In the previous recipe, Creating a class-based REST interface, we saw how to create a REST interface using pluggable views. Here, we will use a Flask extension, Flask-Restless, developed completely from the point of view of building REST interfaces. It provides a simple generation of RESTful APIs for database models defined using SQLAlchemy. These generated APIs send and receive messages in the JSON format.
First, we need to install the Flask-Restless extension:
$ pip install Flask-Restless
We will build over our application from the SQL-based searching recipe of Chapter 4, Working with Views, to include a RESTful API interface.
Tip
It is advisable that you read Chapter 4, Working with Views, before moving ahead if the concepts of views and handlers are not clear.