Django Rest Framework Cheatsheet for Quick Reference

Here’s a comprehensive Django REST Framework (DRF) cheat sheet formatted for pasting into a WordPress blog. It covers everything from setup to authentication and deployment, using standard WordPress-friendly HTML and code block formatting.

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🧠 Django REST Framework (DRF) Cheatsheet – Full Reference

This is your ultimate quick reference guide to Django REST Framework, from project setup to deploying a secure API.

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📦 1. Project Setup

# Install packages
pip install django djangorestframework

# Start a Django project
django-admin startproject myproject
cd myproject

# Start an app
python manage.py startapp api

settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'rest_framework',
    'api',
]

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🧱 2. Models (Example)

# api/models.py
from django.db import models

class Post(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    content = models.TextField()
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)

    def __str__(self):
        return self.title

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

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🧬 3. Serializers

# api/serializers.py
from rest_framework import serializers
from .models import Post

class PostSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Post
        fields = '__all__'

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🔧 4. Views

Option 1: APIView

from rest_framework.views import APIView
from rest_framework.response import Response
from .models import Post
from .serializers import PostSerializer

class PostList(APIView):
    def get(self, request):
        posts = Post.objects.all()
        serializer = PostSerializer(posts, many=True)
        return Response(serializer.data)

Option 2: Generic Views

from rest_framework import generics

class PostListCreate(generics.ListCreateAPIView):
    queryset = Post.objects.all()
    serializer_class = PostSerializer

Option 3: ViewSets

from rest_framework import viewsets

class PostViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Post.objects.all()
    serializer_class = PostSerializer

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🧭 5. URLs

# api/urls.py
from django.urls import path, include
from .views import PostListCreate
from rest_framework.routers import DefaultRouter
from .views import PostViewSet

router = DefaultRouter()
router.register(r'posts', PostViewSet)

urlpatterns = [
    path('posts-list/', PostListCreate.as_view()),  # generic view
    path('', include(router.urls)),  # viewset
]

# project/urls.py
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('api/', include('api.urls')),
]

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🛡️ 6. Permissions & Auth

Default Permission in settings.py:

REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    'DEFAULT_PERMISSION_CLASSES': [
        'rest_framework.permissions.IsAuthenticated',
    ]
}

Basic Permission Classes:

from rest_framework.permissions import IsAuthenticated, AllowAny

class MyView(APIView):
    permission_classes = [IsAuthenticated]

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🔑 7. Authentication Methods

Enable Token Auth:

pip install djangorestframework-simplejwt

# settings.py
REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    'DEFAULT_AUTHENTICATION_CLASSES': [
        'rest_framework_simplejwt.authentication.JWTAuthentication',
    ]
}

Token URLs:

from rest_framework_simplejwt.views import TokenObtainPairView, TokenRefreshView

urlpatterns += [
    path('api/token/', TokenObtainPairView.as_view()),
    path('api/token/refresh/', TokenRefreshView.as_view()),
]

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🧪 8. Testing APIs with curl or Postman

Get All Posts:

curl -X GET http://localhost:8000/api/posts/

Create a Post (JWT Auth):

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/posts/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <your_token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "Test", "content": "Hello"}'

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⚙️ 9. Pagination

# settings.py
REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    'DEFAULT_PAGINATION_CLASS': 'rest_framework.pagination.PageNumberPagination',
    'PAGE_SIZE': 10
}

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🧹 10. Filtering, Searching, Ordering

pip install django-filter

# settings.py
REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    'DEFAULT_FILTER_BACKENDS': [
        'django_filters.rest_framework.DjangoFilterBackend',
        'rest_framework.filters.SearchFilter',
        'rest_framework.filters.OrderingFilter',
    ]
}

# views.py
class PostViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    ...
    filterset_fields = ['title']
    search_fields = ['title', 'content']
    ordering_fields = ['created_at']

Usage:

GET /api/posts/?search=hello
GET /api/posts/?ordering=-created_at

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📤 11. Deployment Tips

• Use WhiteNoise for static files.
• Set DEBUG=False and add ALLOWED_HOSTS.
• Use gunicorn + nginx or Cloud Run for serverless hosting.
• Don’t forget to run:

python manage.py collectstatic

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📚 12. Useful DRF Links

• 📘 DRF Official Docs
• 🔐 Simple JWT

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✅ Final Words

DRF is incredibly powerful when you master its building blocks. Bookmark this cheat sheet for your next API project!

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