Apiphant

Simple Python Web API framework, based on Gevent, JSON, CRUD.

Features:

• Based on [gevent.wsgi][], optimized for tens of thousands of concurrent users. [gevent.wsgi]: http://www.gevent.org/servers.html

• Simple!
  Try it:

    mkdir -p myproduct/api/v0
    touch {myproduct,myproduct/api,myproduct/api/v0}/__init__.py

    cat <<END >myproduct/api/v0/echo.py
    # from myproduct.api import anything
    def read(request):
        response = request.copy()
        response.server = 'myproduct'
        return response
    END

    sudo apt-get install --yes gcc libevent-dev python-dev
    sudo pip install apiphant
    apiphant myproduct 127.0.0.1:8001

    # POST http://{host}:{port}/api/{version}/{t/a/r/g/e/t}/{action}
    curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8001/api/v0/echo/read -d '{"hello": "world"}'
    {"hello": "world", "server": "myproduct"}

• Automated functional tests in Python:

    apiphant myproduct 127.0.0.1:8888

    cat <<END >test.py
    from apiphant.test import test
    test('echo', 'read', {"hello": "world"}, 200, {"hello": "world", "server": "myproduct"})
    END

    python test.py
    POST http://127.0.0.1:8888/api/v0/echo/read {"hello": "world"} --> 200 {'hello': 'world', 'server': 'myproduct'}

* Please see how this shell script [test.sh][] can help to run Python tests in [test.py][].

• Optional full-stack deploy! Supervisor, Nginx, Logrotate, Apt, Pip, etc.

  • Copy myproduct template.
  • Replace myproduct with your product name in all configs and scripts.
  • Run root deploy.sh and enjoy the show.
  • This deploy framework is going:
    • To get Virtualenv bootstraper.
    • To be extracted to a separate opensource repo.

• Validate request fields and subfields, raise errors:

    from apiphant.validation import ApiError, field, Invalid

    def read(request):
        id = field(request, 'id', is_required=True, valid_type=int)
        # More options: default_value, valid_value, valid_length, max_length, explain.

        item = get_item(id)
        if not item:
            raise Invalid('id')
            # that is a shortcut for:
            raise ApiError(400, {"field": "id", "state": "invalid"})

        raise Invalid('id', id) # {"field": "id", "state": "invalid", "explain": -1}

• Background tasks may be scheduled:

    cat <<END >myproduct/api/background.py # Or background/__init__.py importing modules of tasks.
    from apiphant.background import seconds

    @seconds(60)
    def update_something():
        pass
    END

    apiphant-background myproduct

    INFO at background.main:107 [2013-08-12 13:16:52,624] Task update_something: OK.
    INFO at background.main:107 [2013-08-12 13:17:53,012] Task update_something: OK.

* Error tracebacks are logged and may be e.g. emailed:

    def on_error(error):
        send_email_message(to=email_config['user'], subject='Error', text=error, **email_config)
        # See https://pypi.python.org/pypi/send_email_message

    @seconds(60)
    def update_something():
        1/0

    apiphant-background myproduct

    ERROR at background.main:92 [2013-08-12 13:22:41,205] Task update_something failed:
    Traceback (most recent call last):  File "...myproduct/api/background.py", line 18, in update_something
        1/0
    ZeroDivisionError: integer division or modulo by zero

    INFO at background.main:104 [2013-08-12 13:22:43,229] on_error: OK.
    (Email is sent)

• version value v0 used in the example means API is not public yet, and maybe never will, so is expected to be changed without notification.

• action is one of [CRUD][]: create, read, update, delete.

• Reasons why [CRUD][] is implemented without use of HTTP methods that are recommended by [REST][]:

  • Best match for generally partial «Update» action is [PATCH][] method, but it is not supported by our [gevent.wsgi][] webserver and several clients.
  • Much more standard PUT method means «Replace», that is not how «Update» should work in general case. Imagine SQL UPDATE working as «Replace».
  • Some cases allow only GET and POST, e.g. cross-origin requests in some browsers, while at least DELETE method is required for full set of actions.
  • So POST is selected as «a uniform method», suitable for all actions: «The actual function performed by the POST method is determined by the server» - [HTTP/1.1][]. [CRUD]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Create,_read,_update_and_delete [REST]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer [PATCH]: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5789 [HTTP/1.1]: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec9.html

• [{"json": "object"}][JSON] is used for both request and response, to speak one language easily with any client.

  • No [X-Custom-HTTP: Headers][custom HTTP headers].
  • No [?url=encoded%20query%20string][urlencoded querystring].
  • No need to check the type of root [JSON][] value, it is always object with self-describing names inside, not just bare value like 42. [JSON]: http://json.org/ [custom HTTP headers]: http://www.google.com/search?q=custom+http+headers [urlencoded querystring]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Query_string#URL_encoding

• However, URL still contains several request parameters, because:

  • Different targets may be routed by load balancers to different backend servers using simple URL location routing.
  • version, target and action are always required, so may be positional parameters, improving readability and saving resources in a natural way.

• The purity of the concept above should not stand in your way. If you need e.g. to upload a file as "multipart/form-data", you may use raw wsgi environ:

    sudo pip install multipart

    from multipart import parse_form_data
    from apiphant.server import raw_environ

    @raw_environ
    def create(environ):
        forms, files = parse_form_data(environ)

• And if you need to return e.g. not "application/json", you may use raw wsgi response, with or without @raw_environ:

    from apiphant.server import raw_environ, raw_response

    @raw_environ
    @raw_response
    def create(environ, start_response):
        try:
            ...
        except:
            ...
        finally:
            start_response(status, headers)
            return [response]

apiphant version 0.2.5
Copyright (C) 2013 by Denis Ryzhkov denisr@denisr.com
MIT License, see http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT