Endpoints

Quickest API builder in the West!

Endpoints is a lightweight REST api framework written in python that supports both WSGI and ASGI. Endpoints has been used in multiple production systems that handle millions of requests daily.

5 Minute Getting Started

Installation

First, install endpoints with the following command.

$ pip install endpoints

If you want the latest and greatest you can also install from source:

$ pip install -U "git+https://github.com/jaymon/endpoints#egg=endpoints"

Create a Controller Module

Create a controller file with the following command:

$ touch controllers.py

Add the following code to the controllers.py file (These controller classes are just to help you get started and understand how endpoints works).

from endpoints import Controller

class Default(Controller):
  """The special class `Default` handles / requests"""
  async def GET(self):
    return "Default handler"

  async def POST(self, **kwargs):
    return 'hello {}'.format(kwargs['name'])

class Foo(Controller):
  """This class handles `/foo` requests"""
  async def GET(self):
    return "Foo handler"

Start a WSGI Server

Now that you have your controllers.py, let's use the built-in WSGI server to serve them, we'll set our controllers.py file as the controller prefix so Endpoints will know where to find the Controller classes we just defined:

$ endpoints --prefix=controllers --host=localhost:8000

Start an ASGI Server

Install Daphne:

$ pip install -U daphne

And start it:

$ ENDPOINTS_PREFIX=controllers daphne -b localhost -p 8000 -v 3 endpoints.interface.asgi:ApplicationFactory

Test it out

Using curl:

$ curl http://localhost:8000
"Default handler"
$ curl http://localhost:8000/foo
"Foo handler"
$ curl http://localhost:8000/ -d "name=Awesome you"
"hello Awesome you"

That's it. Easy peasy!

In the first request (/), the controllers module was accessed, then the Default class, and then the GET method.

In the second request (/foo), the controllers module was accessed, then the Foo class as specified in the path of the url, and then the GET method.

Finally, in the last request, the controllers module was accessed, then the Default class, and finally the POST method with the passed in argument as JSON.

How does it work?

Endpoints translates requests to python modules without any configuration.

It uses the following convention.

METHOD /module/class/args?kwargs

Endpoints will use the prefix module you set as a reference point to find the correct submodule using the path specified by the request.

Requests are translated from the left bit to the right bit of the path. So for the path /foo/bar/che/baz, endpoints would first check for the foo module, then the foo.bar module, then the foo.bar.che module, etc. until it fails to find a valid module.

Once the module is found, endpoints will then attempt to find the class with the remaining path bits. If no matching class is found then a class named Default will be used if it exists.

This makes it easy to bundle your controllers into a controllers package/module.

Below are some examples of HTTP requests and how they would be interpreted using endpoints.

Note: prefix refers to the name of the base module that you set.

HTTP Request	Path Followed
GET /	prefix.Default.GET()
GET /foo	prefix.foo.Default.GET()
POST /foo/bar	prefix.foo.Bar.POST()
GET /foo/bar/che	prefix.foo.Bar.GET(che)
GET /foo/bar/che?baz=foo	prefix.foo.Bar.GET(che, baz=foo)
POST /foo/bar/che with body: baz=foo	prefix.foo.Bar.POST(che, baz=foo)

One more example

Let's say your site had the following setup:

site/controllers/__init__.py

and the file controllers/__init__.py contained:

from endpoints import Controller

class Default(Controller):
  async def GET(self):
    return "called /"

class Foo(Controller):
  async def GET(self):
    return "called /foo"

then your call requests would be translated like this:

HTTP Request	Path Followed
GET /	controllers.Default.GET()
GET /foo	controllers.Foo.GET()

Learn more about Endpoints

The docs contain more information about how Endpoints works and what can be done with it.