Building a CRUD API

Now that we have built the foundation, let's build a simple CRUD REST API with Django REST Framework (DRF).

Project Setup

We need to create an isolated environment for our dependencies using venv and PIP.

Create a new empty folder

Create a new folder anywhere on your file system and name it product-inventory.

Create a virtual environment

Create a virtual environment using the following command:

python -m venv env

This creates a new folder called env in your project directory.

Activate the environment

Activate the environment with the appropriate command for your operating system.

On Windows:

env\Scripts\activate

On Linux or Unix-based systems:

$ source env/bin/activate

With your virtual environment active, you're ready to install Django.

Install Django and Django REST Framework

Use PIP to install the required packages:

pip install djangorestframework

Create a requirements.txt file to track dependencies for deployment or sharing with other developers:

pip freeze > requirements.txt

This command captures all installed packages and their versions in requirements.txt.

Create a Django Project

The Django installation provides the django-admin command. Use it to create a new project:

django-admin startproject core .

The django-admin command is Django's CLI utility for managing tasks. The startproject subcommand creates boilerplate code to get started.

This command creates a core folder and a manage.py file. The core folder contains Django project settings and configurations, while manage.py is used to manage your Django application going forward.

Run the server

Start the development server:

python manage.py runserver

This starts a development server at http://localhost:8000.