Book Image

Hands-On RESTful Python Web Services - Second Edition

By : Gaston C. Hillar
1 (1)
Book Image

Hands-On RESTful Python Web Services - Second Edition

1 (1)
By: Gaston C. Hillar

Overview of this book

Python is the language of choice for millions of developers worldwide that builds great web services in RESTful architecture. This second edition of Hands-On RESTful Python Web Services will cover the best tools you can use to build engaging web services. This book shows you how to develop RESTful APIs using the most popular Python frameworks and all the necessary stacks with Python, combined with related libraries and tools. You’ll learn to incorporate all new features of Python 3.7, Flask 1.0.2, Django 2.1, Tornado 5.1, and also a new framework, Pyramid. As you advance through the chapters, you will get to grips with each of these frameworks to build various web services, and be shown use cases and best practices covering when to use a particular framework. You’ll then successfully develop RESTful APIs with all frameworks and understand how each framework processes HTTP requests and routes URLs. You’ll also discover best practices for validation, serialization, and deserialization. In the concluding chapters, you will take advantage of specific features available in certain frameworks such as integrated ORMs, built-in authorization and authentication, and work with asynchronous code. At the end of each framework, you will write tests for RESTful APIs and improve code coverage. By the end of the book, you will have gained a deep understanding of the stacks needed to build RESTful web services.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Title Page
Dedication
About Packt
Contributors
Preface
Index

Designing a RESTful API to interact with slow sensors and actuators


Imagine that we have to create a RESTful API to control a drone, also known as a UAV (short for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). The drone is an IoT device that interacts with many sensors and actuators, including digital electronic speed controllers linked to engines, propellers, and servomotors.

 

 

The IoT device has limited resources, and therefore we have to use a lightweight web framework. Our API doesn't need to interact with a database. We don't need a heavyweight web framework such as Django, with all its features and its integrated ORM. We want to be able to process many requests without blocking the web server. We need the web server to provide us with nice scalability while consuming limited resources. Thus, our choice is to use Tornado, the open source version of FriendFeed's web server.

The IoT device is capable of running Python 3.7.1, Tornado 5.1.1, and other Python packages. Tornado is a Python web framework and asynchronous...