JSON:API and Django REST framework

Overview

JSON:API support for Django REST framework

Documentation: https://django-rest-framework-json-api.readthedocs.org/
Format specification: https://jsonapi.org/format/

By default, Django REST framework will produce a response like:

{
    "count": 20,
    "next": "https://example.com/api/1.0/identities/?page=3",
    "previous": "https://example.com/api/1.0/identities/?page=1",
    "results": [{
        "id": 3,
        "username": "john",
        "full_name": "John Coltrane"
    }]
}

However, for an identity model in JSON:API format the response should look like the following:

{
    "links": {
        "prev": "https://example.com/api/1.0/identities",
        "self": "https://example.com/api/1.0/identities?page=2",
        "next": "https://example.com/api/1.0/identities?page=3",
    },
    "data": [{
        "type": "identities",
        "id": "3",
        "attributes": {
            "username": "john",
            "full-name": "John Coltrane"
        }
    }],
    "meta": {
        "pagination": {
          "count": 20
        }
    }
}

Goals

As a Django REST framework JSON:API (short DJA) we are trying to address following goals:

Support the JSON:API spec to compliance
Be as compatible with Django REST framework as possible

e.g. issues in Django REST framework should be fixed upstream and not worked around in DJA
Have sane defaults to be as easy to pick up as possible
Be solid and tested with good coverage
Be performant

Requirements

Python (3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13)
Django (4.2, 5.0, 5.1)
Django REST framework (3.14, 3.15)

We highly recommend and only officially support the latest patch release of each Python, Django and REST framework series.

Generally Python and Django series are supported till the official end of life. For Django REST framework the last two series are supported.

For optional dependencies such as Django Filter only the latest release is officially supported even though lower versions should work as well.

Installation

Install using pip...

$ pip install djangorestframework-jsonapi
$ # for optional package integrations
$ pip install djangorestframework-jsonapi['django-filter']
$ pip install djangorestframework-jsonapi['django-polymorphic']
$ pip install djangorestframework-jsonapi['openapi']

or from source...

$ git clone https://github.com/django-json-api/django-rest-framework-json-api.git
$ cd django-rest-framework-json-api
$ pip install -e .

and add rest_framework_json_api to your INSTALLED_APPS setting below rest_framework.

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

Running the example app

It is recommended to create a virtualenv for testing. Assuming it is already installed and activated:

$ git clone https://github.com/django-json-api/django-rest-framework-json-api.git
$ cd django-rest-framework-json-api
$ pip install -Ur requirements.txt
$ django-admin migrate --settings=example.settings
$ django-admin loaddata drf_example --settings=example.settings
$ django-admin runserver --settings=example.settings

Browse to

http://localhost:8000 for the list of available collections (in a non-JSON:API format!),
http://localhost:8000/swagger-ui/ for a Swagger user interface to the dynamic schema view, or
http://localhost:8000/openapi for the schema view\'s OpenAPI specification document.

Usage

rest_framework_json_api assumes you are using class-based views in Django REST framework.

Settings

One can either add rest_framework_json_api.parsers.JSONParser and rest_framework_json_api.renderers.JSONRenderer to each ViewSet class, or override settings.REST_FRAMEWORK

REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    'PAGE_SIZE': 10,
    'EXCEPTION_HANDLER': 'rest_framework_json_api.exceptions.exception_handler',
    'DEFAULT_PAGINATION_CLASS':
        'rest_framework_json_api.pagination.JsonApiPageNumberPagination',
    'DEFAULT_PARSER_CLASSES': (
        'rest_framework_json_api.parsers.JSONParser',
        'rest_framework.parsers.FormParser',
        'rest_framework.parsers.MultiPartParser'
    ),
    'DEFAULT_RENDERER_CLASSES': (
        'rest_framework_json_api.renderers.JSONRenderer',
        'rest_framework_json_api.renderers.BrowsableAPIRenderer',
    ),
    'DEFAULT_METADATA_CLASS': 'rest_framework_json_api.metadata.JSONAPIMetadata',
    'DEFAULT_FILTER_BACKENDS': (
        'rest_framework_json_api.filters.QueryParameterValidationFilter',
        'rest_framework_json_api.filters.OrderingFilter',
        'rest_framework_json_api.django_filters.DjangoFilterBackend',
        'rest_framework.filters.SearchFilter',
    ),
    'SEARCH_PARAM': 'filter[search]',
    'TEST_REQUEST_RENDERER_CLASSES': (
        'rest_framework_json_api.renderers.JSONRenderer',
    ),
    'TEST_REQUEST_DEFAULT_FORMAT': 'vnd.api+json'
}

This package provides much more including automatic inflection of JSON keys, extra top level data (using nested serializers), relationships, links, paginators, filters, and handy shortcuts. Read more at https://django-rest-framework-json-api.readthedocs.org/