This is an experiment to utilize Flask, Sqlalchemy, and Marshmallow in a way that replicates the experience of Django REST Framework. My goal was to be able to utilize SqlAlchemy and Marshmallow to define database models and configuration for serializing to and from JSON, then plug these components into a base view class that defines a typical set of REST endpoints. The end result is an quick way to get a set of REST endpoints by simply defining a database model and schema for serialization.

example

Start with the Sqlalchemy ORM model to store data. The REST API will allow the manipulation of the ORM model.

import sqlalchemy as sa
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base

Base = declarative_base()

class SimpleExample(Base):
    __tablename__ = 'simple_examples'

    id = sa.Column(sa.Integer(), primary_key=True)
    name = sa.Column(sa.String(40), nullable=False)

Define a serializer using Marshmallow. Ther serializer will handle conversion between JSON data and the ORM model.

from marshmallow_sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemyAutoSchema

class SimpleExampleSerializer(SQLAlchemyAutoSchema):

    class Meta:
        model = SimpleExample
        load_instance = True

ORM models and serializers are defined in flask_rest_experiment/models.py in this repository.

The RestView class defineds GET (query and retrieve), POST (create), PATCH (edit), and DELETE (delete) handlers for the endpoint. It extends from from the Flask MethodView class and implements the logic to utilize the serializer and manipulate the ORM model.

The RestView class is defined in flask_rest_experiment/rest.py.

Extend from RestView to create an REST API for a given ORM model.

from .rest import RestView

class SimpleExampleView(RestView):
    model_class = SimpleExample
    serializer_class = SimpleExampleSerializer

Views extened from the RestView base class are defined in flask_rest_experiment/views.py.

The view class provides a class method to create the necessary routing for a Flask app to include our REST API as part of an app. Call the add_url_rules class method and specify the Flask app, the url for the endpoint set, and a name for the views.

app = Flask(__name__, instance_relative_config=True)

...

from .views import SimpleExampleView
SimpleExampleView.add_url_rules(app, '/simple-example', 'simple-example')

The flask application and necessary routing to use the defined API is defined in flask_rest_experiment/app.py.

code

clone repository

git clone https://github.com/vicgarcia/flask-rest-experiment.git
cd flask-rest-experiment

install dependencies with poetry

poetry install

create sqlite database and run migrations

poetry run alembic upgrade head

run the flask app

poetry run python run.py

import insomnia.yaml and interact with the apis via Insomnia