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deb-python-pecan/docs/source/rest.rst
Ryan Petrello 232a0d4ef0 Add documentation for generic REST controllers.
Fixes bug 1386837

Change-Id: I9cf30c7d55026d2364d7add3f7a9ca96b3348d31
2014-12-04 14:14:49 -05:00

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ReStructuredText

.. _rest:
Writing RESTful Web Services with Generic Controllers
=====================================================
Pecan simplifies RESTful web services by providing a way to overload URLs based
on the request method. For most API's, the use of `generic controller`
definitions give you everything you need to build out robust RESTful
interfaces (and is the *recommended* approach to writing RESTful web services
in pecan):
::
from pecan import abort, expose
# Note: this is *not* thread-safe. In real life, use a persistent data store.
BOOKS = {
'0': 'The Last of the Mohicans',
'1': 'Catch-22'
}
class BookController(object):
def __init__(self, id_):
self.id_ = id_
assert self.book
@property
def book(self):
if self.id_ in BOOKS:
return dict(id=self.id_, name=BOOKS[self.id_])
abort(404)
# HTTP GET /<id>/
@expose(generic=True, template='json')
def index(self):
return self.book
# HTTP PUT /<id>/
@index.when(method='PUT', template='json')
def index_PUT(self, **kw):
BOOKS[self.id_] = kw['name']
return self.book
# HTTP DELETE /<id>/
@index.when(method='DELETE', template='json')
def index_DELETE(self):
del BOOKS[self.id_]
return dict()
class RootController(object):
@expose()
def _lookup(self, id_, *remainder):
return BookController(id_), remainder
# HTTP GET /
@expose(generic=True, template='json')
def index(self):
return [dict(id=k, name=v) for k, v in BOOKS.items()]
# HTTP POST /
@index.when(method='POST', template='json')
def index_POST(self, **kw):
id_ = len(BOOKS)
BOOKS[id_] = kw['name']
return dict(id=id_, name=kw['name'])
Writing RESTful Web Services with RestController
================================================
.. _TurboGears2: http://turbogears.org
For compatability with the TurboGears2_ library, Pecan also provides
a class-based solution to RESTful routing, :class:`~pecan.rest.RestController`:
::
from pecan import expose
from pecan.rest import RestController
from mymodel import Book
class BooksController(RestController):
@expose()
def get(self, id):
book = Book.get(id)
if not book:
abort(404)
return book.title
URL Mapping
-----------
By default, :class:`~pecan.rest.RestController` routes as follows:
+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
| Method | Description | Example Method(s) / URL(s) |
+=================+==============================================================+============================================+
| get_one | Display one record. | GET /books/1 |
+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
| get_all | Display all records in a resource. | GET /books/ |
+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
| get | A combo of get_one and get_all. | GET /books/ |
| | +--------------------------------------------+
| | | GET /books/1 |
+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
| new | Display a page to create a new resource. | GET /books/new |
+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
| edit | Display a page to edit an existing resource. | GET /books/1/edit |
+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
| post | Create a new record. | POST /books/ |
+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
| put | Update an existing record. | POST /books/1?_method=put |
| | +--------------------------------------------+
| | | PUT /books/1 |
+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
| get_delete | Display a delete confirmation page. | GET /books/1/delete |
+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
| delete | Delete an existing record. | POST /books/1?_method=delete |
| | +--------------------------------------------+
| | | DELETE /books/1 |
+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
Pecan's :class:`~pecan.rest.RestController` uses the ``?_method=`` query string
to work around the lack of support for the PUT and DELETE verbs when
submitting forms in most current browsers.
In addition to handling REST, the :class:`~pecan.rest.RestController` also
supports the :meth:`index`, :meth:`_default`, and :meth:`_lookup`
routing overrides.
.. warning::
If you need to override :meth:`_route`, make sure to call
:func:`RestController._route` at the end of your custom method so
that the REST routing described above still occurs.
Nesting ``RestController``
---------------------------
:class:`~pecan.rest.RestController` instances can be nested so that child
resources receive the parameters necessary to look up parent resources.
For example::
from pecan import expose
from pecan.rest import RestController
from mymodel import Author, Book
class BooksController(RestController):
@expose()
def get(self, author_id, id):
author = Author.get(author_id)
if not author_id:
abort(404)
book = author.get_book(id)
if not book:
abort(404)
return book.title
class AuthorsController(RestController):
books = BooksController()
@expose()
def get(self, id):
author = Author.get(id)
if not author:
abort(404)
return author.name
class RootController(object):
authors = AuthorsController()
Accessing ``/authors/1/books/2`` invokes :func:`BooksController.get` with
``author_id`` set to ``1`` and ``id`` set to ``2``.
To determine which arguments are associated with the parent resource, Pecan
looks at the :func:`get_one` then :func:`get` method signatures, in that order,
in the parent controller. If the parent resource takes a variable number of
arguments, Pecan will pass it everything up to the child resource controller
name (e.g., ``books`` in the above example).
Defining Custom Actions
-----------------------
In addition to the default methods defined above, you can add additional
behaviors to a :class:`~pecan.rest.RestController` by defining a special
:attr:`_custom_actions`
dictionary.
For example::
from pecan import expose
from pecan.rest import RestController
from mymodel import Book
class BooksController(RestController):
_custom_actions = {
'checkout': ['POST']
}
@expose()
def checkout(self, id):
book = Book.get(id)
if not book:
abort(404)
book.checkout()
:attr:`_custom_actions` maps method names to the list of valid HTTP
verbs for those custom actions. In this case :func:`checkout` supports
``POST``.