Book Image

Building RESTful Python Web Services

By : Gaston C. Hillar
Book Image

Building RESTful Python Web Services

By: Gaston C. Hillar

Overview of this book

Python is the language of choice for millions of developers worldwide, due to its gentle learning curve as well as its vast applications in day-to-day programming. It serves the purpose of building great web services in the RESTful architecture. This book will show you the best tools you can use to build your own web services. Learn how to develop RESTful APIs using the popular Python frameworks and all the necessary stacks with Python, Django, Flask, and Tornado, combined with related libraries and tools. We will dive deep into each of these frameworks to build various web services, and will provide use cases and best practices on when to use a particular framework to get the best results. We will show you everything required to successfully develop RESTful APIs with the four frameworks such as request handling, URL mapping, serialization, validation, authentication, authorization, versioning, ORMs, databases, custom code for models and views, and asynchronous callbacks. At the end of each framework, we will add authentication and security to the RESTful APIs and prepare tests for it. By the end of the book, you will have a deep understanding of the stacks needed to build RESTful web services.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Building RESTful Python Web Services
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgments
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface

Creating and configuring the database


Now, we will create the PostgreSQL database that we will use as a repository for our API. You will have to download and install a PostgreSQL database in case you aren't already running it in your computer or in a development server. You can download and install this database management system from its web page: http://www.postgresql.org. In case you are working with macOS, Postgres.app provides a really easy way to install and use PostgreSQL on this operating system: http://postgresapp.com:

Tip

You have to make sure that the PostgreSQL bin folder is included in the PATH environmental variable. You should be able to execute the psql command-line utility from your current Terminal or Command Prompt. In case the folder isn't included in the PATH, you will receive an error indicating that the pg_config file cannot be found when trying to install the psycopg2 package. In addition, you will have to use the full path to each of the PostgreSQL command-line tools...