How to Build an API in Python with Flask

These actions could include handling errors or displaying a success message to a user. The updated version of the preceding update_profile_names() service declares a username path parameter, a UUID id query parameter, and an optional Dict[str, str] type. With mixed parameter types, all required parameters should be declared first, followed by default parameters, and last in the parameter list should be the optional types. Disregarding this ordering rule will generate a compiler error. All request parameters are required to be type-declared in the method signature of the service method applying the PEP 484 standard called type hints.

The most important takeaways for designing high-quality REST APIs is to have consistency by following web standards and conventions. JSON, SSL/TLS, and HTTP status codes are all standard building blocks of the modern web. If we choose to group users into a few roles, then the roles should have the permissions that cover all they need and no more.

REST APIs and Web Services

REST APIs in web applications would be one example where Python shines. All modern operating systems ship with ZIP file extraction built in. If you’d prefer to use a dedicated compression application, we’ve tested WinRAR / 7-Zip for Windows, Zipeg / iZip / UnRarX for Mac and 7-Zip / PeaZip for Linux. Early Access is a way of us getting our content to you quicker, but the method of buying the Early Access course is still the same. Just find the course you want to buy, go through the check-out steps, and you’ll get a confirmation email from us with information and a link to the relevant Early Access courses. The publication date is as accurate as we can be at any point in the project.

In this request, you have to send your CLIENT_SECRET and code so that GitHub can validate that this specific code was initially generated by your application. Only then will the GitHub API generate a valid access token and return it to you. The header returns the specific type of content, which is application/json in this case.

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Non-inclusion of the Header() function call in the declaration will let FastAPI treat the variables as query parameters. Be cautious also with the spelling of the local parameter names, since they are the request header names per se except for the underscore. Models can be declared required, with a default instance value, or optional restful api python flask in the service method, depending on the specification of the API. Missing or incorrect details such as invalid password or None values in the approve_user() service will emit the Status Code 500 (Internal Server Error). How FastAPI handles exceptions will be part of Chapter 2, Exploring the Core Features, discussions.

FastAPI returns a JSON list including the new country you just added. As you’ve seen, Django REST framework is a great option for building REST APIs, especially if you have an existing Django project and you want to add an API. Django REST framework takes an existing Django model and converts it to JSON for a REST API.

Setting up the development environment

One cookie is always a key-value pair that are both string types. This kind of model blueprint is called a nested model approach. The FastAPI framework does not allow you to directly assign the None value to a parameter just to declare an optional parameter. Although this is allowed with the old Python behavior, this is no longer recommended in the current Python versions for the purpose of built-in type checking and model validation.

As you can see, after executing response.json(), you get a dictionary that you’re able to use as you’d use any other dictionary in Python. I bet you’re already thinking about different ways that you can use these APIs to make some cute side project, and that’s the great thing about APIs. Once you start using them, there’s nothing stopping you from turning a hobby or passion into a fun project. In this case, when calling the base URL, you get this generic message saying “The Cat API”. This is because you’re calling the base URL, which is typically used for very basic information about an API, not the real data.