fullstackpython.github.com/api-creation.html at gh-pages · mikephys8/fullstackpython.github.com · GitHub

History

499 lines (492 loc) · 25.1 KB

Raw

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

148

149

150

151

152

153

154

155

156

157

158

159

160

161

162

163

164

165

166

167

168

169

170

171

172

173

174

175

176

177

178

179

180

181

182

183

184

185

186

187

188

189

190

191

192

193

194

195

196

197

198

199

200

201

202

203

204

205

206

207

208

209

210

211

212

213

214

215

216

217

218

219

220

221

222

223

224

225

226

227

228

229

230

231

232

233

234

235

236

237

238

239

240

241

242

243

244

245

246

247

248

249

250

251

252

253

254

255

256

257

258

259

260

261

262

263

264

265

266

267

268

269

270

271

272

273

274

275

276

277

278

279

280

281

282

283

284

285

286

287

288

289

290

291

292

293

294

295

296

297

298

299

300

301

302

303

304

305

306

307

308

309

310

311

312

313

314

315

316

317

318

319

320

321

322

323

324

325

326

327

328

329

330

331

332

333

334

335

336

337

338

339

340

341

342

343

344

345

346

347

348

349

350

351

352

353

354

355

356

357

358

359

360

361

362

363

364

365

366

367

368

369

370

371

372

373

374

375

376

377

378

379

380

381

382

383

384

385

386

387

388

389

390

391

392

393

394

395

396

397

398

399

400

401

402

403

404

405

406

407

408

409

410

411

412

413

414

415

416

417

418

419

420

421

422

423

424

425

426

427

428

429

430

431

432

433

434

435

436

437

438

439

440

441

442

443

444

445

446

447

448

449

450

451

452

453

454

455

456

457

458

459

460

461

462

463

464

465

466

467

468

469

470

471

472

473

474

475

476

477

478

479

480

481

482

483

484

485

486

487

488

489

490

491

492

493

494

495

496

497

498

499

<!DOCTYPE html>

<title>API Creation - Full Stack Python</title>

<!--[if lt IE 9]>

<![endif]-->

var _gaq = _gaq || [];

_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-19910497-7']);

_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

(function() {

var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;

ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';

var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);

})();

</script> </head>

<body>

</a>

<span class="logo-title"><a href="/">Full Stack Python</a></span>

</div>

</div> <div class="row">

<h1>API Creation</h1>

<p>Creating and exposing APIs allows your web application to interact with other

applications through machine-to-machine communication.</p>

<h2>API creation frameworks</h2>

<ul>

<li>

<p><a href="http://www.django-rest-framework.org/">Django REST framework</a> and

<a href="https://django-tastypie.readthedocs.org/en/latest/">Tastypie</a> are

the two most widely used API frameworks to use with Django. The edge

currently goes to Django REST framework based on rough community sentiment.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://flask-restful.readthedocs.org/en/latest/">Flask-RESTful</a> and

<a href="http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/api/">Flask API</a> are popular libraries for

exposing APIs from Flask web applications.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://www.github.com/jeffknupp/sandman">Sandman</a> is a widely used tool to

automatically generate a RESTful API service from a legacy database without

writing a line of code (though it's easily extensible through code).</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="https://cornice.readthedocs.org/en/latest/">Cornice</a> is a REST framework

for Pyramid.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="https://github.com/toastdriven/restless">Restless</a> is a lightweight API

framework that aims to be framework agnostic. The general concept is that

you can use the same API code for Django, Flask, Bottle, Pyramid or any

other WSGI framework with minimal porting effort.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://python-eve.org/">Eve</a> is a Python REST framework built with Flask,

MongoDB and Redis. The framework's primary author

<a href="https://twitter.com/nicolaiarocci">Nicola Iarocci</a> gave a great talk at

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sUsLvG72_o">EuroPython 2014</a> that

introduced the main features of the framework.</p>

</li>

</ul>

<h2>API testing projects</h2>

<p>Building, running and maintaining APIs requires as much effort as building,

running and maintaining a web application. API testing frameworks are the

equivalent of browser testing in the web application world.</p>

<ul>

<li><a href="https://github.com/zatosource/zato-apitest">zato-apitest</a> invokes HTTP

APIs and provides hooks for running through other testing frameworks.</li>

</ul>

<h2>Hosted API testing services</h2>

<ul>

<li>

<p><a href="https://www.runscope.com/">Runscope</a> is an API testing SaaS application

that can test both your own APIs and external APIs that your application

relies upon.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="https://www.apiscience.com/">API Science</a> is focused on deep API testing,

including multi-step API calls and monitoring of external APIs.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://smartbear.com/api-testing/">SmartBear</a> has several API monitoring

and testing tools for APIs.</p>

</li>

</ul>

<h2>API creation resources</h2>

<ul>

<li>

<p><a href="http://www.narwhl.com/">NARWHL</a> is a practical API design site for

developers confused about what is appropriate for RESTful APIs.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>This <a href="https://github.com/interagent/http-api-design">API Design Guide</a>

is based on Heroku's best practices for the platform's API.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="https://18f.gsa.gov/">18F</a>'s

<a href="https://github.com/18f/api-standards">API standards</a> explains the details

behind their design decisions on creating modern RESTful APIs.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://pydanny.com/choosing-an-api-framework-for-django.html">Choosing an API framework for Django</a>

by <a href="https://twitter.com/pydanny">PyDanny</a> contains questions and insight

into what makes a good API framework and which one you should currently

choose for Django.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Solution4Future/python-restful-webservices-with-python-flask-and-django-solutions">RESTful web services with Python</a>

is an interesting overview of the Python API frameworks space.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/jmusser/ten-reasons-developershateyourapi">10 Reasons Why Developers Hate Your API (And what to do about it)</a>

goes through the top difficulties and annoyances developers face when

working with APIs and how you can avoid your API falling into the same

traps.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>"<a href="https://medium.com/@zwacky/design-a-beautiful-rest-api-901c73489458">Design a beautiful REST API</a>"

reviews common design decisions regarding endpoints, versioning, errors and

pagination. There is also a

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WXYw4J4QOU">source material YouTube video</a>

where this blog post derives its recommendations from.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>"<a href="http://www.bizcoder.com/self-descriptive-isn-t-don-t-assume-anything">Self-descriptive, isn't. Don't assume anything.</a>"

is an appeal that metadata makes a difference in whether APIs are descriptive

or not.</p>

</li>

</ul>

<h2>API creation learning checklist</h2>

Pick an API framework appropriate for your web framework. For Django I

recommend Django REST framework and for Flask I recommend Flask-RESTful.</p>

Begin by building out a simple use case for the API. Generally the use case

will either involve data that users want in a machine-readable format or a

backend for alternative clients such as an iOS or Android mobile app.</p>

Add an authentication mechanism through OAuth or a token scheme.</p>

Add rate limiting to the API if data usage volume could be a performance issue.

Also add basic metrics so you can determine how often the API is being

accessed and whether it is performing properly.</p>

Provide ample documentation and a walkthrough for how the API can be accessed

and used.</p>

Figure out other use cases and expand based on what you learned with the

initial API use case.</p>

<h3>What's next after building an API for your web app?</h3>

What are application programming interfaces?

</p>

</div>

</a>

How do I integrate external APIs into my application?

</p>

</div>

How can I learn about web application security?

</p>

</div>

Where should I host static content such as JavaScript files?

</p>

</div>

</div> <style type="text/css">

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:12px "Helvetica Neue",Arial,sans-serif; }

/* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.

We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */

</style>

<hr/>

<h4>Interested in a complete Full Stack Python book with detailed tutorials and example code? Sign up here and you'll get an alert email if a book is created. No other emails will be sent other than sign up confirmation.</h4>

<label for="mce-EMAIL">Email Address</label>

</div>

</div>

</div>

</div>

</form>

</div>

var fnames = new Array();var ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]='EMAIL';ftypes[0]='email';fnames[1]='FNAME';ftypes[1]='text';fnames[2]='LNAME';ftypes[2]='text';

try {

var jqueryLoaded=jQuery;

jqueryLoaded=true;

} catch(err) {

var jqueryLoaded=false;

}

var head= document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];

if (!jqueryLoaded) {

var script = document.createElement('script');

script.type = 'text/javascript';

script.src = '//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.4/jquery.min.js';

head.appendChild(script);

if (script.readyState && script.onload!==null){

script.onreadystatechange= function () {

if (this.readyState == 'complete') mce_preload_check();

}

var err_style = '';

try{

err_style = mc_custom_error_style;

} catch(e){

err_style = '#mc_embed_signup input.mce_inline_error{border-color:#6B0505;} #mc_embed_signup div.mce_inline_error{margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 5px 10px; background-color:#6B0505; font-weight: bold; z-index: 1; color:#fff;}';

}

var head= document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];

var style= document.createElement('style');

style.type= 'text/css';

if (style.styleSheet) {

style.styleSheet.cssText = err_style;

} else {

style.appendChild(document.createTextNode(err_style));

}

head.appendChild(style);

setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250);

var mce_preload_checks = 0;

function mce_preload_check(){

if (mce_preload_checks>40) return;

mce_preload_checks++;

try {

var jqueryLoaded=jQuery;

} catch(err) {

setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250);

return;

}

var script = document.createElement('script');

script.type = 'text/javascript';

script.src = 'http://downloads.mailchimp.com/js/jquery.form-n-validate.js';

head.appendChild(script);

try {

var validatorLoaded=jQuery("#fake-form").validate({});

} catch(err) {

setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250);

return;

}

mce_init_form();

}

function mce_init_form(){

jQuery(document).ready( function($) {

var options = { errorClass: 'mce_inline_error', errorElement: 'div', onkeyup: function(){}, onfocusout:function(){}, onblur:function(){} };

var mce_validator = $("#mc-embedded-subscribe-form").validate(options);

$("#mc-embedded-subscribe-form").unbind('submit');//remove the validator so we can get into beforeSubmit on the ajaxform, which then calls the validator

options = { url: 'http://mattmakai.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe/post-json?u=b7e774f0c4f05dcebbfee183d&id=b22335388d&c=?', type: 'GET', dataType: 'json', contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",

beforeSubmit: function(){

$('#mce_tmp_error_msg').remove();

$('.datefield','#mc_embed_signup').each(

function(){

var txt = 'filled';

var fields = new Array();

var i = 0;

$(':text', this).each(

function(){

fields[i] = this;

i++;

});

$(':hidden', this).each(

function(){

var bday = false;

if (fields.length == 2){

bday = true;

fields[2] = {'value':1970};//trick birthdays into having years

}

if ( fields[0].value=='MM' && fields[1].value=='DD' && (fields[2].value=='YYYY' || (bday && fields[2].value==1970) ) ){

this.value = '';

} else if ( fields[0].value=='' && fields[1].value=='' && (fields[2].value=='' || (bday && fields[2].value==1970) ) ){

this.value = '';

} else {

if (/\[day\]/.test(fields[0].name)){

this.value = fields[1].value+'/'+fields[0].value+'/'+fields[2].value;

} else {

this.value = fields[0].value+'/'+fields[1].value+'/'+fields[2].value;

}

});

$('.phonefield-us','#mc_embed_signup').each(

function(){

var fields = new Array();

var i = 0;

$(':text', this).each(

function(){

fields[i] = this;

i++;

});

$(':hidden', this).each(

function(){

if ( fields[0].value.length != 3 || fields[1].value.length!=3 || fields[2].value.length!=4 ){

this.value = '';

} else {

this.value = 'filled';

}

});

return mce_validator.form();

success: mce_success_cb

};

$('#mc-embedded-subscribe-form').ajaxForm(options);

});

}

function mce_success_cb(resp){

$('#mce-success-response').hide();

$('#mce-error-response').hide();

if (resp.result=="success"){

$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show();

$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(resp.msg);

$('#mc-embedded-subscribe-form').each(function(){

this.reset();

});

} else {

var index = -1;

var msg;

try {

var parts = resp.msg.split(' - ',2);

if (parts[1]==undefined){

msg = resp.msg;

} else {

i = parseInt(parts[0]);

if (i.toString() == parts[0]){

index = parts[0];

msg = parts[1];

} else {

index = -1;

msg = resp.msg;

}

} catch(e){

index = -1;

msg = resp.msg;

}

try{

if (index== -1){

$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show();

$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg);

} else {

err_id = 'mce_tmp_error_msg';

html = '<div id="'+err_id+'" style="'+err_style+'"> '+msg+'</div>';

var input_id = '#mc_embed_signup';

var f = $(input_id);

if (ftypes[index]=='address'){

input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]+'-addr1';

f = $(input_id).parent().parent().get(0);

} else if (ftypes[index]=='date'){

input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]+'-month';

f = $(input_id).parent().parent().get(0);

} else {

input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index];

f = $().parent(input_id).get(0);

}

if (f){

$(f).append(html);

$(input_id).focus();

} else {

$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show();

$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg);

}

} catch(e){

$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show();

$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg);

}

</script>

</div>

<div class="panel-heading"><h3 class="panel-head">API Creation</h3></div>

<a href="/">Full Stack Python</a> is an open book that explains

each Python web application stack layer and provides the

best web resources for those topics.

<hr/>

There's a work-in-progress

<a href="/full-stack-python-map.pdf">subjects map (.pdf)</a>

that visually lays out each chapter in addition to the table of

contents found below.

<hr/>

Need more detailed tutorials and walkthroughs than what is

presented here?

<a href="/email.html">Sign up for an email alert when that content is created.</a>

<hr/>

<a href="http://twitter.com/mattmakai">Matt Makai</a> built

this site with assistance from community pull requests. On GitHub

you can <a href="https://github.com/makaimc">follow Matt</a>

to see the daily changes.

</div>

<h3 class="panel-head">Table of Contents</h3>

</div>

<a href="/introduction.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Introduction</a>

<a href="/web-frameworks.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Frameworks</a>

<a href="/django.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Django</a>

<a href="/flask.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Flask</a>

<a href="/bottle.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Bottle</a>

<a href="/other-web-frameworks.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Other Web Frameworks</a>

<a href="/deployment.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Deployment</a>

<a href="/servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Servers</a>

<a href="/platform-as-a-service.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Platform-as-a-service</a>

<a href="/operating-systems.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Operating Systems</a>

<a href="/web-servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Servers</a>

<a href="/wsgi-servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">WSGI Servers</a>

<a href="/source-control.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Source Control</a>

<a href="/application-dependencies.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Application Dependencies</a>

<a href="/databases.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Databases</a>

<a href="/no-sql-datastore.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">NoSQL Data Stores</a>

<a href="/web-design.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Design</a>

<a href="/cascading-style-sheets.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Cascading Style Sheets</a>

<a href="/javascript.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">JavaScript</a>

<a href="/continuous-integration.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Continuous Integration</a>

<a href="/code-metrics.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Code Metrics</a>

<a href="/configuration-management.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Configuration Management</a>

<a href="/static-content.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Static Content</a>

<a href="/caching.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Caching</a>

<a href="/task-queues.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Task Queues</a>

<a href="/application-programming-interfaces.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Application Programming Interfaces</a>

<a href="/api-integration.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">API Integration</a>

<a href="/api-creation.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item active">API Creation</a>

<a href="/logging.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Logging</a>

<a href="/monitoring.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Monitoring</a>

<a href="/web-analytics.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Analytics</a>

<a href="/web-application-security.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Application Security</a>

<a href="/best-python-resources.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Best Python Resources</a>

<a href="/about-author.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">About the Author</a>

<a href="/change-log.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Change Log</a>

<a href="/future-directions.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Future Directions</a>

</div>

</div></div>

<hr/>

<a href="http://www.mattmakai.com/" class="underline">Matt Makai</a>

2014

</div>

setTimeout(function(){var a=document.createElement("script");

var b=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];

a.src=document.location.protocol+"//dnn506yrbagrg.cloudfront.net/pages/scripts/0016/5846.js?"+Math.floor(new Date().getTime()/3600000);

a.async=true;a.type="text/javascript";b.parentNode.insertBefore(a,b)}, 1);

</script></body>

</html>

fullstackpython.github.com/api-creation.html at gh-pages · mikephys8/fullstackpython.github.com · GitHub

Expand file tree

Breadcrumbs

api-creation.html

Latest commit

History

Breadcrumbs

api-creation.html

File metadata and controls