TouchDRF: Django REST Prototyping Kit

TouchDRF provides a suite of intelligent VS Code snippets designed to accelerate the setup and development of Django Rest Framework (DRF) APIs. It focuses on Function-Based Views (FBV) for maximum control over request handling and response structures.

⚡ Quick Navigation Menu

Click a link below to jump straight to the code pattern:

1. Setup & Config (Settings.py)
2. Standard Imports (Views.py)
3. Login View (Manual Auth)
4. Create Resource (POST) (Role Checks)
5. List Resources (GET) (Filtering)
6. Update Resource (PATCH) (Ownership)
7. Delete Resource (DELETE) (Ownership)
8. Serializer Logic (Foreign Keys)
9. URL Routing (urls.py)

🚀 Snippet Trigger List

Type the trigger prefix in any Python file and press Tab to expand.

🛠️ Configuration Checklist

When setting up a new project, ensure these steps are completed in settings.py immediately after generating the project:

1. Apps: Ensure rest_framework, rest_framework_simplejwt, and your app_name are in INSTALLED_APPS.
2. Auth: Verify AUTH_USER_MODEL points to your custom model (e.g., 'myapp.User') if you are not using the default.
3. Security: Ensure the REST_FRAMEWORK dictionary sets IsAuthenticated as the default permission class.

(Use touchdrfset to automate this).

💡 Code Patterns & Logic

🔌 Standard Imports

Commonly used modules for views.

from rest_framework.decorators import api_view, permission_classes from rest_framework.permissions import IsAuthenticated, AllowAny from rest_framework.response import Response from rest_framework import status from rest_framework_simplejwt.tokens import RefreshToken from .models import ItemModel, UserModel from .serializers import ItemSerializer

🔐 Custom Login Implementation

For scenarios requiring manual credential validation or custom response formats (e.g., returning status 201).

@api_view(['POST']) @permission_classes([AllowAny]) def login_view(request): # Manual validation pattern if not request.data.get('email'): return Response({"msg": "Validation error"}, status=400)

# User Lookup
try:
    user = UserModel.objects.get(email=request.data.get('email'))
except UserModel.DoesNotExist:
    return Response({"msg": "Invalid credentials"}, status=400)

# Password Verification (Manual check for non-standard models)
if user.password != request.data.get('password'):
    return Response({"msg": "Invalid credentials"}, status=400)

# Token Generation
refresh = RefreshToken.for_user(user)
return Response({
    "username": user.username,
    "token": str(refresh.access_token)
}, status=201)

### 📦 Serializer Configuration

Use `read_only_fields` to prevent validation errors for fields assigned programmatically in the view (e.g., the author).

```python
from rest_framework import serializers
from .models import ItemModel

class ItemSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = ItemModel
        fields = '__all__'
        # Exclude 'author' from input validation, but include in output
        read_only_fields = ['author', 'seller'] 

➕ Create Resource (POST)

Implementation of resource creation with Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).

@api_view(['POST'])
@permission_classes([IsAuthenticated])
def add_item(request):
    # Role Verification
    if request.user.role.rolename != 'seller':
        return Response({"msg": "Permission denied: Seller role required"}, status=403)

    if not request.data:
        return Response({"msg": "No data provided"}, status=400)

    serializer = ItemSerializer(data=request.data)
    if serializer.is_valid():
        # Programmatically assign the owner
        serializer.save(seller=request.user) 
        return Response(serializer.data, status=201)
    return Response(serializer.errors, status=400)

📋 List Resources (GET)

Fetching lists with query parameter filtering and explicit empty-result handling.

@api_view(['GET'])
@permission_classes([IsAuthenticated])
def get_items(request):
    items = ItemModel.objects.all()
    
    # Filtering Logic
    cat = request.query_params.get('category')
    if cat:
        items = items.filter(category=cat)

    # Strict Validation: Return 400 if no results found
    if not items.exists():
        return Response({"msg": "No results found"}, status=400)

    serializer = ItemSerializer(items, many=True)
    return Response(serializer.data, status=200)

✏️ Update Resource (PATCH)

Partial updates using ID lookup and ownership verification.

@api_view(['PATCH'])
@permission_classes([IsAuthenticated])
def update_item(request, pk):
    try:
        item = ItemModel.objects.get(pk=pk)
    except ItemModel.DoesNotExist:
        return Response({"msg": "Resource not found"}, status=404)

    # Ownership Verification
    if item.seller != request.user:
        return Response({"msg": "Permission denied: You do not own this item"}, status=403)

    # Partial Update
    serializer = ItemSerializer(item, data=request.data, partial=True)
    if serializer.is_valid():
        serializer.save()
        return Response(serializer.data, status=200)
    return Response(serializer.errors, status=400)

❌ Delete Resource (DELETE)

Resource deletion with ownership verification.

@api_view(['DELETE'])
@permission_classes([IsAuthenticated])
def delete_item(request, pk):
    try:
        item = ItemModel.objects.get(pk=pk)
    except ItemModel.DoesNotExist:
        return Response({"msg": "Resource not found"}, status=404)

    # Ownership Verification
    if item.seller != request.user:
        return Response({"msg": "Permission denied: You do not own this item"}, status=403)

    item.delete()
    return Response(status=204)

🔗 URL Routing

Standard routing pattern for the views above.

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('api/login/', views.login_view),
    path('api/store/items/', views.get_items),
    path('api/store/add/', views.add_item),
    path('api/store/update/<int:pk>/', views.update_item),
    path('api/store/remove/<int:pk>/', views.delete_item),
]

Troubleshooting

• Auth Errors: If requests return unauthorized, check the REST_FRAMEWORK config in settings.
• Database Errors: Ensure AUTH_USER_MODEL is set correctly if using a custom user model.
• Import Errors: Use touchdrfimp to ensure all necessary DRF and SimpleJWT modules are imported.