I'm trying to figure out the best way to add a web-service API to
Django views. Let's say I have an application that offers a
calculator. My normal URL scheme might be:
..../calc/add
.../calc/subtract
.../calc/multiply
.../calc/divide
.../calc/clear
The ordinary web-interface would return plain HTML through templates.
But if I wanted to allow my calculator to be 'mashable,' I might want
to also offer a JSON and an XML interface to the same functions. The
JSON version would take the same params but return JSON results, so
an Ajax-friendly or Flash UI could take advantage of it. The XML
version would come handy so third-parties could tie their back-ends
to the open calculator API.
Ideally, we'll want to avoid burdening the developer with yet another
thing to remember and avoid per-method custom code. The way I see it,
there are three parts to this problem:
1. Distinguish between regular vs. web-service requests: one way to
do this is to install a middleware that looks for a flag on the URL,
say ".../xml/calc/add" or ".../json/calc/add." Or perhaps "?reply=
{ json | xml }" The middleware would strip the extras out of the URL
and set a flag that can be checked inside the request.
2. Return results in the format requested: One way is to have a
simple function call (or decorator?) check for the request format
flag and turn a QuerySet or dictionary into the appropriate result
form. Another way could be to have some sort of 'proxy' result
renderer take over. (Any other way?)
3. Marking a method as 'callable:' you may not want every method in a
view exposed as a web-service. Decorators make the most sense here.
Or would a configuration file with an IDL description make more
sense? (Blech, I hope not).
These are just ideas. I'd love to hear what others are doing and if
there's some super-creative way to tackle the problem without
burdening the developer too much. The main criterion, I think, should
be to keep it as simple and DRY as possible. Any thoughts?
Ramin
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