In this section, we will cove a RESTful API that uses HTTP request methods to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data.
RESTful API is an application program interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. In the previous sections, we have learned about python, flask and mongoDB. We will use the knowledge we acquire to develop a RESTful API using python flask and mongoDB. Every application which has CRUD(Create, Read, Update, Delete) operation has an API to create data, to get data, to update data or to delete data from database.
The browser can handle only get request. Therefore, we have to have a tool which can help us to handle all request methods(GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).
Examples of API
- Countries API: https://restcountries.eu/rest/v2/all
- Cats breed API: https://api.thecatapi.com/v1/breeds
Postman is a very popular tool when it comes to API development. So, if you like to do this section you need to download postman. An alternative of Postman is Insomnia.
An API end point is a URL which can help to retrieve, create, update or delete a resource. The structure looks like this: Example: https://api.twitter.com/1.1/lists/members.json Returns the members of the specified list. Private list members will only be shown if the authenticated user owns the specified list. The name of the company name followed by version followed by the purpose of the API. The methods: HTTP methods & URLs
The API uses the following HTTP methods for object manipulation:
GET Used for object retrieval POST Used for object creation and object actions PUT Used for object update DELETE Used for object deletionLet us build an API which collects information about 30DaysOfPython students. We will collect the name, country, city, date of birth, skills and bio.
To implement this API, we will use:
- Postman
- Python
- Flask
- MongoDB
In this step, let us use dummy data and return it as a json. To return it as json, will use json module and Response module.
# let's import the flaskfromflaskimportFlask, Responseimportjsonapp=Flask(__name__) @app.route('/api/v1.0/students', methods= ['GET'])defstudents (): student_list= [ { 'name':'Asabeneh', 'country':'Finland', 'city':'Helsinki', 'skills':['HTML', 'CSS','JavaScript','Python'] }, { 'name':'David', 'country':'UK', 'city':'London', 'skills':['Python','MongoDB'] }, { 'name':'John', 'country':'Sweden', 'city':'Stockholm', 'skills':['Java','C#'] } ] returnResponse(json.dumps(student_list), mimetype='application/json') if__name__=='__main__': # for deployment# to make it work for both production and developmentport=int(os.environ.get("PORT", 5000)) app.run(debug=True, host='0.0.0.0', port=port)When you request the http://localhost:5000/api/v1.0/students url on the browser you will get this:
When you request the http://localhost:5000/api/v1.0/students url on the browser you will get this:
In stead of displaying dummy data let us connect the flask application with MongoDB and get data from mongoDB database.
# let's import the flaskfromflaskimportFlask, Responseimportjsonimportpymongoapp=Flask(__name__) #MONGODB_URI='mongodb+srv://asabeneh:your_password@30daysofpython-twxkr.mongodb.net/test?retryWrites=true&w=majority'client=pymongo.MongoClient(MONGODB_URI) db=client['thirty_days_of_python'] # accessing the database@app.route('/api/v1.0/students', methods= ['GET'])defstudents (): returnResponse(json.dumps(student), mimetype='application/json') if__name__=='__main__': # for deployment# to make it work for both production and developmentport=int(os.environ.get("PORT", 5000)) app.run(debug=True, host='0.0.0.0', port=port)By connecting the flask, we can fetch students collection data from the thirty_days_of_python database.
[ { "_id": { "$oid": "5df68a21f106fe2d315bbc8b" }, "name": "Asabeneh", "country": "Finland", "city": "Helsinki", "age": 38 }, { "_id": { "$oid": "5df68a23f106fe2d315bbc8c" }, "name": "David", "country": "UK", "city": "London", "age": 34 }, { "_id": { "$oid": "5df68a23f106fe2d315bbc8e" }, "name": "Sami", "country": "Finland", "city": "Helsinki", "age": 25 } ]We can access signle document using an id, let's access Asabeneh using his id. http://localhost:5000/api/v1.0/students/5df68a21f106fe2d315bbc8b
# let's import the flaskfromflaskimportFlask, Responseimportjsonfrombson.objectidimportObjectIdimportjsonfrombson.json_utilimportdumpsimportpymongoapp=Flask(__name__) #MONGODB_URI='mongodb+srv://asabeneh:your_password@30daysofpython-twxkr.mongodb.net/test?retryWrites=true&w=majority'client=pymongo.MongoClient(MONGODB_URI) db=client['thirty_days_of_python'] # accessing the database@app.route('/api/v1.0/students', methods= ['GET'])defstudents (): returnResponse(json.dumps(student), mimetype='application/json') @app.route('/api/v1.0/students/<id>', methods= ['GET'])defsingle_student (id): student=db.students.find({'_id':ObjectId(id)}) returnResponse(dumps(student), mimetype='application/json') if__name__=='__main__': # for deployment# to make it work for both production and developmentport=int(os.environ.get("PORT", 5000)) app.run(debug=True, host='0.0.0.0', port=port)[ { "_id": { "$oid": "5df68a21f106fe2d315bbc8b" }, "name": "Asabeneh", "country": "Finland", "city": "Helsinki", "age": 38 } ]We use the POST request method to create data
# let's import the flaskfromflaskimportFlask, Responseimportjsonfrombson.objectidimportObjectIdimportjsonfrombson.json_utilimportdumpsimportpymongofromdatetimeimportdatetimeapp=Flask(__name__) #MONGODB_URI='mongodb+srv://asabeneh:your_password@30daysofpython-twxkr.mongodb.net/test?retryWrites=true&w=majority'client=pymongo.MongoClient(MONGODB_URI) db=client['thirty_days_of_python'] # accessing the database@app.route('/api/v1.0/students', methods= ['GET'])defstudents (): returnResponse(json.dumps(student), mimetype='application/json') @app.route('/api/v1.0/students/<id>', methods= ['GET'])defsingle_student (id): student=db.students.find({'_id':ObjectId(id)}) returnResponse(dumps(student), mimetype='application/json') @app.route('/api/v1.0/students', methods= ['POST'])defcreate_student (): name=request.form['name'] country=request.form['country'] city=request.form['city'] skills=request.form['skills'].split(', ') bio=request.form['bio'] birthyear=request.form['birthyear'] created_at=datetime.now() student= { 'name': name, 'country': country, 'city': city, 'birthyear': birthyear, 'skills': skills, 'bio': bio, 'created_at': created_at } db.students.insert_one(student) return ; defupdate_student (id): if__name__=='__main__': # for deployment# to make it work for both production and developmentport=int(os.environ.get("PORT", 5000)) app.run(debug=True, host='0.0.0.0', port=port)# let's import the flaskfromflaskimportFlask, Responseimportjsonfrombson.objectidimportObjectIdimportjsonfrombson.json_utilimportdumpsimportpymongofromdatetimeimportdatetimeapp=Flask(__name__) #MONGODB_URI='mongodb+srv://asabeneh:your_password@30daysofpython-twxkr.mongodb.net/test?retryWrites=true&w=majority'client=pymongo.MongoClient(MONGODB_URI) db=client['thirty_days_of_python'] # accessing the database@app.route('/api/v1.0/students', methods= ['GET'])defstudents (): returnResponse(json.dumps(student), mimetype='application/json') @app.route('/api/v1.0/students/<id>', methods= ['GET'])defsingle_student (id): student=db.students.find({'_id':ObjectId(id)}) returnResponse(dumps(student), mimetype='application/json') @app.route('/api/v1.0/students', methods= ['POST'])defcreate_student (): name=request.form['name'] country=request.form['country'] city=request.form['city'] skills=request.form['skills'].split(', ') bio=request.form['bio'] birthyear=request.form['birthyear'] created_at=datetime.now() student= { 'name': name, 'country': country, 'city': city, 'birthyear': birthyear, 'skills': skills, 'bio': bio, 'created_at': created_at } db.students.insert_one(student) return@app.route('/api/v1.0/students/<id>', methods= ['PUT']) # this decorator create the home routedefupdate_student (id): query= {"_id":ObjectId(id)} name=request.form['name'] country=request.form['country'] city=request.form['city'] skills=request.form['skills'].split(', ') bio=request.form['bio'] birthyear=request.form['birthyear'] created_at=datetime.now() student= { 'name': name, 'country': country, 'city': city, 'birthyear': birthyear, 'skills': skills, 'bio': bio, 'created_at': created_at } db.students.update_one(query, student) # return Response(dumps({"result":"a new student has been created"}), mimetype='application/json')returndefupdate_student (id): if__name__=='__main__': # for deployment# to make it work for both production and developmentport=int(os.environ.get("PORT", 5000)) app.run(debug=True, host='0.0.0.0', port=port)# let's import the flaskfromflaskimportFlask, Responseimportjsonfrombson.objectidimportObjectIdimportjsonfrombson.json_utilimportdumpsimportpymongofromdatetimeimportdatetimeapp=Flask(__name__) #MONGODB_URI='mongodb+srv://asabeneh:your_password@30daysofpython-twxkr.mongodb.net/test?retryWrites=true&w=majority'client=pymongo.MongoClient(MONGODB_URI) db=client['thirty_days_of_python'] # accessing the database@app.route('/api/v1.0/students', methods= ['GET'])defstudents (): returnResponse(json.dumps(student), mimetype='application/json') @app.route('/api/v1.0/students/<id>', methods= ['GET'])defsingle_student (id): student=db.students.find({'_id':ObjectId(id)}) returnResponse(dumps(student), mimetype='application/json') @app.route('/api/v1.0/students', methods= ['POST'])defcreate_student (): name=request.form['name'] country=request.form['country'] city=request.form['city'] skills=request.form['skills'].split(', ') bio=request.form['bio'] birthyear=request.form['birthyear'] created_at=datetime.now() student= { 'name': name, 'country': country, 'city': city, 'birthyear': birthyear, 'skills': skills, 'bio': bio, 'created_at': created_at } db.students.insert_one(student) return@app.route('/api/v1.0/students/<id>', methods= ['PUT']) # this decorator create the home routedefupdate_student (id): query= {"_id":ObjectId(id)} name=request.form['name'] country=request.form['country'] city=request.form['city'] skills=request.form['skills'].split(', ') bio=request.form['bio'] birthyear=request.form['birthyear'] created_at=datetime.now() student= { 'name': name, 'country': country, 'city': city, 'birthyear': birthyear, 'skills': skills, 'bio': bio, 'created_at': created_at } db.students.update_one(query, student) # return Response(dumps({"result":"a new student has been created"}), mimetype='application/json')return@app.route('/api/v1.0/students/<id>', methods= ['PUT']) # this decorator create the home routedefupdate_student (id): query= {"_id":ObjectId(id)} name=request.form['name'] country=request.form['country'] city=request.form['city'] skills=request.form['skills'].split(', ') bio=request.form['bio'] birthyear=request.form['birthyear'] created_at=datetime.now() student= { 'name': name, 'country': country, 'city': city, 'birthyear': birthyear, 'skills': skills, 'bio': bio, 'created_at': created_at } db.students.update_one(query, student) # return Response(dumps({"result":"a new student has been created"}), mimetype='application/json')return ; @app.route('/api/v1.0/students/<id>', methods= ['DELETE'])defdelete_student (id): db.students.delete_one({"_id":ObjectId(id)}) returnif__name__=='__main__': # for deployment# to make it work for both production and developmentport=int(os.environ.get("PORT", 5000)) app.run(debug=True, host='0.0.0.0', port=port)- Implement the above example and develop this
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