Basic REST API in Python

Example of how to create a basic REST API in Python.

The key components of an API are:

• get inputs

• validate inputs

• logging

• database queries

• check database response (success vs. failure)

• http response

  • standardized messaging in response
  • error responses
  • success responses

• browsable API documentation

• Installation

• Configuration

• Live reload

• Task runner

• Code generation

• Debugging

• Testing

Dependencies

• Flask: micro-framework for building APIs
• schematics: validation
• psycopg2: PostgreSQL
• cassandra-python: Cassandra

Steps

• Install Oracle JDK
• Install PyCharm
• Install virtualenv/virtualenvwrapper

pip install Flask schematics six

mkdir -p ~/repos/basic-python-rest-api && cd $_

vi api.py

Start/stop server

export API_CONFIG=/path/to/api_config.py

python server.py

Files

./server.py

Startup script that calls api/__init__.py.

api/__init__.py

Create the flask app and import all routes.

<some package name>/*.py

All of the Python files that are used to create REST endpoints and the function that each endpoint is mapped to.