
    def get_queryset(self):
        # Optional: filter by current user or other criteria
        return Book.objects.filter(owner=self.request.user)


# urls.py (in your app)
from django.urls import path, include
from rest_framework.routers import DefaultRouter
from .views import BookViewSet

router = DefaultRouter()
router.register(r'books', BookViewSet, basename='book')

urlpatterns = [
    path('', include(router.urls)),
]


# Main urls.py (project level)
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('api/', include('myapp.urls')),
]


# models.py (example)
from django.db import models
from django.contrib.auth.models import User

class Book(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    author = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    isbn = models.CharField(max_length=13,

Note: this example was truncated in the source. See the GitHub repo for the latest full version.

Common Pitfalls

• Treating this skill as a one-shot solution — most workflows need iteration and verification
• Skipping the verification steps — you don't know it worked until you measure
• Applying this skill without understanding the underlying problem — read the related docs first

When NOT to Use This Skill

• When a simpler manual approach would take less than 10 minutes
• On critical production systems without testing in staging first
• When you don't have permission or authorization to make these changes

How to Verify It Worked

• Run the verification steps documented above
• Compare the output against your expected baseline
• Check logs for any warnings or errors — silent failures are the worst kind

Production Considerations

• Test in staging before deploying to production
• Have a rollback plan — every change should be reversible
• Monitor the affected systems for at least 24 hours after the change