Introduction: Why RetrieveUpdateAPIView Is Essential

In real-world web applications, we frequently need to fetch and update specific resources—think of editing a user profile, updating blog content, or modifying a product.

Manually building logic for these operations can be repetitive and error-prone.

Django REST Framework’s RetrieveUpdateAPIView makes this effortless by combining read (GET) and update (PUT/PATCH) functionality into a single, powerful class-based view. This article walks you through its usage, implementation, and best practices to make your APIs production-ready.

What Is RetrieveUpdateAPIView?

RetrieveUpdateAPIView is a generic view provided by Django REST Framework (DRF) that:

• Retrieves a single object using a GET request.

• Updates the object using a PUT (full update) or PATCH (partial update) request.

 It Inherits From:

• GenericAPIView

• RetrieveModelMixin

• UpdateModelMixin

This makes it ideal for any endpoint that deals with viewing and updating individual records.

Step-by-Step Implementation Guide

Let’s build an API that retrieves and updates Profile objects using RetrieveUpdateAPIView.

1. Define Your Model

# models.py
from django.db import models

class Profile(models.Model):
    username = models.CharField(max_length=50, unique=True)
    email = models.EmailField()
    bio = models.TextField(blank=True)

    def __str__(self):
        return self.username

2. Create a Serializer

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

class ProfileSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Profile
        fields = '__all__'

3. Create the RetrieveUpdateAPIView

# views.py
from rest_framework.generics import RetrieveUpdateAPIView
from .models import Profile
from .serializers import ProfileSerializer

class ProfileRetrieveUpdateView(RetrieveUpdateAPIView):
    queryset = Profile.objects.all()
    serializer_class = ProfileSerializer

4. Configure URL Routing

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

urlpatterns = [
    path('profiles/<int:pk>/', ProfileRetrieveUpdateView.as_view(), name='profile-detail-update'),
]

5. Testing the Endpoint

✅ GET Request

curl http://localhost:8000/profiles/1/

Response:

{
  "id": 1,
  "username": "john_doe",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "bio": "A Python developer."
}

PATCH Request (Partial Update)

curl -X PATCH http://localhost:8000/profiles/1/ \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"bio": "Updated bio content."}'

PUT Request (Full Update)

curl -X PUT http://localhost:8000/profiles/1/ \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username": "john_doe", "email": "[email protected]", "bio": "New bio"}'

Complete Functional Code Example

✅ Project Structure

myproject/
├── profiles/
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── serializers.py
│   ├── views.py
│   ├── urls.py
└── myproject/
    └── settings.py

Final View Code

# profiles/views.py
from rest_framework.generics import RetrieveUpdateAPIView
from .models import Profile
from .serializers import ProfileSerializer

class ProfileRetrieveUpdateView(RetrieveUpdateAPIView):
    queryset = Profile.objects.all()
    serializer_class = ProfileSerializer

Tips & Common Pitfalls

✅ Best Practices

• Use PATCH for frontend apps like React/Vue to avoid sending all fields.

• Override perform_update() to customize logic during updates.

def perform_update(self, serializer):
    serializer.save(updated_by=self.request.user)

• Combine with permission_classes to restrict access.

from rest_framework.permissions import IsAuthenticated

class ProfileRetrieveUpdateView(RetrieveUpdateAPIView):
    permission_classes = [IsAuthenticated]
    ...

❌ Common Pitfalls

• Forgetting to include required fields in PUT requests. Unlike PATCH, PUT expects the entire object.

• Exposing update APIs without authentication. Always protect sensitive endpoints.

• Not validating uniqueness or constraints in your serializer. Ensure custom validation if needed.

HTTP Methods Quick Comparison

When to Use RetrieveUpdateAPIView

Use this class when your API should:

• Display details of a single object

• Allow updates to that object via PUT or PATCH

Common Use Cases:

• Edit user profile

• Update blog post

• Modify a product or service

• Admin panel item edits

Takeaways & Best Practices

• Use RetrieveUpdateAPIView to simplify logic for GET and UPDATE in one view.

• Prefer PATCH for better flexibility and frontend compatibility.

• Always add authentication and permissions for update routes.

• Override methods like perform_update() to inject business logic.