Django for APIs

🌟 Completely updated for Django 4.0 & Django REST Framework 3.13! 🌟

Django for APIs is a project-based guide to building modern web APIs with Django & Django REST Framework. It is suitable for beginners who have never built an API before as well as professional programmers looking for a fast-paced introduction to Django fundamentals and best practices.

Over the course of 200+ pages you'll learn how to set up a new project properly, how web APIs work under the hood, and advanced testing and deployment techniques. Three separate projects are built from scratch with progressively more advanced features including a Library API, Todo API, and Blog API. User authentication, permissions, documentation, viewsets, and routers are all covered thoroughly.

Django for APIs is a best-practices guide to building powerful Python-based web APIs with a minimal amount of code.

FAQ

Who are you?

Hi, I'm William Vincent, a former Django Software Foundation Board Member and the founder of LearnDjango.com. I host the Django Chat podcast, write the Django News newsletter, and maintain several open-source packages, including awesome-django and DjangoX. I have given conference talks at DjangoCon US 2018, 2019, 2022, and 2024.

What's included?

A PDF watermarked with your email address and an ePub file for each book. Source code is available on GitHub. Updates for future editions (I have updated the book since Django 1.11) are automatically included.

Is there a printed version?

Yes! It's available on Amazon.

Can I receive an invoice?

Yes! Gumroad will send you a receipt with a "generate" button to turn it into an invoice so you can be reimbursed by your employer.

Do you offer any discounts?

Gumroad’s purchasing power parity feature automatically offers you a discount based on your location. I also offer seasonal discounts; follow my blog or Mastodon to be notified of these.

Praise

“When readers interested in web development ask me what to read next after Python Crash Course, I refer them to Will's books: Django for Beginners, Django for APIs, and Django for Professionals. I highly recommend you check out his work.”— ERIC MATTHES, author of Python Crash Course

“If you’re looking for a guide into the world of Django, then the three-step of Django for Beginners, Django for APIs, and Django for Professionals is ideal: get up and running, get into APIs, which are a cornerstone of modern app development, and then add the bits you need to your fledging app into production, from databases and static files, to user accounts and security. It’s a long road. Will’s books are an awesome companion.”—CARLTON GIBSON, Django Fellow and Django REST Framework core contributor

“Will's books are a fantastic resource for web development with Django and Python. I highly recommended them.”—JEFF TRIPLETT, Python Software Foundation Director, DEFNA Co-Founder, and REVSYS Partner

“Django for Beginners is my go-to recommendation whenever anyone asks how to learn Django. It starts with a friendly and patient approach but manages to cover all the core fundamentals, dives into deployment, and has extensive coverage of testing. If you are looking for one book to master Django, this is it!”—ANNA MAKARUDZE, former President of the Django Software Foundation

“A fantastic on-ramp to this brilliant web framework. Django for Beginners doesn’t just talk about building sites with Django, it walks you through five of them. Get in the reps!”—ADAM JOHNSON, Django Steering Council member and author of two intermediate Django books

“Choosing a book for your Django learning journey is a big commitment of your time and energy. That's why it matters who the author is and the intended audience. I've known Will for many years and he's deeply embedded in the Django community. He is a former Board Member of the Django Software Foundation and cohost of the 5-years running DjangoChat podcast. This means he's thought a lot about how people learn and use Django. That goes way beyond just reading the docs and doing a tutorial.” —MICHAEL KENNEDY, host of Talk Python and Python Bytes podcasts, founder of Talk Python Training

“Learning Django and the Django REST Framework by working through William S. Vincent's Django for Beginners, Django for APIs and Django for Professionals was a turning point in my career. I started to take myself seriously as a developer, not just an electrical engineering grad who happened to like coding.”—ANDREW QUINN on Hacker News