Digital Health

# Guide to Self-Documenting APIs with Django REST Framework (DRF)

{{>TOC}}

Django REST Framework (DRF) provides a powerful toolkit for building Web APIs with Django and offers a built-in mechanism for generating self-documenting APIs. In this guide, we'll walk you through the steps to set up and use automatic schema generation in DRF for creating detailed API documentation.

## Installation and Setup

1. **Install Django REST Framework**: If you haven't already, install Django REST Framework using pip:

   ```bash

   pip install djangorestframework

2. **Add DRF to Installed Apps:** In your Django project's `settings.py` , add ' `rest_framework` ' to the `INSTALLED_APPS` :

``` python

INSTALLED_APPS = [

    # ...

    'rest_framework',

    # ...

]

```

## Enabling Automatic Schema Generation

Enable DRF's Default Router: In your project's `urls.py` , you can use DRF's DefaultRouter to automatically generate API endpoints. Replace ' `your-model-name` ' and ' `views.YourModelViewSet` ' with your actual model name and viewset:

``` python

from rest_framework import routers

from yourapp import views

router = routers.DefaultRouter()

router.register(r'your-model-name', views.YourModelViewSet)

urlpatterns = [

    # ... other URL patterns ...

    path('api/', include(router.urls)),

]

```