Django Rest Framework - Tips and Checklists

Tips

• the best way to clear data is by sending an empty list or value, if the field allows writing this will be handled by the serializer
• when setting variables consider the possible size of the variable being stored, large objects being set to variables can cause issues with memory
• use JSONField over DictField
• delete endpoints should return a 200 or no content

Schemas and Documentation

• Schema: is a machine readable document that outlines all available API endpoints, URLs and HTTP verbs (post, put, etc)
  • schemas default to the OpenAPI specs
    • drf-spectactular is the recommended third party package to generate OpenAPI 3 schema for DRF
      • can make use of SpectacularAPIView to create a URL for viewing the schema as a part of the API
• Documentation: added to a schema to make it easier for humans to read and consume
  • two popular options are Redoc and SwaggerUI
    • SwaggerUI is as straightforward as drf-spectacular

Deployment Checklist

• add environment variables via environs[django]
• set DEBUG to False
• set ALLOWED_HOSTS
• use environment variable for SECRET_KEY
• update DATABASES to use SQLite locally and PostgreSQL in production
• configure static files and install whitenoise
• install gunicorn for a production web server
• create a requirements.txt file
• create a Procfile for Heroku
• create a runtime.txt to set the Python version on Heroku