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API Views

  • Create REST API endpoints using DRF APIView and function-based views.

  • What are API Views?

    API Views are special Django views provided by DRF that handle API requests and return JSON responses.

    • Can be function-based or class-based

    • Allow GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE

    • Integrate easily with Serializers

    Function-Based APIs (FBV)

    Function-Based View (FBV) in DRF

    • Use @api_view decorator

    • Explicitly define HTTP methods

Simple FBV GET API

views.py 

from rest_framework.decorators import api_view
from rest_framework.response import Response

@api_view(['GET'])
def hello_api(request):
    return Response({"message": "Hello from FBV API"})

  • Description

    • @api_view(['GET']) → Only GET requests allowed

    • Response → returns JSON automatically

FBV CRUD Example 

from rest_framework.decorators import api_view
from rest_framework.response import Response
from rest_framework import status
from .models import Student
from .serializers import StudentModelSerializer

@api_view(['GET', 'POST'])
def student_list(request):
    if request.method == 'GET':
        students = Student.objects.all()
        serializer = StudentModelSerializer(students, many=True)
        return Response(serializer.data)

    elif request.method == 'POST':
        serializer = StudentModelSerializer(data=request.data)
        if serializer.is_valid():
            serializer.save()
            return Response(serializer.data, status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED)
        return Response(serializer.errors, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)

  • Description

    • GET → Fetch all students

    • POST → Create new student

    • status → Use HTTP status codes

    Advantages of Function-Based API

    • Simple & easy for beginners

    • Explicit & clear for small projects

    • Quick for learning

    Limitations

    • Code repetition in CRUD operations

    • Hard to scale for large projects

    • No built-in class utilities

    Class-Based APIs (CBV)

    What is a Class-Based APIView?

    • CBV uses APIView class from DRF

    • Provides built-in structure for GET, POST, PUT, DELETE

    • Cleaner & reusable for large APIs

Simple CBV API

views.py 

from rest_framework.views import APIView
from rest_framework.response import Response

class HelloAPI(APIView):
    def get(self, request):
        return Response({"message": "Hello from CBV API"})

  • Description

    • APIView → base class

    • Define methods: get(), post(), put(), delete()

    • Cleaner than FBV for multiple endpoints

CBV CRUD Example 

from rest_framework.views import APIView
from rest_framework.response import Response
from rest_framework import status
from .models import Student
from .serializers import StudentModelSerializer

class StudentListAPI(APIView):

    def get(self, request):
        students = Student.objects.all()
        serializer = StudentModelSerializer(students, many=True)
        return Response(serializer.data)

    def post(self, request):
        serializer = StudentModelSerializer(data=request.data)
        if serializer.is_valid():
            serializer.save()
            return Response(serializer.data, status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED)
        return Response(serializer.errors, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)

CBV Detail API (Single Object) 

class StudentDetailAPI(APIView):

    def get_object(self, pk):
        try:
            return Student.objects.get(pk=pk)
        except Student.DoesNotExist:
            return None

    def get(self, request, pk):
        student = self.get_object(pk)
        if student is None:
            return Response({"error": "Not Found"}, status=status.HTTP_404_NOT_FOUND)
        serializer = StudentModelSerializer(student)
        return Response(serializer.data)

    def put(self, request, pk):
        student = self.get_object(pk)
        if student is None:
            return Response({"error": "Not Found"}, status=status.HTTP_404_NOT_FOUND)
        serializer = StudentModelSerializer(student, data=request.data)
        if serializer.is_valid():
            serializer.save()
            return Response(serializer.data)
        return Response(serializer.errors, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)

    def delete(self, request, pk):
        student = self.get_object(pk)
        if student is None:
            return Response({"error": "Not Found"}, status=status.HTTP_404_NOT_FOUND)
        student.delete()
        return Response(status=status.HTTP_204_NO_CONTENT)

  •  Description

    • Handles GET, PUT, DELETE for single object

    • get_object() → DRY approach

    • Returns proper HTTP status codes

    FBV vs CBV

    Feature

    FBV

    CBV

    Syntax

    Function

    Class

    CRUD Handling

    Manual

    Structured

    Reusability

    Low

    High

    Decorators

    Easy

    Use @method_decorator

    Learning Curve

    Easy

    Medium

    Decorators in CBV

Apply @api_view equivalent 

from django.utils.decorators import method_decorator
from rest_framework.decorators import api_view
from rest_framework.views import APIView

@method_decorator(api_view(['GET']), name='dispatch')
class MyAPI(APIView):
    def get(self, request):
        return Response({"message": "Hello"})
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