REST (short for REpresentational State Transfer) is the architectural style that is driving modern web development and mobile app development. In fact, developing and interacting with RESTful web services is a required skill in any modern software development job. Sometimes, you have to interact with an existing API and in other cases, you have to design a RESTful API from scratch and make it work with JSON (short for JavaScript Object Notation).
Python is one of the most popular programming languages. Python 3.6 and 3.7 are the most modern versions of Python. Python is open source and multiplatform, and you can use it to develop any kind of application, from websites to extremely complex scientific computing applications. There is always a Python package that makes things easier for you to avoid reinventing the wheel and solve the problems faster. The most important and popular cloud computing providers make it easy to work with Python and its related web frameworks. Thus, Python is an ideal choice for developing RESTful web services. This book covers all the things you need to know to select the most appropriate Python web framework and develop a RESTful API from scratch.
You will work with the latest versions of the four most popular Python web frameworks that make it easy to develop RESTful web services: Flask, Django, Pyramid, and Tornado. Each web framework has its advantages and disadvantages. You will work with examples that represent appropriate cases for each of these web frameworks, in combination with additional Python packages that will simplify the most common tasks. You will learn how to use different tools to test and develop high-quality, consistent, and scalable RESTful web services.
You will write unit tests and improve test coverage for the RESTful web services that you will develop throughout the book. You won't just run the sample code; you will also make sure that you write tests for your RESTful API. You will always write modern Python code and you will take advantage of features introduced in the latest Python versions.
This book will allow you to learn how to take advantage of many packages that will simplify the most common tasks related to RESTful web services. You will be able to start creating your own RESTful APIs for any domain in any of the covered web frameworks in Python 3.6, 3.7, or greater.
