Django REST Framework (DRF) is a powerful and flexible toolkit for building Web APIs in Django. If you've used Django for building web apps, DRF will feel natural but adds great tools for API serialization, request parsing, authentication, and more.

Why Use DRF?

• Provides serializers to transform complex data into JSON and vice versa.

• Helps create standardized RESTful APIs quickly.

• Built-in support for authentication, permissions, pagination, filtering, etc.

• Easily integrates with your Django models and views.

Step-by-Step Setup & Basic API

Step 1: Install DRF

pip install djangorestframework

Add it to INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'rest_framework',
]

Step 2: Create a Django Project & App

django-admin startproject myapi
cd myapi
python manage.py startapp blog

Add blog to INSTALLED_APPS.

Step 3: Create a Model

In blog/models.py:

from django.db import models

class Post(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    content = models.TextField()
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)

    def __str__(self):
        return self.title

Apply migrations:

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

Step 4: Create a Serializer

In blog/serializers.py:

from rest_framework import serializers
from .models import Post

class PostSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Post
        fields = '__all__'

Step 5: Create a ViewSet

In blog/views.py:

from rest_framework import viewsets
from .models import Post
from .serializers import PostSerializer

class PostViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Post.objects.all()
    serializer_class = PostSerializer

Step 6: Set Up URLs

In blog/urls.py (create it if it doesn't exist):

from django.urls import path, include
from rest_framework.routers import DefaultRouter
from .views import PostViewSet

router = DefaultRouter()
router.register(r'posts', PostViewSet)

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

In myapi/urls.py:

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

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

✅ Running the API

python manage.py runserver

Visit:

• http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/posts/ for list and create

• http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/posts/1/ for retrieve, update, delete

Tips

1. Use ModelSerializer to reduce boilerplate code.

2. Use ViewSets and Routers for quick CRUD APIs.

3. Enable Browsable API for easier testing via the browser.

4. Explore Generic Views for custom logic when needed.

⚠️ Common Pitfalls

Complete Example

Project structure:

myapi/
├── blog/
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── views.py
│   ├── serializers.py
│   ├── urls.py
├── myapi/
│   ├── settings.py
│   ├── urls.py

✅ models.py

from django.db import models

class Post(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    content = models.TextField()
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)

    def __str__(self):
        return self.title

✅ serializers.py

from rest_framework import serializers
from .models import Post

class PostSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Post
        fields = '__all__'

✅ views.py

from rest_framework import viewsets
from .models import Post
from .serializers import PostSerializer

class PostViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Post.objects.all()
    serializer_class = PostSerializer

✅ blog/urls.py

from django.urls import path, include
from rest_framework.routers import DefaultRouter
from .views import PostViewSet

router = DefaultRouter()
router.register(r'posts', PostViewSet)

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

✅ myapi/urls.py

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

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

What’s Next?

After this, consider learning:

• Authentication and Permissions

• Filtering & Pagination

• API testing with Postman or Django’s APIClient

• Deployment with Docker